Canon EF 3.5-4.5 28-70 on EOS 450D

[iangreenhalgh1]

This lens was tested by photozone.de and recommended, they said it was almost as sharp as the L 2.8-4.0 28-70.

I think it's crap, soft at 4.5 and 5.6, barely acceptable at f8, if this were an old manual lens I'd throw it away. Contrast is not good and colours lack vibrancy, nothing about it looks good to me.

Are modern Canon AF zooms really this bad? If the L lens is only slightly sharper then I really do despair. I need to produce 20x30 prints and virtually all my manual lenses are capable of at least acceptable quality at that size, but I shudder to think what a 20x30 from this Canon POS would look like

No PP at all, just resize.

#1 f5.6


#2 f4.5


#3 f4.5


#4 f4.5


#5 f6.3 this one really p*sses me off, 2,5m distance, stopped down and still soft!


#6 f8 acceptable, but all lenses should be acceptable at f8


#7 f4.5


#8 f4.5 This makes me wanna punch some Canon executives, centre sharpness of this level is totally unacceptable for all but the blindest shooters


#9 f8


#10 f4.5

[Attila]

Looks pretty crap indeed, try to sharpen it , may works well , may not.

[iangreenhalgh1]

I think sharpening will work on the f8 shots, but on the others, the detail just isn't there.

This really bothers me, I need an AF lens of good quality, I did a lot of reading and research before I picked this one, to quote photozone.de's test report:

[poilu]

some part of the pics are sharper than the center, this mean that the autofocus didn't work well
there is a way to calibrate the autofocus by lens, check if the 450d can do it or use liveview to make your tests

[iangreenhalgh1]

I tried sharpening a couple of the crops with 150% strength in NIK Sharpener, first is at f4.5, second at f6.3.

Helps but still crap.

I have to ask, is this a bad copy or are Canon EF zooms just bloody awful?

[iangreenhalgh1]

[walter g]

When I was looking for one for my 10D, I bought the Tamron instead. I've only used it a few times.
http://forum.mflenses.com/tamron-what-did-i-buy-t39193,highlight,%2Btamron.html

Crap. Just ignore my post. You bought the faster EF 28-70 3.5-4.5 II. Guess I need to read more carefully.

[fuzzywuzzy]

I checked Flickr, it seems some copies of this lens are half decent. There are a few nice pics here:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/canon2870/pool/with/6786847025/#photo_6786847025

But yeah I think it's tripod and live view test bench time, you might have yourself a lemon copy.

Which autofocus mode are you in? My EF 50/1.8 was driving me INSANE until I switched modes. I don't remember the terminology, the default is for the camera to guess which AF point(s) should be used for focus but you can force one single AF point. I switched it to the center point and instantly got better shots. Obviously sometimes you don't want the focus to be right in the center but it's easy to recompose after the camera achieves focus.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Cheers for the tips guys.

I tried to try the lens again today on a tripod, but it won't focus at all now, seems it's jammed as turning the focus ring in M mode doesn't budge anything, it's stuck at 0.6m.

Seems the lens is broken, I asked seller about return for refund.

I tested the camera with a Helios 44-2 I know is sharp, just to be sure.

The light was crap but the camera produces decent results, I doubt my NEX is much better in this light. No PP, f8:









And after fixing contrast and sharpening:

[stingOM]

May be you got a bad copy. I have one and used it on the 5D. I was not disappointed, and certainly the photos look way sharper than yours on the FF?

[Katastrofo]

Yes, perhaps a bad copy. I recommend the nifty-fifty, EF 50/1.8II. Fast autofocus (on my EOS In) and sharp as hell.

If you look around, you can get if for <100 bucks, too.

[visualopsins]

Another body or two costs less than one quality zoom.

Purchase a couple of used 5D classics, for example, then wear three cameras with three fast primes, say 35 & 135mm on 5Ds, 50mm on 450D -- you get backup cameras, you get prime lens quality & distinctions into photos...