Lens: Canon EF 28mm f1.8 USM – the under-achiever

This is part of the EF 28mm Three Lens Comparison, check out how it compares.

The Canon EF 28mm f1.8 USM is a wide angle lens for Canon EOS SLR cameras. It was released in 1995 and designed for film (35mm full frame) and is fully compatible with all EOS film and digital cameras. Canon have published lens data for this lens, so image quality on digital cameras is even better after corrections for chromatic aberration, peripheral illumination and distortion have been applied in camera, or using Canon Digital Photo Professional software when editing raw files.

I use this lens on an EOS 650 analog film SLR camera from 1987 and an EOS 5D DSLR camera and it works equally well on both. That’s what I love about the EOS film cameras: they are a great professional-grade system for photographers that want to work on analog and digital.

The Canon EF 28mm f1.8 USM lens did not replace the original EF 28mm f2.8 AFD from 1987: they remained on sale together until 2012 when the older f2.8 lens was retired. This 28mm f1.8 USM lens remained in the catalogs until 2018.

This is another Canon EF lens that attracts mixed reviews. It has soft corners wide open which improve when stopped down, but they are actually pretty good for a fast lens at this price point. The issue is that the sharpness is uneven across the field: there is a dip around halfway between the centre and the corner, right on the edge of the APS-C crop frame.

My aim in this review is to look at the lens’ performance on film and full-frame digital and determine whether it’s a good value proposition. Spoiler: the new EF 28mm f2.8 IS USM has image stabilisation and is sharper – is should be, its design is 20 years newer! – but the EF 28mm f1.8 USM is more than sharp enough and, let’s face it, who doesn’t want a fast f1.8 28mm lens.

Build and Handling

This fast 28mm f1.8 features an aspherical element, internal focussing, and a ring-type ultra-sonic autofocus motor that provides full-time manual (FTM) focussing on all analog and digital Canon EOS bodies.

The lens body is plastic with a metal mount, the front has 58mm filter threads which neither rotate nor extend making it easy to use with POL and variable ND filters.

Sharpness

This lens is part of the EF 28mm prime lens comparison, where all three Canon EF 28mm prime lenses are tested together. The sharpness images were made with a Canon EOS 5D on 100 ISO, processed in Canon Digital Photo Professional with lens corrections for chromatic aberration, peripheral illumination and distortion. Sharpness was set to level 3 (standard) and no adjustments were made to colour or exposure. The full frame images have been reduced from 4368 x 2912 pixels (12.8MB) to 1080×1920 pixels (2MB); centre and corner images are at full resolution but cropped to 1080×1920.

Comparison images for all apertures are shown below for completeness, but save yourself some time, you only need to see how the lens performs wide open f1.8 and at the optimum aperture. A comparison is also included at f2.8 and f8.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The summary of the sharpness test is complex. Optimum aperture is between f5.6 and f8. Comparing the centre at f1.8 to f8, the there is good (read: adequate) sharpness from wide open which improves to excellent with stopping down. Contrast also changes significantly: wide open the image looks OK, but comparison to f8 shows how much better it can get. Some of this lack of contrast can be adjusted easily in post-processing so it’s not a deal breaker.

The corners show more significant variation in both sharpness and contrast, which is expected in a fast lens of this age. Wide open the extreme corners are very soft, however sharpness improves as the lens is stopped down to the optimum between f5.6 and f8.

I’ve included comparisons between f2.8 and f8 as well. At f2.8 the extreme corners are close to those from the EF 28mm f2.8 AFD lens at f2.8, which I consider to be a very good lens.

Results

The EF 28mm f1.8 USM is very easy to use, and I’m very happy with the sharpness. The f1.8 aperture makes the viewfinder image bright and easy to see.

The images below are a mix of analog made on Ilford HP5 Plus 400 film, and digital on a Canon EOS 5D. Details are in the captions.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Conclusion

I recently picked up Canon’s newest 28mm prime, the EF 28mm f2.8 IS USM specifically so I could compare all three 28mm primes together. It’s fair (but unhelpful) to say that all three are great lenses, because each was the best that could be done at the time each was designed and made. Like I said, not helpful for deciding whether you want to get it.

The gallery demonstrates that image quality from this EF 28mm f1.8 USM lens is more than acceptable on film and full-frame digital even wide open; I think it’s superb. I cannot see any problems with sharpness; it does flare easily when pointed directly into the sun, (not uncommon for complex fast lenses) but as can be seen from the photographs takes at Coogee beach on a summer day, the lens handles bright high-contrast light conditions without problems at all. (The simple 5-group construction of the original EF 28mm f2.8 AFD is probably the best for flare and backlight in my experience.)

Probably a better gauge of how I feel for this lens is whether I use it or not: I do, it’s my go-to prime lens for street photography on both film and digital, unless I specifically want something wider or something longer. I guess that makes it the winner of the three Canon EF 28mm prime lenses. Oops, that was a spoiler!