The journey of EF35mm F1.4L USM for a new home

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Bear with me people because I really feel that I have to give credit to this lens, how it all started to playing with it in the end. Before I got my hands on this first L prime from the Canon uber expensive range, I didn't really think much about the possibilities that I would wield in my hands. Indeed I have read numerous opinions and comments regarding Canon L lenses and most would have suggested that good equipment does play an important part in capturing great pictures. Back then I was really a greenhorn in photography with no prior knowledge about it...it was thru the numerous field experiment and set backs that I began to see more open doors of opportunities ahead. As time progresses, gone were the painful wall banging pitfalls...as my appetite for information grew, so were the time spent on reading and gathering resources online. Inspirations like Dazza and Joey Lawrence's style of photography drew me deeper into the never ending tunnel of creativity.

Where I reached a point of time where my photoshop skills grew along with my photography skills, I knew it was only a matter of time before my current set up would be limiting my ultimate potential. This afterall is an expensive journey of building up the essential gear to enhance the entire photographic experience. When your current gear from years back where you started out as an amateur began to limit your hunger for higher achievements, you tend to look for better upgrades to compliment your current skill level. Think of it as playing an RPG game...you start out as a novice with fairly acceptable default equipment. Though the best Boss-slaying powerful weapons might be available, your level and gold coins are your only limiting factor. Then again you can always apply "cheats" in game to get these high end items. But in real life we all know that this is not possible unless you really strike Toto or 4D. So moving along, you gain more experience to level up and at the same time increases your gold coins. Better upgrades are readily available now since you have already fulfilled the necessary criteria. Same in photography...you would probably start up with some basic or mid level equipment and as you progress, your skill will level up accordingly and you acquire better, more expensive gear. Though sometimes by a stroke of luck or sugar daddies or mummies, you are granted some level of wealth to start off with the best equipment. But your skills are not on par with the best equipment so you are most likely under-utilizing them which I have no intention to further this discussion.

Photography from the start which I have already known will be an expensive hobby to pursue. Afterall I might just be pretty unlucky to have so many expensive hobbies. But hey, I happen to be just one of those pesky kids who can't sit still since young because I was simply overflowing with creativity and silly antics. Thank God I picked up photography because not only did it allow me to channel my creativity energy in the right direction, my photoshopping skills and understanding of this whole idea of relating light and elements to artificial enhancement and abstract alterations of alternate reality greatly improved as well.

Therefore after using my current set up from 1.5 years back where that was all that I could afford back then, I have come to discover the limitations I was facing in pursing the style of photography I was after. As usual the net was covered with lots of essential info so I took quite a bit of time to go thru the different aspects studying reviews, comments, etc. before settling for a L prime instead of zooms or L zooms. The wide aperture offered only by L primes was the main factor that governed my choices with my 1.6x cropped sensor being second because every choice is subjected to a 1.6x multiplier. Price of course is factor present in everything be it in monetary or time measures but I had saved up sufficient to afford a decent L prime. Therefore I wasn’t considering non L primes as well because I wanted the huge leap and also to experience the much acclaimed L lenses. From the vast collection of comments on the EF35mm L prime, most claimed that they really should have got this lens earlier because it is simply too awesome to miss out on. Well it's the same for me because only 1 day after attaching it to my camera, I really can't find any reasons to remove it.

Of course the there are limitations of using a prime that is you really have to move around a bit to get the focal length right. Unlike zooms where you can simply stand in one stationary position and fiddle with the zoom ring to fit everything into the eye piece. But I guessed I could overcome this limitation to trade for a better image quality and also interaction with the subject which tends to be people and street objects that can span from anything to an unsightly trash can. The 2 primes that I was ideally considering was either the EF85L or the EF35L. Both offers excellent wide aperture for low light photography and also creamy bokeh and I wasn't really a pro in the strobe aspect so most of my pictures were taken without flash. Because the 35 would be roughly equivalent to a 56mm on 35mm film format, this marginally coincides with the actual field of vision of the human eye. While the 85 would be a good telephoto lens, the confine of spaces where I am most likely to take my pictures was too much of a limiting consideration. Besides the 85 L would be a behemoth to be fitted on my tiny EOS Kiss Digital X which might have balance issues. Of course I do not rule out the possibility of acquiring the other 2 lenses from the Holy Trinity of Canon Primes (35L, 85L and the 135L) in the future, right now I am really glad that I had the 35L “superglued” to my camera. Slowly I have come to terms to use it as a walkaround lens and work myself a weny bit more to get the focus correct.

Initially I was considering a used piece to conserve more ￥ so I went poking around MapCamera online, and other online sites for price comparisons between used and new. Then when I went down to MapCamera in Shinjuku, they had (I think) 5 used pieces. The prices were from ￥136,000 to ￥148,000. After spending like 45 minutes checking each and every piece right down to the seams of construction, 4 were rejected for scratches on the external plastic casing, dirty spots on the rubber focusing ring or fine wear lines on the inner groove and contact plates. Only 1 really remarkable second hand piece in a really 99.9% mint condition was calling out for a decent home this winter. Box with everything included including the plastic Canon wrapper for the lens. However there was no warranty for it so I went ahead to check out new pieces in Yodobashi (Shinjuku) because I could accumulate the points and use them as cash. Price was quoted as ￥183,000 which was significantly higher than the most online stores but because I am paying a rather hefty sum for such a delicate instrument of precision engineering, I thought I was better off "feeling" the actual thing than getting it virtually online. Thanks to tips and tricks from the internet I was able to bargain the price with the shop staff in Yodobashi to ￥152,000 for a brand new piece but he suggested that there were no points available. Now that clearly is not good so my options now were a second hand piece with no warranty at ￥148,000 and a new piece with no points at ￥152,000. With only ￥4000 difference, I would definitely opt for a new piece.

At this point I was actually questioning myself about the stringent and unsympathetic checks that I had passed on the used pieces. Afterall if they are not flawed in anyway I might as well be buying a brand new piece instead. Not convinced, I hesitated and re-organised my thoughts before fleeing to Yodobashi (Main) in Akihabara to try my luck there instead. Because I had brought my ￥ and was really determined to buy the lens on this trip to Tokyo but from where was the question. While browsing thru the selection at Yodobashi (Akiba), the staffs were indeed courteous and accommodating until I approached one young male staff draped in prominent black vest with red bold “Canon” scrawled across the back. He was nice and explaining politely when I inquired about the EF35L lens. Things took a drastic sharp and acute turn for the worse when I pulled the same stunt to force the price down to around ￥150,000. He was not convinced and gave me a much disgusted look but I wasn’t any feeble novice either when I exhibited my arrogant and uptight attitude to counter his because I believe that if you scratch my back I will tear off your face and make it into a butt warmer for my toilet seat…FEARLESS! I swore I had worse arrogance in other situations in SG as the worse customer any store could have imagined because the whole dramatic ga-ga at Yodobashi was a mere 5% of what I am actually capable of.

He conceded defeat when he suggested that he would ask someone else presumably with much more authority. Hey I used to work in various sort of front line to back line customer or sales related jobs so I know the SOP and tricks like as if there were inked on me. He came back moments later that he could offer the price at ￥152,000 which was what the other Yodobashi branch had quoted but…with the purchase of something else extra like a lens filter or something just to fill in \5000 more. At this point the entire situation actually reminded me of the usual practices in SG in Lucky Plaza and Sim Lim Sq which of course disgusted me a lot. None the less he did sweeten the icing on the cake by offering full points. Because I would have needed a lens protector anyway so I took the deal after some serious consideration. Getting the lens protector online would have been cheaper but I would have to wait until I get back to Nagano and this simply means that I CANNOT use the lens straight away. Yep I bit the bait that he offered despite the really unpleasant attitude I received. The drama continues because after paying for the items, I sat there for a cool 30 minutes testing the lens for back focus, defects, fault lines and anything that I could fault to make an exchange. In the end nothing much displeases me so I packed up and went over to the same F***** up staff, smiled and shook his hands with the harshest sarcasm in my smile to disgrace and rev up his hate meter. As I was exiting thru the escalator, I could see him gossiping to the rest of his co-workers who took snares at me but hey I got a good bargain so who cares. Besides I know I will definitely go back there to make more purchases in the future so the

This Canon EF35mm F1.4L USM prime lens is indeed a rare piece of gem superbly crafted. Although the AF might not be as fast as the EF-S17-85mm IS USM I was using prior and occasionally the lens tends to do a auto re-focus, the image quality was like what everyone else on the net had claimed, “Almost looks like post-processed”. This is indeed true but I wasn’t gonna take it for granted because for the first time in my photography escapades, I ended up shooting everything in RAW format and then twitching the sliders in Light Room before editing it in Photoshop. No matter how good the lens or camera is, post processing is still a strict routine that I follow but as compared to the previous lens, there is really less post production work. Playing with such wide aperture like 1.4 is indeed creative because the colors that fade into bokeh in the background was really surreal and the foreground colors were really sharp and full of contrast. Of course this little baby weighs more than my previous lens because more elements of glass were used. The size is acceptable and the obnoxious “Red” ring around the tip of the lens screams to the rest of the world that this is a L lens. Occasionally there will be other Japanese folks who really know their camera stuffs commenting discreetly about this lens which of course ended up with me discussing photography topics with their half acceptable Engrish. Usually before departing, I find myself trailing these random camera pros that use 1Ds and 5Ds and trying their humble magic to concert me to a FF devotee. I really have nothing major to complain about this amazing lens or to doubt any of Canon’s L primes except that they are really dangerous because they hooked you like poison in your blood. Once you get your hands on one, there is no turning back or denying it simply because it is really that good. Now that I have joined the ranks of Canon L primes, it is only natural that I sing nothing but praises for it. Though there is a huge range of Canon L primes, personally for me, I really like the 35, 85 and 135 at least for 1.6x bodies. Next I am actually considering the new 50D and the 580EX 2. Although the 5D is really tempting with it’s HDMI video recording function, I am not really sure I am ready for a FF camera yet and price would of course be another issue. So far there are many limiting comments concerning the 50D and the lack of video recording which will most likely put me off and wait for hopefully the 60D which Canon might be kind enuff to include video recording features.

Then one might wonder why a true bred photographer would want to include the video recording function in a DSLR. While there will no doubt be many conflicting arguments, for me it’s just a nifty feature to spice up the whole photojournalism experience. All in all I am still pretty happy with my tiny and feather-light EOS Kiss Digital X and EF35L combi. Packing an extra huge 580EX 2 or an EF85L would look ridiculously tormenting on the tiny camera body. Until then I guess I am better off playing with this current set up until a better camera body shows up.

Picture on.