Jun 30, 2008, 14:10
The Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L lens I ordered last week arrived today! 
I won't bother with a full review, suffice to say that I'm very happy with it. It is knife-sharp even wide open, has wonderful contrast, colour and bokeh, and lightning fast silent autofocus.
I've read about a number of people who have had inconsistant front-focussing issues with this lens on a 1D Mk3, but I'm happy to say that my AF seems to be pretty much spot on for every AF point. It sometimes seems a little touchy when shooting wide-open in AI Servo mode but this isn't surprising given the extremely shallow DoF in this situation. I'm not convinced there is anything wrong with the lens or camera, rather I think optimising my AF custom functions to suit my technique and the type of tracking being performed may tidy things up. Even just adjusting the Servo Tracking Sensitivity a single notch made a small but noticable improvement,
Here are some dodgy test shots, including the obligatory shots of my cats.
![[Image: AB_B4937_ST.jpg]](http://www.shuttertalk.com/forums/images/upload/AB_B4937_ST.jpg)
1. The very shallow DoF at f/1.4 requires critical autofocus and this thing focuses like a champ even with moving subjects.
![[Image: AB_B5335-Edit_ST.jpg]](http://www.shuttertalk.com/forums/images/upload/AB_B5335-Edit_ST.jpg)
2. Low available light shooting is no problem either as Rocket demonstrates.
![[Image: AB_B5319_ST.jpg]](http://www.shuttertalk.com/forums/images/upload/AB_B5319_ST.jpg)
3. It even allows hand-held shots with only a street-light for illumination.
![[Image: AB_B5024_ST.jpg]](http://www.shuttertalk.com/forums/images/upload/AB_B5024_ST.jpg)
4. Here are a couple of old film SLRs I was given on my last trip to Tassie. The (broken) Canon AE1 belonged to my Mum and the Olympus OM1 was my Grandfather's.
![[Image: AB_B5004_ST.jpg]](http://www.shuttertalk.com/forums/images/upload/AB_B5004_ST.jpg)
5. This shot of the AE1 really shows off the creamy bokeh of this lens.
![[Image: AB_B5289_ST.jpg]](http://www.shuttertalk.com/forums/images/upload/AB_B5289_ST.jpg)
6. Lens comparison without hoods. EF 50mm f1.4 on left, EF 35mm f/1.4L in middle and EF 135mm f/2L on right. The 35mm is nice and compact but a lot heavier than the 50mm f/1.4 and not much lighter than the 135mm f/2L.
![[Image: AB_B5299_ST.jpg]](http://www.shuttertalk.com/forums/images/upload/AB_B5299_ST.jpg)
7. Lens comparison with hoods. This time the EF 35mm f/1.4L is on the left, the EF 135mm f/2L in the middle and an EF 24-70 f/2.8L zoom is on the right. The 35mm is considerably more compact with the hood in place than the other two, and a lot lighter than the bulky 24-70mm.
There is only one thing that really annoys me about this lens so far. The shape of the lens hood! I like petal-shaped hoods in general, but for some strange reason Canon decided to round the forward-facing edge in such a way as to make it impossible to stand the lens up vertically on its hood! See the hood of the 24-70 in the shot above? See how the edge of the petals have been trimmed nice and flat? That allows it to stand up vertically on the hood and still protect the lens. Try to do that with the 35mm and it will fall over and roll away! What a pain!
Why couldn't they give us a flat edge with the 35mm hood too? I realise it might be 0.0001% less effective at blocking out stray light, but at least I'd be able to put it down without it rolling off a desk or scratching the rear element by standing it up with the hood facing up! I'm tempted to attack it with my Dremel. :mad:
Apart from that little gripe though I'm very happy.
I won't bother with a full review, suffice to say that I'm very happy with it. It is knife-sharp even wide open, has wonderful contrast, colour and bokeh, and lightning fast silent autofocus.
I've read about a number of people who have had inconsistant front-focussing issues with this lens on a 1D Mk3, but I'm happy to say that my AF seems to be pretty much spot on for every AF point. It sometimes seems a little touchy when shooting wide-open in AI Servo mode but this isn't surprising given the extremely shallow DoF in this situation. I'm not convinced there is anything wrong with the lens or camera, rather I think optimising my AF custom functions to suit my technique and the type of tracking being performed may tidy things up. Even just adjusting the Servo Tracking Sensitivity a single notch made a small but noticable improvement,
Here are some dodgy test shots, including the obligatory shots of my cats.
1. The very shallow DoF at f/1.4 requires critical autofocus and this thing focuses like a champ even with moving subjects.
2. Low available light shooting is no problem either as Rocket demonstrates.
3. It even allows hand-held shots with only a street-light for illumination.
4. Here are a couple of old film SLRs I was given on my last trip to Tassie. The (broken) Canon AE1 belonged to my Mum and the Olympus OM1 was my Grandfather's.
5. This shot of the AE1 really shows off the creamy bokeh of this lens.
6. Lens comparison without hoods. EF 50mm f1.4 on left, EF 35mm f/1.4L in middle and EF 135mm f/2L on right. The 35mm is nice and compact but a lot heavier than the 50mm f/1.4 and not much lighter than the 135mm f/2L.
7. Lens comparison with hoods. This time the EF 35mm f/1.4L is on the left, the EF 135mm f/2L in the middle and an EF 24-70 f/2.8L zoom is on the right. The 35mm is considerably more compact with the hood in place than the other two, and a lot lighter than the bulky 24-70mm.
There is only one thing that really annoys me about this lens so far. The shape of the lens hood! I like petal-shaped hoods in general, but for some strange reason Canon decided to round the forward-facing edge in such a way as to make it impossible to stand the lens up vertically on its hood! See the hood of the 24-70 in the shot above? See how the edge of the petals have been trimmed nice and flat? That allows it to stand up vertically on the hood and still protect the lens. Try to do that with the 35mm and it will fall over and roll away! What a pain!
Why couldn't they give us a flat edge with the 35mm hood too? I realise it might be 0.0001% less effective at blocking out stray light, but at least I'd be able to put it down without it rolling off a desk or scratching the rear element by standing it up with the hood facing up! I'm tempted to attack it with my Dremel. :mad:
Apart from that little gripe though I'm very happy.
