Weekend with the Canon 35mm f/2 prime

So thanks to a co-worker who was kind enough to lend me his copy of the Canon 35mm f/2 prime, I was able to test drive the lens for an entire weekend! Funny thing during the weekend was that the Seattle weather actually co-operated! We got a mix of cold, rain, damp, sun and dry… Pretty much, I got to test the lens out in every such scenario in my day-to-day life, except compacted into one weekend!

I took the opportunity to go test out the 20mm f/2.8 and 24mm f/2.8 at Glazers, side-by-side with the 35mm f/2. I was surprised at how soft the 20mm and 24mm both were in the center wide-open. Conversely, the 35mm wide open was noticibly sharper. Stopped down the 20mm and 24mm needed to be at f/4.0 or smaller to actually be sharp enough for my tastes. I think after seeing what my alternatives for a wide-angle prime were, without going to the heavy and pricey, L-series route, I’m convinced that the 35mm f/2 is a good compromise on price, quality, weight and utility. I’ve had the 50mm prime on the camera since I returned the 35mm, and the 50mm sometimes feels cramped. I’m still debating whether I should invest money to get the 50mm f/1.4 given that the f/1.8 I have now may not see too much use once I get the 35mm f/2.

Oh well, here’s the weekend in recap…