Thinking about purchasing this lens with an Elan IIE, but have heard differing opinions the angle of view for this lens when put on a non-APS EOS body. Some say the angle of view is smaller, meaning it isn't as wide and is equivalent to a 30mm. Is this true? Also, while I'm posting, how is the optical quality of this lens in comparison to the 28-105?

-- Karl Jauhiainen (jauhiainen@yahoo.com), January 18, 2000

Answers

It's a 24-85 zoom. It's not a "24-85 APS 35mm equivalent" zoom. At 24mm it has exactly the same angle of view as a regular 24mm EOS lens. Both the 24-85 and 28-105 are very good lenses. Note the 24-85 takes an odd filter size (67mm) which few (if any?) other EOS lenses share. The 28-105 takes the more common 58mm filter, shared by many other EOS lenses.

-- Bob Atkins (bobatkins@hotmail.com), January 18, 2000.

Further to the response you have already had ... yes it is a genuine 24-85mm zoom. I have been using it for the last two years as the main day to day lens for my EOS50E (Elan IIE) and have been very pleased with it.

Although the difference between 24mm and 28mm of other standard zooms doesn't sound much, it makes a big difference in practice - I very often find that I need that extra width of view at the short end and rarely miss the longer end of the zoom.

-- Derek Linney (dlinney@aol.com), January 21, 2000.

You may like the 24-85; it is a great range of focal lengths. My quibble is that it seems a little mushy (low contrast? I'm not sure exactly what the problem is) at the long end, at least when at or near maximum aperture. And of course, F 4.5 is sort of slow. Its construction quality does not fill me with confidence, either, but I work professionally and may have different needs than you. Other users have found much to like about this lens, and I'll continue to use it until I find something better. You may find my query in this forum recently to be useful. Good luch.

-- Jonathan Barber (jbarber@squonk.net), January 24, 2000.