The most important piece of kit in your camera bag isn’t your Canon DSLR; it’s the glass you put in front of it. This might be a cliche, but it’s true. A high-calibre lens attached to a beginner-level camera will always produce better quality images than a top-end pro body fitted with a cheap kit lens.

That said, there’s an incredible amount of creative potential in the versatile 18-55mm kit lens that came with your EOS camera, and the chances are you may not be fully exploiting it. This guide will give you all the confidence you need to start doing just that.

We’ll explain how you can get the best from the lens you own, whether that’s a standard zoom, a wide-angle, telephoto zoom or specialised macro lens for close-ups (see also our guide DO or Di: your lens markings explained).

We’ll show you how different focal lengths can transform your photographic results, and explain how best to deal with optical problems you might face in the field. Get ready to see things more clearly…

Canon Lenses: kit lenses and standard zooms

‘Invisible’ standard zooms
The standard kit lens that came with your EOS offers a focal range of 18-55mm that’s perfect for everyday photography. On APS-C D-SLRs, it offers the equivalent field of view as a 29-88mm lens on a full-frame camera such as the 5D Mark II, enabling you to take in everything from landscapes to portraits to close-ups.

Pictures produced by the humble standard zoom have a very natural look when the lens is set at 35mm (55mm equivalent), because this is said to match the focal length of the human eye. Used in this way, these lenses become ‘invisible’, enabling viewers to concentrate on the subject of the picture without getting distracted by the kind of optical effects associated with very wide or long lenses.

Portrait distortion
Although standard zooms are capable of capturing pictures that are very easy on the eye, they can still produce less-than-flattering portraits if they’re not used with care.

15mm

Unless you’re a fan of caricatures, don’t stand close to your subject and simply zoom out to the wide 15mm or 18mm setting of your kit lens to take the shot. In particular, avoid putting people’s faces near the edge of the frame as this is where the distortion tends to be strongest.

35mm

It’s much more preferable to take some steps back and zoom in to the longer end of the zoom at 55mm. This will compress their features 
and produce a much more flattering picture.

Lens corrections
All lenses suffer from optical defects such as distortion and vignetting (where a frame’s corners look darker than its centre) but imaging software is now so advanced it can help fix such problems. Canon’s DPP and Adobe Photoshop can perform fixes at the Raw processing stage, so picture file quality is preserved. Keep in mind when composing that correcting for distortion can lose some detail at the picture’s edges.

Focusing
Kit lenses aren’t the fastest focusing lenses among Canon’s EF and EF-S arsenal, and you might find they struggle to lock onto a subject in low light. Rather than relying on the camera to choose the autofocus point, switch to single AF point selection and manually select one yourself.

The centre focus point is the most sensitive, so a good tactic to use for subjects that aren’t likely to move is to first focus on the subject using the centre AF point and One Shot AF, then lock the focus (using either the AF lock button, or by switching the lens to manual focus) and recompose the shot for the best composition.

Fast prime lenses
One of the best kit lens upgrades you can buy is a ‘fast’ 50mm lens. Why should you spend money on a lens that duplicates a focal length you’ve already got built into your standard zoom? Because the wide maximum aperture of a fast 50mm lens means that a very fast shutter speed can potentially be used (hence the ‘fast’ reference), which is incredibly useful for low light and indoor photography.

f/1.4

f/2

f/2.8

f/4

f/5.6

f/8

f/11

The wide apertures on offer in the 50mm f/1.8 (affordable), 50mm f/1.4 (reasonable) and 50mm f/1.2 (ludicrously expensive!) also give a shallow depth of field, meaning beautifully smooth, blurred backgrounds are possible.

Canon lenses: wide-angle zoom lenses

Getting the measure of wide-angle lenses
Lenses in the region of 10-18mm are capable of capturing pictures of vast scale and depth. The trade-off  to swallowing up so much of a scene in a single frame is that it’s more difficult to arrange ‘clean’ shots.

It’s easy for compositional clutter such as branches and lamp-posts to sneak into the edge of a picture, so get into the habit of running your eye around the viewfinder before you take the shot (zoom out slightly to help you spot the intruders).

Wide-angle lenses also frequently suffer from flare, so always fit a lens hood or shield the front element from direct sunlight using your hand or your body.

Finding foreground interest
Wide-angle pictures can lack impact if they’re simply used to try and squeeze as much of a distant scene as possible into a single frame. Everything just ends up too small. The trick is to find interesting foreground detail and get in close to it in order to lead you into the scene and give the shot depth.

Wide-angle lenses also capture more depth of field than telephotos, especially used on EOS models with smaller APS-C sensors. This brings benefits for landscape photography, where front-to-back sharpness is what you’re aiming for most of the time (see our 10 Commandments of Landscape Photography – and how to break them).

Full-frame vs APS-C
The APS-C image sensors most EOS models use are smaller than ‘full-frame’ (same size as a 35mm film frame) ones in the likes of the EOS 5D Mark II, so capture a lesser area of the image. This gives a magnifying effect, or ‘crop factor’, of x1.6 – apply this to the lens to get the ‘effective’ focal length.

This is great for long lenses, where a 500mm one effectively becomes 800mm. It’s not so good for wide-angle lenses, where a 20mm lens narrows to a ‘true’ 32mm.

Fisheye lenses
These extreme wide-angles produce a unique view of the world, in which every straight line becomes curved. The typical 8-15mm focal lengths can resolve a 180° view, which makes them great for shooting interiors, expansive scenery and in-your-face distorted portraits – and you really do need to be up close and personal with the subject to make the most of this effect.

Anything more than a few feet from the front element will look tiny in the final picture. It’s also easy to catch your own feet and shadow in the shot if you’re not careful!

Converging verticals
If you do a lot of architecture photography, you’re probably aware of the curious effect of converging verticals – in which pointing a wide-angle lens up at a building makes it appear as if it’s about to fall over.

Wide-angle shot with converging verticals

There are three solutions here. First (and worst) is to reduce the effect using Photoshop’s Lens Correction Filter. This does mean that you’ll lose parts of the picture as the software stretches the picture to correct the anomaly. Second, if possible, you can simply stand further back and employ a longer focal length in order to flatten out the perspective.

Tilt-shift

Third, choose a tilt-shift lens, which enables you to fix the problem in-camera. These are fiendishly expensive lenses (Canon’s TS-E 17mm f4L lens is approx £1950) so consider hiring one for a weekend instead of buying.

Canon lenses: telephoto lenses

Wide apertures, shallow depth
As well as offering you more reach, telephoto lenses provide you with more blur or, more precisely, with a shallower depth 
of field. A telephoto lens used at f/4 will give a narrower band of apparent sharpness in an image than a wide-angle lens used at the same aperture. You can exploit this fact by sandwiching a sharp subject between a blurred foreground and background for punchy results.

It’s a very simple, but effective, technique that wildlife photographers frequently use. The trick is to make sure that you’re close enough to foreground detail for it to appear blurred, and that the backdrop is far enough from the subject for it to be rendered soft, too (find out how to Master Live View on your Canon DSLR).

Shutter speeds
Telephotos are big and bulky lenses, so they’re not the easiest to use hand-held. There’s a reason many come with a tripod collar, after all. The minimum shutter speed rule of thumb for handholding applies to teles just as it does for shorter lenses – that is, make sure the shutter speed is at least equivalent to the lens’s focal length (so 1/200sec for a 200mm lens) – but faster is best!

Image stabilisation (IS) has been a game changer for hand-held shooting though, with the latest high-end EF telephoto lenses boasting up to four stops of support (so the same 200mm lens in our example could now be used at a shutter speed of around 1/13 sec and still produce sharp shots  in the right hands).

Compressing perspective
Another creative tool for the long lens photographer is the effect of perspective. Telephoto lenses make it easier to compress a picture’s elements so they appear closer together than they are in reality.

55mm at f/22

It’s a great technique for landscape and architecture shots. Perspective depends on your position in relation to the subject rather than the lens used; images shot from the same spot with 50mm and 500mm lenses show the same perspective.

70mm at f/5.6

But the 500mm focal length concentrates the effect as it’s focusing on a smaller area.

Superzoom lenses
For many people, a superzoom might be the only lens they ever need, offering a vast range of focal lengths in a handy take-anywhere compact package. However, there are obvious compromises to be made when you’re squeezing 18mm through to 200mm into an affordable lens.

Superzooms have relatively slow maximum apertures (such as f/6.3 at 250mm) so they’re not as naturally suited to low-light shooting as faster (brighter) lenses. Focusing and image quality is also less likely to hold up to critical scrutiny.

But there’s a lot to be said for convenience, and while other photographers miss shots as they spend time changing lenses, the superzoom user can continue to get their pictures.

Filling the frame with a telephoto zoom lens
Warning: long lenses can be addictive! For frame-filling impact, you can’t beat the reach of a tele. A subject doesn’t double in size when you double the focal length: it appears four times as big.

55mm

70mm

100mm

200mm

400mm

That said, you need to be fairly close for frame-filling shots of small birds and animals. Because images are magnified so much, the effects of camera shake are too. Rock-solid technique (and a rock-solid tripod and head) are advisable.

Canon lenses: macro lenses

Look for texture
One of the most enjoyable aspects of macro photography is that it enables you to reveal a world that’s normally hidden from the eye. And you don’t have to travel far to find suitable subjects.

Texture, whether it’s peeling paint on a door, 
a rusting lock or lichen growing on a wall makes for striking abstract studies. Just remember to keep the back of the camera parallel with the subject in order to maximise the depth of field through the shot.

Choosing the right macro lens
Macro lenses enable you to get frame-filling shots of small subjects, but not all macro lenses are made equal. Some lenses are badged as ‘macro’ to signify that they focus close up. But a true macro lens is one that gives you 1:1 magnification of a subject – that is, it’ll be captured at life size by the sensor. There are various focal lengths on offer, too.

55mm on kit lens

The longer the lens, the further you can be from the subject in order to get that life-size magnification.

100mm macro lens

This is useful when you’re photographing insects which might scarper if approached too closely, and gives you room to light the subject well.

Diffraction stations
Even though you’ll need to use small apertures to buy you as much depth of field as possible when working close up, you should avoid using the smallest on offer on your lens (which is usually somewhere around the f/32 mark).

Light waves passing through such a small hole tend to bounce around and not all get focused in the same place on the sensor, leading to soft pictures. Equally, think twice about using the widest aperture (such as f/2.8) unless you want just a wafer-thin degree of sharpness in your picture.

Macro lenses are more than just for close-ups
Even though macro lenses are optimised for close-focus photography, they can still be used just like any other lens for ‘normal’ shooting situations.

For instance, a 60mm macro would make a razor-sharp substitute for a standard 50mm lens, with the bonus of getting in ultra-close when you need it to. The fast maximum apertures on offer in macro lenses mean a 100mm f/2.8 becomes an excellent choice for low light photography, if a bit slow focusing.

Focusing for macro
Don’t rely on autofocus when using a macro lens (find out How to set your autofocus for macro photography). Depth of field is very narrow when working at such extreme magnifications, and if the AF system gets it wrong by even a millimetre, well, it might as well be a country mile off, and the results will be unusable.

It’s far better to take charge and use manual focus, something which Live View and its focus magnification aid make light work of (find out What is Live View: free photography cheat sheet) . In fact, this feature, twinned with the Vari-angle LCD screens on the 600D and 60D, makes for an unbeatable macro outfit for low-level work.

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Does your lens has more letters after its name than a retired rocket scientist. What do all these lens markings mean?

You can refer to a lens simply by the name of the manufacturer, the focal length, and its maximum aperture – a Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6, say, or Canon 50mm f/1.4. But as lenses have often evolved from decades of development, they usually have a line of additional letters after their names, stamped on the barrel or printed on the boxes.

Some lens markings are about manufacturer branding – defining a more recent range, or a lens that’s built to higher standards than another. Others are to do with the optics themselves, and to highlight specific technologies used in the lens construction.

In the jargon-busting guide below, we’ll translate these lens markings for you.

The ultimate guide to understanding lens markings

AF  Stands for autofocus. Nearly all lenses have this feature, 
but there’s an increasing trend for niche lens manufacturers (such as Samyang and Carl Zeiss) to offer lenses that can only be focused manually.

AF-S  Stands for autofocus-silent. This features on Nikon lenses that use a silent motor to control the autofocus.

AL  Stands for aspherical lens. All camera lenses are made up of a number of individual lenses or elements. Many of these elements are spherical – as if cut from a sphere. Aspherical elements are less rounded – and are used in some types of lenses to help minimise chromatic aberration.

APO  Stands for apochromatic. This features on Sigma lenses that use super-low dispersion (SLD) lens elements to reduce chromatic aberration.

AS  Stands for aspherical  (see AL).

Asp  Stands for aspherical (see AL).

AT-X  Stands for Advance Technology Extra – the branding used on all current Tokina lenses.

D  A type of Tokina lens that’s compatible with full-frame SLRs.

DA  Stands for Digital Auto. This features on a range of Pentax lenses that (unlike some earlier ranges) don’t have a manual aperture ring. They have a ‘Quick Shift’ mechanism that enables you to override focus manually, even when the lens is switched to autofocus.

DA*  Star by name, star by nature. The premium lens range from Pentax, which combines weatherproofing with the advantages of the DA range.

DC  This features on the range of Sigma lenses that are designed specifically for use with crop factor SLRs, and which can’t be used with full-frame models.

DFA  This features on the range of Pentax lenses that will work with full-frame 35mm film cameras, but which are also optimised for use on crop-factor digital SLRs.

DG  This refers to the Sigma lens range that’s suitable for full-frame SLRs (but that can also be used on crop-factor models).

Di  Tamron’s ‘Digitally Integrated’ lenses have a full-size image circle, so they are suitable for full-frame and crop-factor SLRs.

Di II  Tamron’s second-generation Digitally Integrated lenses are designed for use on popular crop-factor SLRs, and are not suitable for full-frame models.

DO  Diffractive Optics is used on a handful of Canon telephoto lenses – the technology allows these long lenses to be made smaller and lighter than equivalents using conventional optical designs.

DT  Sony lens with a smaller image circle, designed for use on crop-sensor cameras.

DX  Tokina’s and Nikon’s way of marking lenses that are only suitable for crop-factor – or APS-C – SLRs.

ED  A lens featuring Extra-low Dispersion glass in one or more of its elements, to help correct chromatic aberration. This abbreviation is used by Nikon, Panasonic, Olympus and others.

EF  Standing for Electro Focus. This is the name of the lens mount that Canon introduced 
on its first autofocus SLRs back in 1987. EF lenses can be used 
on all Canon SLRs.

EF-S  Electro Focus Short back-focus lenses were introduced by Canon in 2003. They have a small image circle so they are only suitable for use on crop-factor SLRs. A modified mount means that they can’t physically be fitted onto incompatible (ie full frame) Canon models.

EX  Sigma’s designation for its premium lens range.

f/X.X  The f-stop number is 
the size of the lens’s maximum aperture, measured as a fraction of the focal length of the lens. On some zoom lenses there may be two apertures quoted – f/4-5.6, for example. This means that the maximum aperture gets smaller as the lens is zoomed in. The maximum aperture on the lens barrel may also be expressed as 
a ratio – so 1:4-5.6.

FA  Pentax lens that’s full-frame compatible, and that features an old-fashioned aperture ring.

FO  Tokina’s Focus-One-touch mechanism allows you to switch quickly from autofocus to manual focus operation, and back again, by snapping the focus ring backwards and forwards.

FX  A Nikon, or Nikkor, lens that’s compatible with its full-frame SLRs, as well as crop-factor ones.

G  Stands for Gold – a designation found on top-class Sony lenses. It’s also used for current Panasonic Lumix compact system cameras and lenses.

HID  Stands for High Index Dispersion, a type of glass used in Tamron lenses that helps to minimise chromatic aberration.

HSM  Sigma’s Hyper Sonic Motor is used in some of its lenses to provide faster and quieter autofocus operation.

IF  Stands for Internal Focusing, and is found on many lenses from many manufacturers. The lens is constructed so that it doesn’t change in length as the lens is focused. It also means that the front element doesn’t rotate – which can help with the use of some lens attachments, such as petal-shaped lens hoods and polarising filters.

iFn  Stands for i-Function, a feature of Samsung NX cameras which allows photographers to access a number of key camera settings via a button and ring around the lens.

II  This stands for second-generation – a classic lens that’s been updated in design by the original manufacturer.

III  Stands for third-generation.

IS  Stands for Image Stabilization – optical camera shake reduction found in a wide number of Canon lenses.

L  Stands for Luxury, and is used to designate Canon’s best pro lenses, which have superior build quality and weatherproofing.

LD  This features on Tamron lenses that use one or more Low Dispersion lens elements to help reduce chromatic aberration.
mm  Stands for millimetres – used to measure the focal length of a lens.

OIS  Optical Image Stabilisation – the system used on Panasonic lenses to reduce camera shake.

OS  Optical Stabilization is 
the system used on some Sigma lenses to reduce camera shake.

PC-E  Stands for Perspective Control-Electronic. Used to designate Nikon’s range of tilt-shift lenses, which enable you to move the front elements on the lens to avoid or exaggerate lens distortion. They are commonly used in architectural photography to ensure vertical lines remain parallel in the picture.

PZ  Stands for Power Zoom, 
a servo-assisted zoom facility found on some Panasonic compact system camera lenses.

PZD  Stands for Piezo Drive, 
a type of ultrasonic motor used in Tamron lenses to provide 
fast, quiet autofocus.

RF  With Rear Focus, the group of elements nearest the camera are used to focus, providing faster autofocus. This feature is found on super telephoto lenses.

SAM  Stands for Smooth Autofocus Motor – used in recent Sony Alpha lenses.

SD  Super-low dispersion – 
the glass used in Tokina lenses 
to reduce chromatic aberration.

SDM  Supersonic Drive Motor, Pentax’s fast, quiet focus motor.

SLD  Super-low dispersion – lens elements in Sigma lenses that reduce chromatic aberration.

smc  Stands for Super Multi Coating, a seven-layer coating used on Pentax lenses to reduce light reflected the lens itself.

SP  Super Performance – a long-standing tag found on top-of-the-range Tamron lenses.

SSM  Supersonic motor – used for high-speed autofocus in top-of-the-range Sony lenses.

SWM  Silent Wave Motor, 
the high-speed quiet AF motor used on Nikon’s AF-S lenses.

TS-E Tilt-shift Electronic – Canon’s range of perspective control lenses (see PC-E).

UD Ultralow dispersion – type of glass used in Canon lenses to reduce chromatic aberration.

USD Ultrasonic Silent Drive, Tamron’s fast, quiet AF motor.

USM Ultrasonic motor – fast, low-noise autofocus motor used by some Canon lenses.

VC Vibration Compensation – optical camera-shake reduction system on some Tamron lenses.

VR Vibration Reduction, Nikon’s image-stabilisation system.

WR Weather Resistant – found on certain Pentax lenses.

XLD Extra Low Dispersion; glass used in some Tamron lenses to reduce chromatic aberration.

XR Extra Refractive – type of glass used in Tamron lenses. It can bend light at bigger angles than normal glass, helping make the overall size of a lens smaller.

ZA Zeiss Alpha – a range of Sony lenses made by Carl Zeiss.

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Are you thinking about buying a new lens for your DSLR or compact system camera? Remember, the best lens isn’t always the most expensive.

The best lens for your camera is the one with the features that best match your needs as a photographer. These 9 essential lens tips should help give a solid foundation of what you might be looking for when you go to choose the best lens for your camera.

How to choose the best lens for your camera

Lens Tip 1: Speed
Aside from sharpness, this is the key thing to consider. ‘Fast’ lenses have wide maximum apertures – f/2.8, f/1.8 etc. They let in more light and enable you to achieve faster shutter speeds. The downside? They’re heavier and more expensive. ‘Slower’ lenses are cheaper, but you may need to increase the camera’s ISO in order to get action-stopping shots in low light. The speed of a lens is also relative to the focal length – a 500mm f/4.5 lens is relatively fast, whereas a 100mm f/4.5 is slow.

Lens Tip 2: Minimum focus
How close can you get before the lens reaches its near focus limit? This is an important consideration when choosing a telephoto lens. It’s all very well getting a lens which offers a huge magnification, but if you can’t get close enough to make the most of it you’ll have to add extension tubes to get closer.

Lens Tip 3: Floating or fixed aperture?
Another factor that determines whether a zoom lens is cheap or expensive is whether it keeps the same aperture throughout the zoom range (more expensive) or if the aperture gets smaller as you zoom from wide to long (cheaper). The downside of this kind of ‘floating’ aperture (such as f/4.5-5.6) is that, in order to maintain the same exposure, the shutter speed needs to become slower as the aperture gets smaller. So you need to be aware of possible camera shake creeping in.

Lens Tip 4: Handling
How a lens feels in your hands shouldn’t be overlooked. Do the zoom and focus rings fall in the right place for your fingers? Can you hand-hold it? Does it have image stabilisation?

Lens Tip 5: Rotating filter ring
Cheaper lenses can have a front element which rotates as the lens focuses. This causes problems when you’ve got a filter attached – particularly a polariser, the effect of which changes as it turns. The only solution is to focus first before making filter adjustments.

Lens Tip 6: Optical quality
It’s only by testing a lens in a camera shop and reading reviews that you’ll know if a lens’ quality will meet your expectations. Sharpness is key, but so is a lens’ ability to handle flare, vignetting and optical aberrations. Most of those letters after a lens’ focal length – APO, L, ED, ASP – aren’t marketing gimmicks, they do actually signify better glass has been used.

Lens Tip 7: Distance scale
This is useful for calculating depth of field in order to maximise front-to-back sharpness in a shot, and so is particularly good for landscape photography. Many modern lenses, such as this 55-200mm, don’t have one though. Do you think you can live with that?

Lens Tip 8: Type of zoom
There are two types of zoom lens – the push/pull ‘trombone’ style, or the more common ring type. The push/pull type are simpler to use, although longer versions can become unwieldy when zoomed right out.

Lens Tip 9: Lens hood
Not all lenses come with a lens hood. Factor the extra cost in if they lack one – they’re essential. The same is true for a tripod collar for larger lenses.

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First up, the new EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L II USM lens is added to Canon’s professional line and is an upgrade to the previous standard zoom lens.

It features a redesigned optical system which includes two Ultra-low Dispersion (UD) and one Super UD aspheric element which is designed to minimise chromatic aberration and colour blurring.

Super Spectra coatings to reduce ghosting and flare have also been included, along with a fluorine coating to minimise the amount of dust, dirt and fingerprints.

A ring-type Ultrasonic Motor (USM) works in combination with a high-performance CPU for quick and accurate, and silent autofocus. The lens has a minimum focusing distance of 0.38m at all focal lengths throughout the zoom range.

The structure of the lens has been improved to offer enhanced zoom durability along with grater shake and shock resistance within the barrel. The size of the lens has also been reduced by 10mm.

A new zoom lock lever means that photographers can lock the zoom position at the extreme wide end of the lens to prevent damage to the lens in transit, while it is also water and dustproof.

Read more about the new Canon EF lenses, on our sister website, TechRadar.

Of all the pro lenses, the 70-200mm f/2.8 is probably one of the most popular. It’s range of telephoto focal lengths make it perfect for reportage style portraits and many sports. The fast f/2.8 maximum aperture means it’s also great in low light, when you need to keep the shutter speed high, or if you want a background to be totally blurred. This lens is an updated version of its original incarnation released in 2001, with an increased price tag, we found out if it’s worth the upgrade.

The EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM is a classic – dating back to 1995, and it’s still going strong. But then back in 2001 it stunned the market with an image stabilised (IS) version – the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM. Now one of these fine lenses has been replaced…

Surprisingly, it’s not the oldest of the two that gets the redesign. Despite the higher price, the IS version is the first choice for pros using every technological advantage to ensure sharp shots. But there have long been mutterings that the older non-IS version is optically superior to the revolutionary IS alternative.

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM II

So the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM II is born. The Mark II version looks and feels much the same, but the optics have been redesigned, autofocus speed increased, and the weatherproofing made more sturdy. Even the IS has been upgraded to the latest Canon version, which allows you to use shutter speeds that are four stops slower than usually advisable with a handheld lens. All good stuff then, save for the fact that the official price has crept up another £500 to a cool £2,800.

That’s a lot of money, even if you can write off the cost as a business expense. So is it worth the significant outlay? This is a beautifully constructed lens, using the legendary grey-white finish of Canon’s L-series telephoto lenses. The manual focus ring is 40mm wide, and is engineered to give you fine control over the focus – the AF override mechanism allows you to do this even when the AF is switched on. The zoom mechanism is precisely stiff enough and rotates, rather than using the trombone action of some Canon EF telephotos, so it doesn’t get shorter or longer as you zoom in or out.

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8l IS USM II Handling

The only handling confusion is with the four switches on the left of the barrel. All are useful, but their similarity means it is hard to locate the one you want without looking. The manual/auto and IS on/off switches will be familiar to Canon users. Added to this is a focus-range limiting switch designed to prevent excessive AF hunting. The full range (option one) provides focus from infinity down to 1.2m (a 10cm improvement on the minimum focus of its predecessor). For those shooting distant subjects, a confined range of 2.5m to infinity is offered, while the fourth option switch offers two IS modes for general use and panning.

The lens is compatible with all Canon EOS SLRs, including full-frame models, and the 1D pro-sports range. Use it on models with smaller sensors, such as the 7D, and the angle of view becomes equivalent to using a 112-320mm zoom. The most impressive feature is the Image Stabilizer – it was possible to get sharp handheld shots at 1/10 sec. This slightly exceeds the ambitious four-stop range that Canon boasts.

Optical quality is also impressive. Resolution is excellent even when used at its maximum aperture, and there’s minimal colour fringing. Bokeh (blur) when wide open is truly stunning – and the reason why pros love this lens. But its eight-blade iris means that out-of-focus highlights still look practically circular down to about f/5.6.

Features

: 5/5

On paper, the image stabilisation lets you use a shutter speed 16-times longer than with a normal handheld lens. In the field, it does even better.

Performance: 5/5

Fantastic image quality, even when used at maximum aperture. Colour fringing is extremely well contained at all focal lengths.

Handling: 5/5

The Manual Focus ring is a smooth operator, giving a wide grip (40mm wide, in fact) and full-time fine control override over autofocus.

Build quality: 5/5

A beautifully rugged lens that comes with all the weatherproofing that you have come to expect with Canon’s brilliant L-series.

Value for money: 3/5

The cost of the refit seems excessive, and sets a new record high for a lens of this type. It’s a great update, but does it merit the price hike?

Overall Verdict

: This is a superb lens, providing some good improvements over its predecessor. The 70-200mm f/2.8 is a must-have lens for many pro photographers, and few would risk their reputation by opting for the cheaper non-IS version. The Mark II IS lens is probably an essential purchase for keen Canon owners – even with the huge hike in price.If the price is now too high, the new Sigma shakebusting alternative is going to be mighty tempting.

See this review, along with test pictures, in the June 2010 (Issue 100) issue of Digital Camera. Why not subscribe to ensure you never miss out and receive some fantastic discounts?

Fast lenses – by which we mean lenses with a wide maximum aperture that are ideal for low light – are notoriously expensive. Take the luxurious f/2.8 Canon EF-S 17-55mm and Nikon AF-S 17-55mm models we reviewed recently, both of which cost over £1,000. But with contenders from the likes of Sigma and Tamron costing half the price, you don’t have to spend such big money to get hold of fast glass.

A major bonus of fast lenses is that they allow you to use faster shutter speeds in low light, fending off the problems of both camera shake and motion blur, the latter of which can’t be fixed with any amount of optical image stabilisation. Large apertures also create a shallow depth of field, which is especially good for blurring the background in portraits.

With this in mind, a ‘standard’ 50mm focal length equates to about 75mm to 80mm with most D-SLRs, which use APS-C rather than full-frame sensors. Therefore they offer a perfect effective focal length for taking portraits. As well as offering a two-stop increase in speed at focal lengths of around 50mm, compared with most standard ‘kit’ zoom lenses, the fast zooms on test also boast constant aperture, so the maximum aperture is available throughout the zoom range.

The downside is that while zooms are unbeatable for versatility, there’s an inevitable compromise in optical quality. Go for a fast prime lens and you can generally expect a further two-stop increase in speed, with a maximum aperture of around f/1.4, negligible distortion at the fixed focal length and supreme sharpness.

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM

Street price: £290

This model firmly occupies the prime lens middle ground between Canon’s rather basic 50mm f/1.8 and the massively expensive 50mm f/1.2L USM, costing nearly £1,300. It delivers a more standard f/1.4 maximum aperture and fast, near-silent USM (Ultrasonic Motor) Autofocus, complete with full-time manual override.

Rugged but fairly light in weight, it’s easy to live with. As with most Canon lenses, however, you have to pay extra for a lens hood, which will set you back £25. Optical performance proved respectable in our tests; the lens produced reasonably crisp images even under very low indoor lighting, but the drop-off in sharpness was more obvious at the maximum aperture than with some other lenses here, especially towards the corners of the frame.

Outdoors, the Canon’s resistance to flare was average but, even so, image quality is a big step up from Canon’s cheaper kit zoom lenses.

At its largest aperture, the Canon EF 50mm isn’t the sharpest tool in the box, but a major plus point of this is that the lens can give an attractive ‘dreamy’ look to your portraits. Stopped down a bit for this studio-lit shot, there’s plenty of detail throughout most of the image, but it could be a little better in the corners of the frame. Even so, there’s certainly a lot to like about this lens.

Verdict: Features **** / Build quality **** / Handling ***** / Image Quality **** / Value for Money **** Overall *****

Nikon AF-S 50mm f/1.4G

Street price: £280

Nikon’s reasonably priced 50mm f/1.8 lens only costs about £100, but is so sharp you can practically cut yourself on it. At nearly three times the price, this f/1.4 lens has its work cut out to justify the outlay, but it’s still the cheapest lens here.

As well as the slightly larger maximum aperture, the newer f/1.4G is much more of a 21st-century lens, dropping the antiquated aperture ring that is largely superfluous on D-SLRs, and adding Nikon’s Silent Wave AF-S autofocus system. As with Canon’s USM, this means you get whisper-quiet autofocus with full-time manual override, although autofocus speed isn’t as rapid as with some of Nikon’s other AF-S lenses.

At apertures of f/2.8 and smaller, sharpness proved great across the frame and, even wide open at f/1.4, it’s way above average. The quality of bokeh was also particularly pleasing, and overall the f/1.4G is worth every penny.

Every tiny nuance is captured by the razor-sharp Nikon and, when viewed at 100% magnification on a computer screen, this test shot reveals a level of detail that simply can’t be seen with the naked eye. For portraiture, it’s perhaps a little too sharp and accentuates every wrinkle and flaw in the skin. This can be easily fixed in Photoshop though, and we’d rather have too much detail to start with than not enough.

Verdict: Features ***** / Build Quality ***** / Handling ***** / Image quality ***** / Value for money ***** / Overall *****

Click through the next pages to see how the other lenses in our test fared.
 

Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC Macro HSM

Street price: £315

This Sigma is the cheapest f/2.8 constant aperture lens in the group by quite some margin, yet still offers Sigma’s HSM (HyperSonic Motor) autofocus system, equivalent to Canon’s USM and Nikon’s AF-S.

The HSM is certainly fast and very quiet but, unlike the Canon and Nikon versions, doesn’t feature full-time manual override, so you have to manually switch back and forth between auto and manual focus.

Build quality feels robust, but the overall design seems like it’s cutting a couple of corners. For example, unlike the Canon, Nikon, Sony and both Tokina lenses, the focus distance scale is printed on the outside of the lens barrel rather than being stashed below a viewing window, and the finger grip on the focus ring itself is rather too small for our liking.

Optical quality is very respectable for a fast zoom lens at this price, but a bit on the soft side when shooting at the maximum aperture.

We weren’t completely convinced that the focal length of this Sigma stretches all the way to 50mm, as the flower arrangement didn’t quite fill the frame in the same way as it did with the 50mm prime lenses on test here. Image quality itself is slightly soft when shooting wide open, but sharpens up very impressively by the time you hit f/4. There’s bags of edge-to-edge detail in this shot.

Verdict: Features **** / Build quality **** / Handling **** / Image quality **** / Value for Money ***** / Overall ****

Sigma 50mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM

Street price: £359

Oddly for a third-party prime lens, the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 costs more than the competing ‘own-brand’ Canon, Nikon and Sony prime lenses on test. On the plus side, however, it also feels more sturdily built, with a chunkier design and much heftier weight that gives it a more natural balance on heavier D-SLR bodies. Like the Sigma zoom lens on test, this one features fast, quiet HSM autofocus, but this time it comes complete with full-time manual override and the focus distance scale is neatly tucked away below a viewing window.

The Sigma prime is impressively sharp even at its maximum aperture; in our tests it gave slightly better performance than the Canon f/1.4 but didn’t quite match the Nikon or Sony prime lenses. The lack of distortion and overall optical quality are noticeably better than with the Sigma 18-50mm zoom, so it’s a choice between prime lens quality versus zooming versatility.

Good attention to detail even when shooting wide open leads to even greater sharpness at f/2.8 and smaller apertures, winning out over the Canon 50mm f/1.4 in our tests. The Sigma’s street price is £70 more expensive, but at least it comes with a lens hood and soft pouch, like most Sigma lenses. This Sigma is proof, were it needed, that ‘third-party’ lenses can be a good investment.

Verdict: Features ***** / Build quality ***** / Handling ***** / Image quality ***** / Value for money **** / Overall *****

Sony 50mm f/1.4 AF

Street price: £282

Sony lenses often seem overpriced for what they actually offer, so how does this 50mm f/1.4 stand up? At first glance, it’s difficult to take the lens seriously, as it’s incredibly compact and lightweight, and minimalist in the extreme. For example, the manual focus ring seems almost like an afterthought, as it’s small and there’s no ribbed grip on it.

Maybe that’s just as well, because the ring rotates in autofocus mode as well as during manual focus, and the small size of the lens makes it difficult to hold without your fingers fouling the focus ring.

Autofocus is fairly fast, but quite noisy in operation. It’s easy to forgive any handling flaws, however, the moment you see images taken with the lens. They’re wonderfully sharp and full of contrast, even when shooting at f/1.4. Indeed, in our tests, the overall optical quality was practically as good as with the Nikon 50mm f/1.4, and better than any of the zoom lenses.

Hardly bristling with features, the Sony looks a very basic lens but optical quality is stunning. Sharpness and contrast are exemplary, even at the maximum aperture, and things get better still when you move down by a stop or two. As with the Nikon 50mm prime lens, also on test, every tiny detail in this shot of flowers is there to see in the final image. It might look humble on the outside, but the Sony has great glass.

Verdict: Features **** / Build quality **** / Handling **** / Image quality ***** / Value for money **** / Overall ****

Click through to the final page to see how the last 3 lenses in the test got on.
 

Tamrom 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di II VC

Street price: £490

Fast standard zoom lenses with image stabilisation are few and far between, yet this heady combination has been combined in Tamron’s new 17-50mm f/2.8 VC (Vibration Correction) lens.

In our tests, the VC consistently gave an advantage of three to four stops, fending off camera shake and enabling the handheld use in near darkness. It’s just a shame that the high-tech VC isn’t matched in other areas of the lens’s design, which features a particularly slow and noisy autofocus motor and the lack of full-time manual focus override.

The zoom ring of our test sample was also very stiff in operation, but at least there was no hint of zoom creep. More disappointingly, the lens really lacked sharpness when shooting wide open and had to be stopped down to f/5.6 to give convincing results, even then lagging a long way behind the prime lenses. For the money, it’s not one of Tamron’s best.

There’s a lack of sharpness in this shot compared to almost all the other lenses on test, and the problem gets worse the closer you get to the maximum aperture of f/2.8. Another issue that we had was that, when shooting on a Nikon body in Manual mode, the lens consistently over-exposed images by about one or two stops, even when locking the aperture and shutter speed to the same values used with other lenses.

Verdict: Features **** / Build quality **** / Handling **** / Image quality *** / Value for money ** / Overall ***

Tokina 16-50mm f/2.8 AT-X Pro DX

Street price: £590

A sizeable and weighty affair, the Tokina 16-50mm looks more like luxury lenses such as the Canon EF-S 17-55mm and Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 offerings, with a rugged, professional feeling build quality. Autofocus is rapid and fairly quiet, despite lacking the equivalent of USM or AF-S, and while there’s no full-time manual override, the lens features Tokina’s trademark push-pull focus ring, which enables speedy switching between auto and manual focusing.

It can be a bit too easy to switch between manual and autofocus unintentionally though. The price is as heavyweight as the lens, with street prices around £250 more than the equivalent Sigma and £100 more than the Tamron VC lens on test.

So does it have image quality to match? Distortion is fairly well-controlled considering the 16mm wide-angle ability. While sharpness is reasonable at f/2.8, however, it fails to improve much as you stop down.

Something of a curiosity, the Tokina can match most of the lenses in the group for sharpness when shooting wide open, especially in dull lighting conditions, but images don’t get any sharper when you stop down. In our tests, by the time we got to f/8 or f/11, other lenses in the group had left the Tokina a long way behind in terms of contrast and sharpness, from the centre to the corners of the frame.

Verdict: Features **** / Build Quality ***** / Handling ***** / Image quality **** / Value for money *** / Overall ****

Tokina 50-135mm f/2.8 AT-X Pro DX

Street price: £550

The big brother of the Tokina 16-50mm lens, this 50-135mm model takes over neatly where the smaller one leaves off, or at least that’s the theory. In practice, we found a few millimetres of focal length missing in the middle, the larger lens seeming more like a 55-135mm.

Weighing in at 755g, the big Tokina comes with a collar for mounting on a tripod and the solid, chunky build quality is continued from the smaller model. There’s also the same push-pull mechanism for switching between autofocus and manual focus. One notable difference, however, is that this lens has internal zooming, so the overall length of the lens stays fixed throughout the entire zoom range.

Specifically made for Canon and Nikon cameras with APS-C sensors, the effective telephoto reach of the lens is a handy 216mm or 202mm respectively, making it a relatively cheap option for a fast telephoto zoom lens.

At 50mm or thereabouts, the Tokina wasn’t quite a match for most other lenses on test, either shooting wide open or stopped down. Sharpness was still adequate for most scenarios, but not fabulous. We didn’t suffer any drop-off in quality at longer telephoto focal lengths, however, so it’s a useful lens on an APS-C camera when you need extra reach, and the f/2.8 gives a wonderfully small depth of field.

Verdict: Features **** / Build quality **** / Handling **** / Image quality **** / Value for money **** / Overall ****

The EF-S 10-22mm has the second-highest suggested retail price of any lens in the group. Thankfully, it’s widely available
at about £300 less than the official price and the lens has a lot going for it in terms of specs and features. Although it’s quite
light and feels balanced on a camera body like the EOS 450D or 500D, the lens is robust and well engineered.

Although it’s quite light and feels balanced on a camera body like the EOS 450D or 500D, the lens is robust and well engineered.The UltraSonic Motor (USM) autofocus system proved incredibly fast and accurate in our tests, as well as being extremely quiet. Better still, there’s full-time manual focus override, so you can fi ne-tune focus settings without having to use the AF/MF focus switch on the lens barrel. The only sore point is that Canon does its usual penny-pinching trick of not supplying a hood with the lens, so you’ll need to buy the EW-83E petal-shaped lens hood separately. This costs an additional £30.

Distortion and chromatic aberration are kept to a minimum, and the Canon proved sharp – but not quite as razor-sharp as the Nikon opposite. Ghosting and fl are are controlled, thanks in part to Canon’s Super Spectra lens coating, although the optional dedicated lens hood is essential outdoors. For any Canon D-SLR apart from full-frame models like the EOS 5D Mark II, this ultra-wide zoom is an excellent choice.