I'm very excited to announce that I had the pleasure to be the first person in the world to test a new "L" zoom lens! Its still a prototype, but will be lunched in the following weeks. I received this lens two days ago and I have to say that it is an amazing lens.
So let's get started with all the details!
- The name of this lens is "Zoom Lens EF-S 28-135mm F 1:2.5 L II USM".
- This is the very first "L" lens made exclusivity for the APS-C sensors format (with 1.6x crop factor). I don't have any inside news to why this was done, but it will make a lot of people very happy. Especially me!
- The aperture maintains the value of 2.5 on all focal distances, which only makes it even great. A 2.5 F value at 135mm creates a bokeh that will make a lot of you F 1.0 fans really jealous! I mean it just fills your sensor with light like no other.
- The front element does not rotate while focusing so it's easy usable with polarizing filters. Also all the zooming process is made inside the lens and it's completely weather sealed. Thus it can be used in sub zero condition and in extremely hot ones just as good.
- So it's not a prime lens, it has zooming capability from 28mm to 135mm. It's not that wide for a crop format sensor, but it compensates giving the wide aperture.
- The model I received seems to have a type error as It says ESF instead of EF-S. I sent an e-mail to the producer advising them of this error. And guess what? They thanked me by letting me keep the one I received! Pretty nice! :)
- Also the rubber used for the zoom and focus ring is made from a high quality material.
- The image stabilizer does an awesome job! The difference between on and off is from 6 to 8 EV stops! But unlike other models out there on the market, this lens has only two option for the stabilizer: on or off.
- The manual to auto focus switch is just beneath the stabilizer switch. And on the same subject I have to add that the focusing is equipped with a brand new technology. Continue reading for more details.
- Ok, So I said that this lens has a brand new focusing technology. That's right! It has the new H (Hyper) Supersonic system. When you switch to auto focus and hit the shutter button you will notice that there's absolutely no sound coming out of the lens. The system is very fast also as it takes 0.1 seconds to focus from the minimum distance to infinity! That's unheard of! I mean it's amazing! No sound and no time wasted!
- And as I was telling you about the minimum focus distance... Well it's not that great... It can only focus from 0.45m (or 1.5ft) to infinity. Not that much, but it's acceptable.
- Continuing with the new technology, the lens has a tiny window where you can see the focus distance and the depth of field at a certain aperture. Where's the new technology you ask? Well this window is made of SDM - Slim Dense Material - which allows you to see the information from any angle and in any light conditions, even in complete darkness.
- And there's one more new aspect that need to be discussed. The lens hood. As you can see below, the lens hood that comes with this lens is white. Outside and inside. The producer says that this way even more light will available. It even acts like a circular polarizing filter. Taking about new stuff!
- OK, so till now I had only great news for you, but I gotta tell you the bad part also. As you might have notice, this lens seems to be for Canon, right? Well the lens mount says something different. The mount looks like a Nikon mount, doesn't it? I was extremely disappointed and called the manufacturer for clarification... They said that the Nikon users were so envy on the L lenses Canon has, so they decided to make it compatible also with Nikon users. Well this kind of a bad and good news, isn't it?...
- Two more things to add: the filter diameter is 77mm and the entire product is made in China.
- I have a couple of details to add. The build quality is excellent. You can drop from 1m (3.4ft) and it won't have a scratch on it. It's build to last for years for sure.
- The optical quality is a bit tricky to describe:
>First: it has no CA! Zero! Nothing! I searched for any signs of CA on all the pictures I took and didn't find anything! Taking about awesome!
>Second: the vignette... Is absolutely absent!
>Third: there are no geometric distortions, the output quality is perfect. At all focal distances! Is like taking pictures with your eyes. Can't really express this in words, but unfortunately I am not able to post any pictures take with this lens, so you just have to believe what I'm telling you.
>And fourth: the sharpness. This is the tricky part I was taking about. Well... it's as sharp as you eyes are. If you have a 20/20 vision then the lens has a perfect sharpness with perfect colors and incredible contrast. But if you're wearing eyeglasses, then this lens is as good as you can see with them. Why? We'll come to that in a bit...
- Did you had enough? Do you want to see this brand new lens I got? Do you? :) Then scroll to the picture below and enjoy!
And here's a picture of the lens's front element:
This is my brand new Lens Mug! Perfect for coffee, tea and other hot or cold beverages!
Yep! This was all just a big JOKE! :)
Please try not to take too seriously anything I wrote above! Please treat this as it is - a PRANK! :)
I had a lot of FUN writing this, so I hope you've enjoyed it just as much as I did!
This is what happens when one has time to do the thing one likes! :)
Cheerio! :-D
