Worst EF Lens?

<p>So, which cheap lenses give consistently dreamy, heavily vignetted, and/or glow-y photos? Lots of people work to get sharp lenses with great IQ, but has anyone stumbled on amusingly bad lenses?</p>

<p>The only possible choice is one made to do something like that, the 135mm soft-focus lens. Otherwise, if you want glow, you'll have to go to an old Leica or, even better, an old Leica clone. ;)</p>

<p>You know, you'd better be smiling when you post something like this here.</p>

<p>The EF 135 2.8 SF used to be one of my fav lenses: pin sharp normally and dreamy, glowing and soft with spherical aberration dialed in. I don't recall vignetting problems unless you stacked filters or installed an over sized hood.</p>

I was thinking of an old Soligor telephoto zoom that I used to have back in the day. It made anything close up look like a hallmark card. That lens is

long gone. I may get a cheap used third party zoom and goof up the front element.

<p>What was that junky "kit" zoom from the '90s, the EF 35-80 or something? <br /> I would throw the EF 50 1.8 into the discussion too, because I have to, with the 50 1.4 a close 2nd.<br>

(One would have to be very naive though to "stumble upon" these two lenses, so my "answer" may not fit this thread to a T.)</p>

<blockquote>

<p>So, which cheap lenses give consistently dreamy, heavily vignetted, and/or glow-y photos?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Well, not exactly cheap, but shooting the EF 50mm f/1.4 USM wide open will produce exactly the look you're looking for. Even better: The discontinued EF 50mm f/1.0 L USM lens!</p>

<p>That said, all EF lenses are pretty modern, multi-coated lenses.</p>

Lensbaby specializes in this kind of thing.

<p>I doubt any modern lens is that bad. Even the cheapest 3rd party lens for EOS won't provide that look.</p>

<p>Lensbaby is one alternative. Another might be an old manual focus "generic" 35mm lens, though even with that you might need to take it apart and reverse a few elements.</p>

<p>Of course the easiest option is "PhotoShop". See below</p><div></div>

My Opteka 500/8 mirror might win.

 

(with my 1988 EF 35-70 as runner up)

 

In my collection these are the worst.

 

M.

<p>Get an old lens and smear the front element round the edges with vaseline.</p>

<p>The worst EF lenses are the ones I don't have. :-)</p>

<p>The worst EF lens I have used is the Canon 28-80 Mark III that was sold as a kit with the EOS 300. Poor contrast at any aperture, soft wide open and stopped down, but almost useable at 28 mm stopped down. And to top it off, flismy and nasty build quality.<br>

The worst thing about it though was that is wasn't quite bad enough to be useful as a special effects lens. A totally charmless lens in every respect.</p>

<p>I am trying to avoid the lenses that are just plain bad. I may try the sharpy and scotch tape trick on a suitable cheap zoom.</p>

<p>Old 35-70, 35-80, 28-80, 28-90... kit lenses are bad, for some reason I've tried many of them. But as Geoff says, they're mostly just annoying and without charm. A bit "better" with 35mm sensor when you get all the vignetting and warts.<br>

You could try some very cheap off-brand manual focus lenses with an adapter and shoot wide open. Old zooms tend to be bad but if you're after a character of any kind, then primes it is.</p>

<p>I had the Sigma 17-35 f2.8-4 EX DG for three days before taking it back. May have been a bad sample but I don't care for soft corners and ghosting. Wasn;t all that cheap and had no other redeeming qualities, so it got returned and I left the shop with the 17-40 f4L I originally went in for.<br>

Which since getting my hands on a 18-55 f3.5-5.6 IS has been sitting on the shelf more and more.</p>

<p>the worst ive had are the 18-55 and the 17-85(only on the high megapixel cameras, it was great when i was only shooting 10mp) but neither will soot your needs, check out the lensbaby system, they have cool dreamy optics that can be dropped right into the lens</p>