Canon EF 35mm F / 1.4L II USM, Lens

Good colour and contrast and fast focus. And it's really bright wide open. Shallow depth of field was great for isolating subject from background and quality of background blur beats anything else I have used. 35mm on APS-C (Eos 90D) is perfect for people shots. Really good results with flash (580EX) too. It's basically awesome.Cons? Need to be careful with focus with such a shallow depth of field and it's surprisingly heavy like a lot of pro kit And it's too expensive for me to justify buying one to keep :-(

A remarkable piece of glass, and still worth the investment!

I wanted to follow up from a review I posted a few years ago. Once again, this is a remarkable lens. As many have stated, this lens is sharp wide open with great AF performance. “It’s built like a tank where it counts; on the inside.” ...Roger Cicala. And the Blue Spectrum Refractive Optics element is not a marketing hype. The Canon 35mm II has an incredible image quality that sets itself apart from many other L lenses that I’ve used on my 5DS R. Not only do I love using the lens wide open, but I’m constantly using the lens stopped down for nature landscapes and blue hour cityscapes. With GREAT micro contrast and sharpness, this lens delivers minute details that just pop out across the entire frame. From the available 1.4 aperture to stopped down, the incredible ... MoreI wanted to follow up from a review I posted a few years ago. Once again, this is a remarkable lens. As many have stated, this lens is sharp wide open with great AF performance. “It’s built like a tank where it counts; on the inside.” ...Roger Cicala. And the Blue Spectrum Refractive Optics element is not a marketing hype. The Canon 35mm II has an incredible image quality that sets itself apart from many other L lenses that I’ve used on my 5DS R. Not only do I love using the lens wide open, but I’m constantly using the lens stopped down for nature landscapes and blue hour cityscapes. With GREAT micro contrast and sharpness, this lens delivers minute details that just pop out across the entire frame. From the available 1.4 aperture to stopped down, the incredible image quality, and the versatile focal length, the Canon 35mm II has proven to be a remarkable piece of glass and a staple in my photography... well worth the investment.

Awesome lens

I got this lens to replace a Canon wide-angle RF zoom that had more color fringing and distortion than I felt was appropriate for an L lens. This lens is awesome! I use it with an R camera & and an EF-RF adapter. It is fast, barrel distortion is very well controlled, and color fringing is practically non-existent. So glad I picked this up!

Canon's Best L-Series Lens

This lens is phenomenal, there are no other words. Read Canon's specs and one quickly sees that the internal elements are special. The results are some of the best pictures possible. Focus is lightening quick and tack-sharp every time. At wide apertures, the bokeh is gloriously pleasing and easily creates a nice contextual photo expected of a lens in this focal length. It is wonderful for landscapes, full body portraits and general photography. It has become my go-to lens on my second full-frame camera, my primary camera being a Canon 24-70 f2.8 LII. I don't leave home without this lens. It is expensive, much more than Sigma's offering, but so worth the extra investment. After trying the 35mm Sigma Art lens, which didn't play nice with the 5D4, this lens was ... MoreThis lens is phenomenal, there are no other words. Read Canon's specs and one quickly sees that the internal elements are special. The results are some of the best pictures possible. Focus is lightening quick and tack-sharp every time. At wide apertures, the bokeh is gloriously pleasing and easily creates a nice contextual photo expected of a lens in this focal length. It is wonderful for landscapes, full body portraits and general photography. It has become my go-to lens on my second full-frame camera, my primary camera being a Canon 24-70 f2.8 LII. I don't leave home without this lens. It is expensive, much more than Sigma's offering, but so worth the extra investment. After trying the 35mm Sigma Art lens, which didn't play nice with the 5D4, this lens was purchased instead -- no regrets especially since it is also fully weather-sealed. Many reviewers say that this is Canon's best lens. This reviewer agrees.

Exceptional lens!

I've had my new Canon 35mm f/14.II lens now for about 3 weeks and it's amazing! Of course, you'd expect it to be really good - given that it's from Canon, it's an L-series lens & it's expensive. Before purchasing, I read every review & watched every YouTube video I could find about this new lens, as well as the reviews on the Canon 35mm f/1.4L and the Sigma 35mm Art lenses. This was a big investment for me and was really concerned about parting with the extra cash....but ultimately came to my own conclusion that it was the right lens for me. Here are some of the key points that led to my rationale: Canon has better resale value than Sigma; I don't like the idea of having to purchase a seperate calibration tool for the Sigma lens and having to adjust it away from ... MoreI've had my new Canon 35mm f/14.II lens now for about 3 weeks and it's amazing! Of course, you'd expect it to be really good - given that it's from Canon, it's an L-series lens & it's expensive. Before purchasing, I read every review & watched every YouTube video I could find about this new lens, as well as the reviews on the Canon 35mm f/1.4L and the Sigma 35mm Art lenses. This was a big investment for me and was really concerned about parting with the extra cash....but ultimately came to my own conclusion that it was the right lens for me. Here are some of the key points that led to my rationale: Canon has better resale value than Sigma; I don't like the idea of having to purchase a seperate calibration tool for the Sigma lens and having to adjust it away from factory settings (I read that many Sigma owners were having to do this to address focusing issues and it didn't always fix their issues); I didn't think Canon would create a version II of this L-series lens unless they were able to offer some meaningful improvements. All that said, I didn't take time to play with those other lenses myself. After ordering the lens, I was still a bit restless over my decision to spend so much money on this lens. However, I can now share with confidence that I'd do it again (putting into perspective that this is clearly a luxury item and takes a back seat to taking care of my family first). I've used it indoors in place of my 50L to address tight spaces and I just completed a family photo shoot this week. I changed to more of a lifestyle type photography approach for this shoot and these are some of the best pictures I've ever taken. In fact, the family told me the same. I've taken pictures for their kids and entire family before, but they noticed a difference with this latest shoot. The lens resolution & color are amazing. Even unedited raw images are quite impressive. Working with a 35mm on a full-frame, like my 5D mark III is a great experience.

Great Lens for video creators.

Ive had the lens on my Canon M50 for a couple of weeks now and have shot about 10-15 hours of video. Very impressed with the auto focus and the low-light capabilities of this lens. Imaging is amazingly clear. Ive been shooting almost entirely in full auto mode and the lens seems to love it. Focus, depth of field, and light adjustment has been very nearly perfect. Focal length is pretty amazing. I can get clearly focused shots on smaller objects within 10-12 of the lens. My only complaint is that its touted as a wide angle lens and that is stretching it a little. As far as the amount of subject and background I can get in a shot within 4-6, Im pretty unimpressed. I really dont think its much better than the kit lens. Its still A great lens for the money if youre ... MoreIve had the lens on my Canon M50 for a couple of weeks now and have shot about 10-15 hours of video. Very impressed with the auto focus and the low-light capabilities of this lens. Imaging is amazingly clear. Ive been shooting almost entirely in full auto mode and the lens seems to love it. Focus, depth of field, and light adjustment has been very nearly perfect. Focal length is pretty amazing. I can get clearly focused shots on smaller objects within 10-12 of the lens. My only complaint is that its touted as a wide angle lens and that is stretching it a little. As far as the amount of subject and background I can get in a shot within 4-6, Im pretty unimpressed. I really dont think its much better than the kit lens. Its still A great lens for the money if youre working in a fairly stationary environment and just looking for talking head shots within 3-4 of the lens.

Great and easy buy!

I rented this lens before purchasing and was surprised at how easy the process to purchase was. It was packaged incredibly well and looked brand new! The lens performs perfectly. The shots are clean and crisp. The spotless equipment lensrentals carries is immaculate. Not to mention, the customer service is top notch!

I'm in love....

The 35/1.4L II is overbuilt, scary sharp corner to corner wide open, has nice snappy contrast, and lightning fast focus on my EOS R or EOS 5DmkIIIIt is also a bit large... and a bit weighty, but there's a price to pay for near perfection.The only thing that Canon could improve is to add image stabilization.When wide open, there is a small zone of nisen-bokeh (double line bokeh) that exists, depening on the focused distance, and the distance to the background. It appears when the lens is focused very close, and the background is also very close. It also diminishes to near zero when the lens is stopped down even to only f/2 or so. So, if you are the type of photographer that would shoot, say, a close up face, the out of focus hairs on the side of the head may ... MoreThe 35/1.4L II is overbuilt, scary sharp corner to corner wide open, has nice snappy contrast, and lightning fast focus on my EOS R or EOS 5DmkIIIIt is also a bit large... and a bit weighty, but there's a price to pay for near perfection.The only thing that Canon could improve is to add image stabilization.When wide open, there is a small zone of nisen-bokeh (double line bokeh) that exists, depening on the focused distance, and the distance to the background. It appears when the lens is focused very close, and the background is also very close. It also diminishes to near zero when the lens is stopped down even to only f/2 or so. So, if you are the type of photographer that would shoot, say, a close up face, the out of focus hairs on the side of the head may show a bit of double line nisen-bokeh. The work around is to stop down to f/2 or shoot bald heads.....At any sort of normal working distance, the wedding photographer will get pretty gosh darn good looking bokeh. Maybe not Leica pre-Asph 35 Summicron bokeh, but really nice.I find the EOS R lens corrections right on the money, but also except for corner light fall off at larger f/stops, the corrections do take away just a bit of the sharpness edge this lens has. Its native, non-corrected images are near perfect anyway, so you might want to experiment with correction settings to suit your expectations.Coupled with the 100mm f/2.8L II, you have a near perfect set of lenses that are absolutely sharp. If you can't get a sharp image with either of those, its your fault.

My Instant Best Optical Friend

A long-term commissioned assignment spurred accelerated upgrading/rounding out of my prime lens arsenal with the purchase of this lens along with the Canon EF 24mm f1.4L II USM (reviewed elsewhere on the B&H site). My testing did show Sigma’s 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art lens to be a very capable optical package at about half the price, but the new Canon 35mm won my heart on several counts. Though both contenders yield blazingly sharp images with healthy contrast even in backlit situations, I find that Canon’s blue spectrum refractive optics makes a noticeable difference in conferring a little extra “snap” to images without compromising their natural feel; color/tonal gradations are simply gorgeous. Other deciding factors include weather sealing (absent in the Sigma lens) ... MoreA long-term commissioned assignment spurred accelerated upgrading/rounding out of my prime lens arsenal with the purchase of this lens along with the Canon EF 24mm f1.4L II USM (reviewed elsewhere on the B&H site). My testing did show Sigma’s 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art lens to be a very capable optical package at about half the price, but the new Canon 35mm won my heart on several counts. Though both contenders yield blazingly sharp images with healthy contrast even in backlit situations, I find that Canon’s blue spectrum refractive optics makes a noticeable difference in conferring a little extra “snap” to images without compromising their natural feel; color/tonal gradations are simply gorgeous. Other deciding factors include weather sealing (absent in the Sigma lens) plus an extra bit of aperture range down to f/22 for controlling depth of focus, as opposed to Sigma’s f/16. Beautiful bokeh! Comparatively iffy shooting situations are shrugged off by fast, quiet and reliable autofocusing. The Canon’s slightly greater bulk and length makes the lens feel more like an extension of myself relative to my experience with the Sigma 35mm, and I can easily dismiss paying a bit more for larger front filters as a minor annoyance. Having repeatedly proven its mettle, often under very demanding circumstances, this lens has become my best optical friend.

Oh my gosh! The process

Oh my gosh! The process was SO seamless. I had to call to rent my lens because I needed over night shipping and the website was glitching. They helped me, emailed me my cart, and I was able to check out super easy. Then the lens was amazing! Came well packaged and was in perfect condition. When it came time to send it back, they literally gave me everything I needed down to the packaging tape. Like whoa. Such a simple process and I was incredibly pleased with my first time renting ever. Way to go lens rental!