New Prime Lens, Gear For Sale

After using the EF-S 35mm lens on my 70D body I decided that what I really need is a fast image stabilized normal prime lens for my full frame camera. As I've mentioned, Canon doesn't yet make such a lens.

After a lot of research last weekend I decided that the Tamron SP 45mm f/1.8 Di VC USD lens would fit the bill nicely.  It's a normal focal length (45mm), is fast (f/1.8), has image stabilization (VC) and has ultrasonic autofocus with full time manual even when the lens isn't powered. It's big, heavy and metal (even the filter threads).

It gets good reviews for sharpness and other optical characteristics and it's currently discounted by 33%. My only concern was fixing chromatic aberration since the Canon software I use won't do that with third party lenses. But then the older version of the Canon software, which is the only one which will run on my MacBook Air, won't correct lens aberrations for my newer Canon lenses either.

In any case, the Tamron lens comes with a license to download a version of SilkyPix software which will correct aberrations in this lens. I downloaded it and it works.

I am selling my Canon 50D body and some lenses this lens renders unnecessary along with the EF-S telephoto zoom that was replaced by my 70-300mm zoom. Those sales are listed, along with photos and prices, on the Gear For Sale page.

After picking up the lens at the Waterford post office I headed over to Lock E2 to try it out. These are all single exposures without HDR processing as my purpose was to evaluate the lens. So far, so good.