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Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM - Full Format Review / Test |
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Lens Reviews -
Canon EOS (Full Format)
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Page 1 of 3
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published March 2012
Special thanks to Alexander Dimopoulos for providing the lens for testing!
Introduction
The Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM is one of the few affordable large aperture prime lenses in the Canon lineup. We tested it on the smaller APS-C format a couple of times with less than impressive results but let's have a look whether it is really more meant for its native full format. The primary feature is, of course, the ultra-large max. aperture and fortunately this is combined with a very attractive pricing. While I'm not overly thrilled by a 28mm lens myself I can certainly understand why people could be interested in such a lens for low-light-, street- and landscape photography.
The lens is quite a beauty with a very solid construction thanks to very good quality plastics. The very broad, rubberized focus ring has a smooth action without any wobbling. The front element does not rotate so using a polarizer is no problem. The physical length of the lens remains constant regardless of the focus setting.
Thanks to USM the focusing speed is pretty fast and focusing is nearly silent. AF accuracy is fine at f/1.8 but the lens suffers from focus shifts upon stopping down. Typical for ring-type USM drives full-time manual focusing is possible on one-shot AF mode.
| Specifications |
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| Optical construction | 10 elements in 9 groups inc. 1x aspherical element |
| Number of aperture blades | 7 |
| min. focus distance | 0.25 m (max. magnification ratio 1:5.5) |
| Dimensions | 74 x 56 mm |
| Weight | 310 g |
| Filter size | 58 mm (non-rotating) |
| Hood | petal-shaped (bayonet mount, optional) |
| Other features |
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