• 03-16-2011, 02:07 AM
    maplestreet
    Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
    Hello and greetings from Las Vegas my friends!

    I'm up here with on vacation with the family and have been getting some pretty good shots so far. No CF slot on the laptop and I forgot my 5in1 so I'll have to wait till I get home to share any.

    Quick question though. As you can imagine, as I walk around Vegas I'm seeing a lot of nice cameras being toted around by other visitors. I have stopped to talk to a couple and a common thread I'm seeing bringing them all together is this lens.
    http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._5_5_6_IS.html
    Literally I have seen atleast 10 people walking around with EOS model canons and 8 maybe 9 of them had this lense on their camera.

    What do you guys think of that lens? Is it really that great of a walk around lens? The one guy I spoke to was from Korea (he spoke english) and he swore by the thing.

    Just curious. I'm using something similar but from the ultrasonic line as my walk around and I'm just wondering if I picked the wrong lens.

    Ok off to play some poker, wish me luck!
  • 03-16-2011, 08:39 AM
    Photo-John
    Re: Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
    You're using the 28-135mm IS? That's an interesting lens. It's been around a long time - since before digital SLRs - as has this site. If you read the Canon 28-135mm IS user reviews from before the digital era, they are overwhelmingly positive. But after we get well into digital SLRs being the standard, the positive reviews decline. One obvious reason is that the crop factor of APS-C sensor cameras eliminates the wide end of that lens. But there also seems to be an optical issue. From the the user reviews it appears that the optics on that lens were fine for film cameras but not so great for digital sensors.

    So should you change lenses? You could. Would it drastically change your photos - other than having a real wide-angle, probably not. I used the 28-135mm for years with digital SLRs and made plenty of money with it. Eventually it got pretty beat up and I gave it to Photo-Dad. Just because a bunch of other people have something you don't doesn't mean you need to change. Don't change anything unless it's getting in your way. And if you do decide to replace the 28-135mm with another long zoom, I'd recommend the 18-200mm IS - that's the lens that *I* swear by :)
  • 03-16-2011, 10:34 PM
    maplestreet
    Re: Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Photo-John
    You're using the 28-135mm IS? That's an interesting lens. It's been around a long time - since before digital SLRs - as has this site. If you read the Canon 28-135mm IS user reviews from before the digital era, they are overwhelmingly positive. But after we get well into digital SLRs being the standard, the positive reviews decline. One obvious reason is that the crop factor of APS-C sensor cameras eliminates the wide end of that lens. But there also seems to be an optical issue. From the the user reviews it appears that the optics on that lens were fine for film cameras but not so great for digital sensors.

    So should you change lenses? You could. Would it drastically change your photos - other than having a real wide-angle, probably not. I used the 28-135mm for years with digital SLRs and made plenty of money with it. Eventually it got pretty beat up and I gave it to Photo-Dad. Just because a bunch of other people have something you don't doesn't mean you need to change. Don't change anything unless it's getting in your way. And if you do decide to replace the 28-135mm with another long zoom, I'd recommend the 18-200mm IS - that's the lens that *I* swear by :)
    Well thanks for giving me instant buyers remorse John! Haha just kidding. Thank you very much for your response and input. I wasn't exactly going to buy that other lens just because other people had it, it was just one of those things where you see a lot of other people using similar equipment (different from your own) and you start to wonder if you are the smartest guy in the room or the biggest sucker... :thumbsup:

    This 28-135 lens seems to be fine for me with my current skill level (beginner at best). As I learn and improve I'll purchase and try many different lenses so I'm just trying to gather all the information I can. I wish I had found this site before I bought that particular lens so I could have gotten your input but I still feel comfortable about the amount of research I did prior to buying. I honestly hadn't heard those complaints about the lens but what you are saying certainly makes sense. One of my first thoughts with this lens was that my shots were not as wide as I expected them to be given the specs.


    I will definitely Just to confirm, is this the lens you are talking about?
    http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._5_5_6_IS.html

    Thanks again for your help. I'm very greatful to have people how know what they are talking about available to answer some of my questions!

    Bert