Preview: Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM

For a wedding gig I had on the 22nd of November I purchased a brand new Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM (abbreviated to 35L) from Ted's which set me back $1800+ (a few months ago the price at Grey Market vendors was only $1400 or so but the falling AUD caused their prices to go up, so Ted's was the cheapest was I could find. There's a great guy at Ted's Melbourne called Joel - I highly recommend him for your buying needs, he's able to bargain down to great prices and is also friendly and helpful. He's also a professional photographer so unlike a lot of the other sales people actually knows what he is talking about, or at least doesn't try to bluff his way around)

The 35L is one of Canon's most well known and respected prime lenses and a member of Canon's legendary "holy trinity" of Prime Lenses (along with the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM which I also have, and the Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM which I don't have). I can confirm that this lens oozes class, a well deserved member of Canon's L range of lenses (professional grade).

On my APS-C (1.6X Field fo View Crop Factor Sensors) I can confirm that this lens lives up to its reputation. It is sharp wide open, and whilst it does improve as you stop down (close the aperture), I would not hesitate to use this wide open. Sharpness is not a reason to stop down with this lens. When testing it across its aperture range, f/1.4 is just as sharp as stopped down apertures, but admittedly when stopping down contrast improves. I am over the moon about this because there have been some reports of "soft" 35L lenses, but mine certainly isn't one of them, I am raving over its capabilities wide open.

The lens is awesome. It is like using a wider 85L II. Admittedly background diffusion is not as strong as the 85L II in most situations however this to be expected given the focal length (and therefore perspective difference) as well as the fact that the 85L II is approximately 1/3 - 1/2 a stop wider aperture. I love this lens, and can envisage it being glued (not literally) to one of my camera bodies.

So why is this blog post a Preview rather than a review?

Unfortunately my lens front/forward focuses on both my cameras, including my Canon calibrated EOS 400D and therefore requires focus adjustment. Unfortunately, this is not the first time I had received a lens that front focused. My 85L II, an even more expensive lens seemed ok when I was testing it around the house, but once I went outdoors and put into real world use, it front focused quite badly, especially for far away subjects. Canon calibrated it for me, and whilst I haven't had a chance to test it out extensively yet, it does seem a bit better

My pristine, brand new 35L is now in the hands of Canon technicians being adjusted. It's disappointing it wasn't right out of the factory, but that's the way it is I guess, Canon has been notorious for its quality control (or lack of) and its high factory tolerances for AF accuracy errors.

Exchanging the lens was not an option because this was literally the only brand new copy of the lens in Melbourne. I was surprised such an awesome lens is not purchased by others more often, but I guess most consumers are sucked in by the marketing of mass production consumer grade and kit zoom lenses instead of professional grade quality prime lenses such as the 35L. For my wedding gig I had to make do with a misfocusing lens. It was an absolute mess at times, and I had to lean in after focusing to compensate for the AF inaccuracy. I don't recommend to any other photographers to use malfunctioning equipment like I did.

I eagerly await my lens to come back and hope that it doesn't get damaged in the process because when you buy something so expensive you start to get a bit paranoid :)

Will post a full review soon! Because I don't have the lens at the moment, and I forgot to take some photos when I did have it, I can't post any pictures but I do have the box still so here are some photos of the box :)