Digital SLR Reviews Blog

Posts Tagged ‘135mm Lens’

Caselogic SLRC 205 SLR Camera Sling Black

SLR camera sling wears like a backpack but allows for instant access to your SLR and accessoriesHolds SLR camera body with attached standard lensPatent pending hammock system suspends your SLR above the bottom of case, providing superior impact protectionLarge zippered compartment stores an additional lens or flashThree additional zippered pockets store memory cards and other small itemsAdjustable shoulder strap with waist strap prevents the sling from jostling around during activityMemory foam on interior helps protect your delicate LCD screenIndustrial strength hook and loop strap holds your tripod

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Love it, though some adjustment is required.
I spent days looking for a sling bag before I bought this one. I travel light, but have a Canon 5D, plus a 28-135mm lens and a 70-300mm telephoto lens. I wanted a sling pack to slide my small amount of other personal stuff into while traveling in (potentially shady) areas (and non-shady ones).

Verdict: I love this bag. It is so awesome. The hammock is so cool. But there are some other things to consider:

1. It is going to be very annoying to constantly stop, slide the bag around and take photos. The bag needs some breaking in at the beginning; it is very stiff (and that is a GOOD thing). If buying it for a vacation, take it out for a romp BEFORE your trip to soften it up and get used to the maneuvers required to load and unload your camera. I only say that because it has an usual design.

2. The height of my 5D (from the bottom, set down, to the top near where the flash module would hook into) seems uncomfortable fit-wise into the hammock compartment. I am not sure if an EOS 1- or 5D with one of those battery pack grippers would be able to fit into this compartment. My 5d JUST fits. However, a camera with a full telephoto lens might fit in here without disassembly. There is a lot of space in the hammock for a longer lens than my 28-135mm lens.

3. In order to use this, it is really optimal to remove any other protection: ie, camera armor (which I had) and the strap. To keep the strap on while storing the camera in the bag is to add serious and repetitive frustration to your life when you unload- and load the camera back into the bag. There is just not space for the strap in the compartment.

4. There is limited space for much else if you have a telephoto & default lens. The small side pocket has space for my mini tripod, my folded strap and a few lens caps. The flat pocket over the camera hammock fits something flat, like a manual and some papers or whatever. There are a few other nooks and crannies but don’t expect this to double as a backpack for personal items if you have a lot of stuff. It will fit a camera, a manual, a mini tripod, some other various doo-dads, 2 lenses (one on, one off), and a small variety of whatever else.

Regardless of the above items, I think this is a fantastic bag and is totally worth the money. I hope it lasts long enough to carry my camera to the Southwestern USA, Denmark, Norway, Bermuda and throughout my winter of snowshoeing and winter sports! The padding is awesome and it is very sturdy. When this bag dies, I hope I can buy another one. Perfect for an on-the-go photographer.

4 Stars Perfect for travel
Fits my Canon 5DMarkII with a 28-80 lens attached in the clever hammock compartment. Room for 70-300 lens AND a 420Ex flash in side pouch, and a couple of filters, etc. in the small front pouch. Attaching a Canon monopod to the outside, while slightly awkward, works well enough. Could probably fit a couple more pouches on it somewhere, but at some point you start entering backpack territory, I guess. I really like this sling.

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Canon EF S 17 85mm f 4 5 6 Image Stabilized USM SLR Lens for EOS Digital SLRs

Canon EF-S 17-85MM f4-5.6 IS USM Lens is possibly the best single lens to own with your Canon Digital Rebel SLR Camera. Equivalent to a 28-135mm lens, this new EF-S lens brings true wide-angle to tele coverage to EOS 20D, 30D, 40D and Digital Rebel shooters. It has Canon’s Image Stabilization system, allowing safe hand-holding at speeds up to three stops slower than otherwise possible. And of course, it’s optically optimized for digital SLRs. A ring-type USM means both fast and silent AF, as well as full-time manual focus when in the AF mode. Circular aperture design — natural highlights, even stopped down two stops Non-rotating front element; lens length does not change during zooming EF-S lens mount — exclusively for EOS 20D and Digital Rebel bodies Filter Size – 67mm Maximum Diameter x Length, Weight – 3.1 x 3.6, 16.8 ounces Only compatible with the 40D, 30D, 20D

User Ratings and Reviews

1 Star After 40 Years In Photography: My First Canon Failure
As a professional photographer and decades-long Canon camera and Canon lens consumer/enthusiast, this over-priced boondoggle fails on many counts.

My specialties include producing the Driving & Discovering Hawaii photo guidebooks that contain lots of landscapes and seascapes. There is lens barreling at the wider angles that is so bad I thought something was wrong with my particular lens, but come to find out, they’re all like this.

At wide angle settings you can forget about having a straight/level horizon, and the wider the setting the more preposterous this aberration becomes. Worst of all, this is a CANON lens, and a high-priced one at that, so it amazes me that this company would actually produce a lens of such abysmal quality.

In the old 35mm SLR days, photo magazines would scream blue-bloody murder if they uncovered problems like these in lenses of that period. Cheap, off-brand lenses of the day were vilified for problems not as bad as what we now have here in this present day Canon “premium-class” lens.

Also a big problem at wide angle is STRONG green/magenta fringing along the edges of objects, even at 24mm, which worsens as you go wider. There is a software “fix” for this fringing, but it should not even be present to begin with. To have to use software to fix an aberration in an expensive piece of equipment from a top-rated company is insulting the consumer, and should be a major embarrassment for Canon…but the folks at Canon seem unfazed.

I purchased this lens to give me an all-around tool for shooting many different kinds of travel-related photos, but it fails miserably for me and my particular needs, as I use wide angle for 75% of my shots.

ADDITIONAL PROBLEMS since this review was written: While in the middle of shooting a wedding with this nightmare lens, my Canon xti froze up and flashed me an Error 99 message. Via forums, I found that an error 99 usually signals a problem with the gold contacts in the lens, and I cleaned them diligently, but the problem persists. I also use a Canon EFS 70-300 mm and a Canon macro EFS 60mm, and the xti works fine with both of them.

Do as much research online as you can before considering purchasing this lens.

3 Stars Not a bad lens but there are probably better buys out there
This lens was one of the first lenses I bought and, more than anything, has taught me the value of extensively researching any lenses I buy. I bought this lens because it was a Canon and not because it was a great lens. If I had the opportunity to buy this again, I would definitely consider a different lens.

The good:

- This lens has a fairly respectable range (17-85mm)

- The construction feels solid

- USM is nice

- IS helps

The bad:

- The lens isn’t particularly sharp. I usually use this lens for every day shots or when I can only bring one lens with me and I am indoors. Other than that, I use other lenses even when they are less convenient due to their range because of their sharpness.

- There is no zoom lock. When moving the camera in between shots, the zoom frequently changes. Other lenses in this price range have the ability to lock the zoom at least to some extent.

- The IS isn’t enough to compensate for the f/5.6 at 85mm. It helps, but I would much rather have a faster lens.

I’ve borrowed a Tamron SP AF 17-50mm f/2.8 XR DI-II LD Aspherical from time to time and, while it has less range, it is sharper and faster. If you don’t need the whole range of this lens, I’d definitely consider the Tamron.

5 Stars Great Lens !
This lens is a great lens not only because it is extremely versatile in its range going from a wide angle to a telephoto but also because I found the quality of the pictures that I got from it to be excellent.The Image Stabilizer is a good tool to have in situations where there is not a lot of light.You can drop your shutter speed down,have enough light for a good exposure, and not have an out of focus picture. I would highly recommend this lens. I have a 70-200 L series Canon lens that I am very happy with because of it’s high optic quality, but I have no problem at all, and all the confidence in the world using this “S” series lens in any situation that I feel to be appropriate at the time.

3 Stars Mechanical problems with 17-85mm
The lens was bought in July, 2008. I have used the lens as my primary lens since I got it. Overall I’m more than pleased with the picture quality that the lens provides. This review however is about construction quality.

On a family mountain hiking trip I shot some pictures to document our successful hike. I used the zoom as normal and shot the pictures I wanted. When the kids had been refueled we started to run down the hiking path with the camera securely placed in my backpack. Naturally the decline was of the bumpy sort, but still I was quite disturbed when (at night) the zoom was no longer working. It was fixed on 17 mm and did not move.

If I had put my lens through some serious direct blows I could have understood why the zoom didn’t work anymore. But laying still in my backpack and suddenly malfunctioning is not good.

Unfortunately I bought it at Amazon and not in my home country, Norway. Having bought it in Norway the repair wouldn’t have cost me a dime. Now, 14 months after purchase I have to pay the equivalent of $180.

If the construction quality of my lens represents the general construction quality of the 17-85mm IS lens, I would NOT recommend bying it.

3 Stars Good features, not so great performance
This is a good lens, but not great. The construction and build quality are solid, and the lens feels heavy and sturdy. It has a useful range of 17-85 as well as IS and USM which makes for ideal “walkaround” lens. However, it is not very fast (4-5.6) which limits indoor, lowlight usage. IS certainly effective and useful and will help for lowlight photography, but not for stopping action.

Ultimately though, a lens is only as good as the photos it produces. Unfortunately, this lens (or perhaps my copy of it?) disappoints in that area. Comparing shots, the kit 17-55mm IS lens actually took sharper photos than this! I still have this lens with me, but more often than not I have been disappointed with the sharpness, especially in my landscape shots (even at higher f/8-10). Barrel distortion is also fairly obvious, even to the untrained eye. Buildings, towers and other tall structures will look concaved. This is less prevalent for smaller, shorter objects, but nonetheless there. Vignetting is not present in most cases, though it can creep in at the wide end with the addition of a polarizing filter.

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