35mm(ish) prime lens - Canon f2 or...?

[FunkyNige]

Bit of background for you - when I was using my film camera I bought the nifty fifty lens (f1.8) and I found it a really great lens for portraits and also for a general use (you may laugh but I enjoyed the challenge of only having the prime with me and having to think a bit more). But when I changed to digital (400D) and the 50mm 'turned into' 80mm I've found it a bit long so I'm looking for something around the 30mm mark that I can use as I used to use the 50mm.

Budget is v tight so I'm looking at the lower end of the market, is there an alternative to Canon's 35mm f2 lens (£208 at WEX) I should be looking at?

Ta,

[tog]

The Canon 35mm f2 is a nice little lens. It is far from sharp in the corners wide open, but on a crop body that shouldn't be such an issue (although I use mine on a full frame body without worrying about it - I quite like the vignette and soft corners!). Wide open it is at least as sharp in the centre as the Canon 35mm f1.4L. Some people complain about the non-USM focus motor, but I don't have a problem with it. I have one and use it a lot, even though I have the 1.4 as well. It is small, light, decent quality, well built and cheap.

There is one on ebay here that might go cheap as it's Christmas and few people will be buying kit now:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Canon-EF-35mm-F2-Lens-/2...


The other option would be the new Canon 40mm pancake lens, which is supposed to be pretty OK too, but that is still a little longer than a standard on a crop body.

[RobDickinson]

The 40/2.8 pancake is superb, very very sharp. But not so far off 50 and not so fast at 2.8. I'll be buying one soon...


The 35/2 is a nice lens, square 5 bladed aperture but even with that it produces good results.

If you want to try manual focus theres the samyang 35f1.4

[rottie102]

Sigma 30mm f/1.4. £299 new on Amazon