many people in this forun has talked about the standard EF28-80mm lens which is a part of Canon EOS 300/30 (and may be some other bodies). but when i bought EOS 300 i got EF28-90mm rather than the EF28-80mm lens. i wonder whether there is any difference betn EF28-80mm and EF28-90mm lens. it seems that the EF28-80mm lens is quite bad compared to most of the canon lenses, i mean regarding the final picture quality. i have used the later EF28-90mm lens for last 2-3 months along with EF75-300mm lens and find that its not too bad. may be this could change if i use better lenses like the standard EF50mm or some USM lenses. now my question is WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EF28-80mm AND EF28-90mm LENSES. i don't think there should any substantial difference. i am much happier with EF28-90mm lens than EF75-300mm lens which is a bit contradictory to what Sharath ( in the topic "EOS Rebel 2000 28-80 lens (Sharath)" in this forum) says. can anyone put more light on this topic.

thnx

-- sajeev (chack74@yahoo.co.in), December 21, 2001

Answers

The main difference is of course the focal length range,for more details check at canon's pages,for their lab test results read data in photodo. Actually whether a lens performs well depends your demand,even a L- series may also be not good !! Try to listen to different people's opinion about lens not just pros.

-- legnum (legnum212@email.com), December 21, 2001.

The Canon 28-90 is very much like the Canon 28-80 before it. It's built cheap but lightweight. It's optically so-so, & not particularly fast focusing. It will take nice pictures, but often not quite as sharp (especially noticed at the long end of the zoom range with the aperture wide open) nor as colorful as the better lenses, and there may be more distortion (especially noticed at the wide end of the zoom range).

They are all about the same optical quality as the cheap Sigma, Tokina, Tamron, etc. lenses but are usually built just a bit nicer & don't develop compatability problems in the future.

The Canon 24-85, 28-105 and 28-135 are better, because they are built stronger (but are also heavier), are somewhat sharper, have less distortion, focus faster and have full time manual focusing (FTM).

They are also at least twice the money as the 28-80 or 28-90. Are they worth it to you? I don't know, but they are to me.

-- Jim Strutz (j.strutz@gci.net), December 21, 2001.