Lens: Canon EF 28-70mm f3.5-4.5 – cult consumer classic

This 3x zoom was a step up from the EF 35-70mm f3.5-4.5 lens, and it has earned itself a cult following for it’s excellent image quality that’s consistently good at all apertures over the whole zoom range.

The Canon EOS system was introduced in 1987 with the EOS 650 and EOS 620. Fourteen lenses were listed in the catalogues: these are often referred to as the “launch” lenses.

Canon released three wide angle zoom lenses at launch, the EF 37-70, 35-105 and this lens the EF 28-70 f3.5-4.5. The 28-70 was in production for less than a year before being replaced by the EF 28-70 f3.5-4.5 II in June 1988. The two lenses are outwardly identical but reportedly have a slightly different optical formula (the rumour is the aspherical treatment was moved to a different element to improve performance). The II version has been highly regarded and developed somewhat of a cult status.

This is a review the original version of the EF 28-70 f3.5-4.5 lens, however the results are applicable to either lens and, if anything, the latter lens will be better.

Handling

The EF 28-70 f3.5-4.5 was a step above the EF 35-70 lens, offering a 2.5x zoom range and a 10 element 9 group design including an aspherical element. It is a two-touch lens with separate control rings for zoom and focus.

Like the majority of the launch lenses, the EF 28-70 F3.5-4.5 uses Canon’s original arc-form drive (AFD) motor so focussing is accurate and fast but audible. A switch allows changing between auto focus and manual.

The manual focusing ring is typical of AFD lenses: the movement has a dry, mechanical feel which is often described as gritty. However the AF is good so I never used MF.

The filter mount on the front of the lens rotates with focus and retracts with zoom into the lens body, which makes using polarising filters doubly difficult. (Note: do not use a wide mounted filter with this lens because it can become jammed inside the barrel.) Most early zoom designs (and some modern ones) suffer from a rotating filter ring so this is not unusual.

The lens is compact, light and easy to operate. Designed in the film days the EF 28-70 f3.5-4.5 is compatible with all Canon EOS film and EOS digital bodies. It will work with APS-C sensor bodies but their 1.6 crop factor makes the resulting angle of view unexciting.

On the Canon EOS 5D original the autofocus worked quickly and accurately

Results

I like letting the results tell the story. For this review the lens was mostly used wide open at f3.5 at 28mm and f4.5 at 70mm. My rationale is that if the lens produces good results wide open it will be even better as it is stopped down.

The EF 28-70 f3.5-4.5 gained its cult status for being a modestly priced lens that performs consistently well at all apertures and all focal lengths. The photographs in the gallery below prove this to be true: see the captions for exposure details.

For the review I mounted the lens to a Canon EOS 5D original set to 1600 ISO. The lens had no hood and no filter. The raw files were processed in Canon Digital Photo Professional 4.12 to adjust levels and sharpening and convert to monochrome where necessary. A couple of the images have been lightly cropped. The 28-70 is one of a few lenses that Canon have not provided lens data so there has been no correction for chromatic aberration, peripheral illumination or distortion. Processing in Lightroom or similar and correcting for CA and distortion may improve results.

Even wide open the lens is very sharp in the centre and holds the sharpness well to the edges of the frame. Only the far corners show softness and illumination falloff. Neither of these are a problem for street photography: light vignetting is often added in editing.

In some of the images there is a strong backlight producing strong reflections on the pavement and deep shadows. Even in this hard light the lens produces excellent contrast with little ghosting or flare.

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Conclusion

The Canon EF 28-70 f3.5-4.5 and its II replacement held a cult status as excellent performers on in the analog film days, and provide excellent results on digital cameras today. The lenses offer consistently good image sharpness at all apertures and all focal lengths.

Buy this lens if you are looking for a daily walk-around lens that can do double duty on both Canon EOS film and full frame digital, the results are surprisingly good and the lens is very easy to use.