your 'regret' lens

<p>Purchased the Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 VC a few months back and have been disappointed with the IQ. Wish I would've just splurged for the Canon 17-55mm or would've waited for the new Sigma version.</p>

<p>Since I've bought a used 70-200 2.8 IS, I have not used my 70-300 IS once. Me thinks a Craigslist ad is gonna be placed soon. But then I worry about lugging around a 3+ lb lens around ALL the time.</p>

<p>In my youth, I spent a day with money in my pockets to buy a long focus lens to supplement my 50mm f/1.8 that came on my Canon FX. I drove all over Bergen County, NJ looking for a long Canon lens. I smacked a horrendous dent into my Dad's 1965 Buick Invicta and came home with a Canon branded 100 - 200 zoom. I could have done better by attaching a Coke bottle to bottom to the camera. I used this piece of crap to photograph Apollo launches to the Moon from various locations near Cape Canaveral. The memory of this lens brings back many memories of bad car rides with six guys stuffed in Mustangs and fast back VWs. The lens (and camera) was stolen from my Haight Ashbury apartment and was replaced by a stunning Canon 100mm f/2.0 and a Canon FTb with the ubiquitous (and very good) 50mm f/1.8.</p>

<p>surprising so many people didn't like their 50mm's. <br>

what could be the reason? isn't it supposed to be a super low light n convenient one size fits all miracle lens?<br>

about ultra wides...looks like you buy it and then you instantly know you don't like it...and you sell it in 2 days flat. but then why do you buy it in the first place. a mystry. </p>

<p>I have 2 lens' that I regret buying. About 5 years ago I purchased a 28-135 IS and it was so bad, I refused to sell it to anyone. I simply dropped it in my trash can. I also have the 50 1.4 that I really don't like. Although I get good pictures with it, the focal length is what I have the problem with. I rather use my 35 1.4L on my full frame. Also in 2003 I purchased a original digital rebel (6.3 pixel which I loved) with a Sigma 70-300. The lens cost me a 100.00 but it sucked. When I sold the Digital Rebel, I threw in the Sigma. v/r Buffdr</p>

<p>My 80-200mm f2.8. It was just so heavy to use all day that I sold it in favour of the 70-300mm VR plus the olympus 50-200mm f2.8 lens.</p>

<p>This trading gear thing is quite funny...<br>

i've not bought much digital gear...maybe couple of digicams and once a cheap dslr....but in film days, i used to buy one, shoot with it for some time and then will move on to another one...<br>

i started with Nikon FM10...traded it with a F60...traded that with FM2....traded that with F80...traded that with FM3....and tradded my FM3 with a digital...canon powershot G2...which was traded with a rebel 400D....which was traded with a LX3....which i've been very loyal to...2 full years and still going strong. <br>

Fuji F30 has been the only camera i have bought without exchanging it with some other camera. <br>

And the funny thing is, all these 'trade' years, i've not been particularly interested in photography...mostly in gears....i hardly shot any pictures....it was with the LX3 that i started clicking a lot and eventually got serious about picture making. <br>

Same story with the lenses: i have used 50 1.8, 28-105 and a 85 1.8.</p>

<p>My two zooms.<br>

I either max or min them out. Meaning, if I have a 17 - 55 I'll use it as a 17 or a 55 - nothing in between.<br>

I'm old school - I use my legs for "zooming" - plus, my memory is going at my age (45) and I forget I have a zoom. As a kid, all I had were fixed focal lengths - in the snow - uphill - both ways - with an onion on my belt ....</p>

<p>The sigma 120-400mm lens I purchased a few years ago. It wasn't on my camera for 2 days when I started getting error messages. I was using a Canon dig. Rebel at the time. I sent the lens to Sigma for the adjustment and it came back a week later. The lens worked fine but I soon realized it just wasn't a very good product. I ended up selling it. The lessen learned for me was stick with Canon lenses on a Canon body. I've never regretted any Canon lenses I purchased since then.</p>

<p>Sigma 170-500mm F5-6.3 APO DG. Probably as sharp as a champagne bottle mounted on the camera. Returned it the next day and bought the Canon 400mm F5.6 prime.</p>

<p>Tamron 14mm 2.8, I've used it maybe twice...I keep thinking, "maybe someday".</p>

<p>Canon EF 75-300mm f4-5.6 IS USM<br>

This was my first lens purchase after I bought a Rebel body on ebay. Together they were my transition from film to digital. I was starting to hate digital, until I borrowed an "L" lens from a friend, then it dawned on me it was the first lens. In clear conscience I could not sell it, so I took it apart and got some satisfaction from it.</p>

<p><strong><em>Canon 50mm 1.8</em></strong> (metal mount) and the <strong><em>Tamron Aspherical 28-200mm 3.8-5.6</em></strong>...... the 50mm was my first lens so i had nothing to compare it to. The Tamron gives horrible split-toning with digital.</p>

<p>17-85mm. Chromatic distortion, barrel distortion, pincushion distortion, you name it, it distorted. Got rid of it and got a 17-55mm f2.8, which is an awesome lens. If I need the reach, I grab my second camera, which has a 70-200mm f2.8.</p>

<p>Mixed feelings about the regrets - probably the fish-eye ultra-wide angle that I bought for a song from a cash-strapped fellow starving college student back in the early 1970's. But I was starving too and the song was a heck of a lotta money for me back then. My gawd I burned up some film uselessly in the first two weeks I owned it. I don't recall the exact lens - probably a 10, 12, or 14 mm that fit my Minolta SRT-101's.</p>

<p>I rarely used it at all after that and lugged it around for years until it was stolen along with the rest of my gear on a business trip between Philadelphia and Gothenburg, Sweden. That is probably my real regret. I was young and stupid and when boarding the plane and told I could only have one carry on bag I kept my brief case with work and reading material in it and gave them my camera case to stow in baggage.</p>

<p>The camera case arrived at my hotel 2 days later completely empty. That was the last time I ever checked camera gear with an airline.</p>

<p>Not sure I ever used it properly, but the non-regret part is that I have a couple of silly party group photos of college friends that I otherwise do not have shots of together and some of the folks are now gone.</p>

<p>My Canon 50 1.4 is excellent...in every respect...not a Zeiss, but as good as a Canon can be.</p>

<p> to <a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/user?user_id=193286">Andre Vallejo</a>,<br>

We're still waiting to hear your regret....</p>

<p>I once replaced my Canon EF-s 18-55mm with a EF-s 18-55mm IS thinking "IS" means better quality. Waste of money IMHO but I didn't know any better back then until I discovered L-glass. Nowadays I use a 17-40mm L, 24-105mm L, 70-400mm f4 L, 50mm 1.4 and a Lensbaby Composer with no further regret.</p>

<p>For me it's the 145mm soft focus lens. The effect is too much even on the lightest setting.</p>

<p>I never got a canon lens I did not like. But there was an 80mm Schneider XL, for 4x5, which was a huge disappointment. I expected something much better than the 65mm Rodenstock I was using for an interior project, and got a lens which was much worse.</p>

<p>Canon 24-105 f/4 L</p>

<p>Great build, useful focal range for me, but I was just never happy with this lens, even after I sent it to Canon for adjustment. I replaced it with a Canon 17-55 f/2.8 and I'm happy now. The images are much sharper.</p>

<p>Nikon 16-85mm after 3 years I see that the most polibalent lens are the less atractive for me. i love my 50mm and some zooms like sigma 70-200mm.</p>

<p>Huh? Nikon 16-85mm? I thought this was a Canon forum....</p>

<p>Ah,ok...17-35 2.8L. Not exactly a regret, but it let me down...soft. I sold it and bought a Zeiss Distagon 21mm ZE. No regrets on this one!</p>

<p>I regret every Sigma lens I ever had.</p>

<p>28f1/8 they couldn't "upgrade" the chip when I got a 5D.</p>

<p>30mm 1.4 had front focus.</p>

<p>I will never get Sigma again.</p>

<p>My 50mm canon 1.4 is not the sharpest, but it works fine for me otherwise.</p>