hi,

does anybody know whether this lens has aspherical element. on canon's official site they have shown it. i have a chance to buy a used (around one to one and half years old), i am not sure whether it has anything of that kind. the dealers also doesn't know and i could not find it in its manual. i have just seen that lens and would buy it in a day or two. anybody know whether canon produced all its 28-135mm lenses with aspherical elements or not. its price is 449 Euros (approx 400 USD). is this price worth. and ofcourse it still has some months of canon's warranty in european countries (atleast in germany). any help would be appreciated.

thnx

-- sajeev (chack74@yahoo.co.in), February 08, 2002

Answers

There has only been one version of the EF 28-135 IS USM and they all have at least one aspheric element in them. Not that that really matters. As long as the image quality is good and the lens meets my other requirements, I don't care how they design the optics. $400 is a decent price.

-- Jim Strutz (j.strutz@gci.net), February 08, 2002.

I think the only manufacturer that touts aspherical elements as if it's a big deal is Sigma. Maybe Sigma is just proud that they finally figured out how to do it properly, but for all the other manufacturers it's old news and not worth bragging about. But in the end, it really doesn't matter if a lens has aspherical elements or not. It's the overall optical performance that counts.

There is only one 28-135 IS model. It is an excellent lens. The IS capability is wonderful. Who cares if it has aspherical elements or not? There are certainly Sigma "aspherical" lenses that are far inferior to the 28-135 IS. But if you must know, yes the 28-135 IS has an aspherical element.

-- Peter Phan (pphan01@hotmail.com), February 08, 2002.

thanks a lot. i know that IS is absolutely wonderful and this lens in particular is remarkably sharp. thats the reason i would trade away cheaper lenses (29-90 and 70-300 III) for just one lens. i just wanted to be sure that the lens i am going to buy has all the feature i heard about. thanks again.

-- sajeev (chack74@yahoo.co.in), February 08, 2002.

Canon is actually quite proud of their aspherical elements, but only if they are handground and not moulded aspherical elements. In the Canon line, moulded aspherical elements will not receive the "L" lens nametag(28mm f2.8, 28-135 IS USM), whereas ground aspherical elements will be an "L" lens (28-70 f2.8L).

-- Roger S. (rashrader@hotmail.com), February 08, 2002.

This is a bit late, but FYI the 28-125IS is only Euro 510 new at www.ny-camera.net - an online shop in Germany which is highly regarded among shoppers in Denmark, UK and Germany.

-- Kenneth Darling Soerensen (kenneth@darling.dk), February 11, 2002.

hi,

thanks for your opinions. finally i got the lens EF28-135, battery pack BP 200, and a remote switch RS60 E3, all still having the european warranty of few months for 450 Euros (400 USD).

-- sajeev (chack74@yahoo.co.in), February 11, 2002.