Magic Lenses

[Andy Stringer]

I vote for the TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II. I know it's just optical physics rather than magic, but it can do amazing things with the focal plane that ordinary lenses can't.

[Will Thompson]

The EF 200mm f2 L IS USM is just such a lens! It is a 200 f2, 280 f2.8, 400 f4, & to date the only 5 stop IS lens that Canon sells!

Will T.

[DavidEccleston]

B & H has a 200 f/1.8 on their used site... perhaps that would make the owners of the f/2.0 jealous. (perhaps not... I have no idea what it's IQ is like)

[peety3]

B & H has a 200 f/1.8 on their used site... perhaps that would make the owners of the f/2.0 jealous. (perhaps not... I have no idea what it's IQ is like)

Bryan's review says that it's massively "front-heavy", making it awkward to hold. It's also not going to have the amazing IS unit found in the 200/2. Someone else said it's a five-stop unit, and although I think Canon claims it to be four-stop, I have several shots for which IS was quite the savior, including one of the Seattle Space Needle, shot from 1.25 miles away at 1.3x crop, with a shutter speed of 1/13 and I find it to be a rather impressive shot. If I remember my math correctly, that's 4.5 stops worth.

[Scott Stephen]

My 70-200 2.8L IS mk2 made images like I'd never seen, and could not get from my other lenses, and it is what tipped the scale and made me go full frame, really. I wanted to use it a lot more, but the effectively 112mm "wide end" on a crop body was awkward and not practical for casual/general shooting.

I am also really loving my new Sigma 35mm f/1.4 "Art". Excellent color, contrast and sharpness in a very usable focal length. I really like how at 35mm you still get a very usable DOF wide open at f/1.4, so you can easily get whole people and even little groups of them into focus at f/1.4, in dim lighting, without flash, and without high ISO's. I pull the images off the card and say WOW every time, so I think I am getting my money's worth.

[Thom Deevers]

85 1.2 for me.