The 5 most wanted
Chances are that
you're considering one of this five lenses for your glass arsenal.
 5.
New kit on the block.
The new 40D is now sold with the venerable EF 28-135 f3.5-5.6 as a kit
lens, and this is a much better way to start your glass collection with
this
Image Stabilized useful walk around lens.
If you have 1.6x crop factor sensor the length is 45mm-216mm and with
these
figures you are into the normal to tele zone. This is not the greatest
lens for interiors, but it certainly will provide you with a good tele.
Aperture numbers are nothing to write home about.
This lens features first generation Image Stabilization which is good,
but certainly more modern lenses have a way better IS system. In any
case, the EF 28-135 is a no brainer if you buy the 40D, or you can get
it for $400usd (street), quite a nice price tag for such a versatile
optical piece. Go for it!
 4.
Retractable tower of power.
Our next contender as the most wanted lens is a real jewel: the EF
70-300 f4-5.6 IS USM. This is just a superb long telephoto. It is not
the fastest lens in town, but the Image Stabilization works great and
the optical quality is top notch. Many say it should bear the red "L"
ring.
Build quality is really
good -although maybe not at L lenses standard- and, since it is a
retractable zoom it saves space in your photo bag.
When you extend the full tele you'll see a real bazooka. For 1.6x crop
factor users, this lens is equivalent to an amazing 112mm-480mm. And
the price is the best part:$550usd (street). You'll need a tripod
because it's not blazing fast, but buy a nice Manfrotto tripod with the
money saved with this superb glass. This lens provides the same results as its Diffractive Optics brother at half the price. One word: wow!
 3.
Sometimes, just sometimes, somebody will
give you a free lunch (well, almost).
What you pay is what you get, nobody gives you a free lunch, etcetera.
Well, in the third place is the exception to any value rule. The EF 50mm f1.8 mark III is the greatest optical quality for the least amount
of money.
This all-plastic body lens $80usd (street) lens has the greatest
bang-for-the-buck ratio in the planet (well, at least in Canon's lenses
line-up). With a 1.6x body this
lens will perform as a 80mm lens, which is great for portrait
photography.
It is a very fast lens (f1.8) which is great for low
light situations. You can expect a nice background blur (bokeh).
Yes, pixel peepers will tell you that the 50mm f1.4 and the 50mm f1.2L have smoother bokeh and are optically better. Yes, indeed, but the "L"
50mm has a price tag of almost $1,400usd. So, the bokeh and optical
performance of this humble $76 lens is absolutely great. It is a little
noisy (no ultra sonic motor)
and it looks and feels cheap (well, it is a cheap lens!) But
you can photograph first quality images with this little guy. Don't
hesitate, this lens must be in your camera bag PRONTO.
 2. Smooth
operator.
We are almost at the number one position, but we still have a
contender and this time is a heavy-weight champion, not a small time
crook. This $1,060usd piece of
glass has no less than the distinguished red strip, updated image
stabilization technology and a constant f4 maximum aperture from the 24mm wide
end to the
105mm tele.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is the EF 24-105 f4 IS L our second most wanted
lens. If you have a full frame camera, this is THE walk around lens that
will be mounted in your dSLR most of the time. It's really good on
every single way: quality built, optical performance. In a 1.6x body
the length is equivalent to 38.4mm-168mm which is a quite usable zoom,
but the good news are that you'll get excellent (yes, not good, not even very good, not even extremely good but excellent) images because you will
use the best part of the lens of an already remarkable glass. It is not
cheap, but it is, still, quite a piece of
desire.
 1. Kit on
Steroids.
If you feel that the 18-55 kit lens is not enough, you are not alone.
The most wanted lens in our list is the first choice to replace the
ordinary
kit lens: the EF-S 17-85 f4-5.6 IS USM. In our most wanted list we have
seen phenomenal lenses: the astonishing $76 wonder, the
70-300mm bazooka, the still-capable 28-135 walk around lens and the fancy dandy L lens. But
the
EF-S 17-85 is... your old kit lens on steroids. Remember that this is not "the top 5" lens list, but the "5 most wanted" list, that means that this is the lens that more Canon photographers are looking for and -although we may be wrong- probably the second (after the 50mm f1.8) best selling lens in Canon's line. We would like to have the official figures from the manufacturer but the information we have is credible. We were as amazed as you probably are reading this when we checked all the statistics and reports we had that showed this as nothing less than The Most Wanted Canon Lens.
This is a S class lens, which
means that, if you buy a full frame camera, it won't work. Also it is
not
built as good as the 28-135 (not to mention the 24-105L). The zoom
length is versatile (27-136 due to 1.6x crop factor) and we can see
this lens in many Rebel-class bodies. At $500usd (street) it is not the
cheapest lens around, though. Ok, it is not exciting, it is
bread-and-butter lens,
but bread is fresh and butter is tasty so, go ahead, buy the lens kit
upgrade. You won't be disappointed, but not excited either. Check our taste of
this lens here.
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