Everyone Needs Some Good Glass

 I was in San Francisco last weekend for business, and I managed to slip away for an afternoon of photography at the Golden Gate Bridge . I was shooting on my Canon T2i , and I had my standard 35-70mm EF lens with me, and I also had an L-series 24mm FD mount lens (with a Fotodiox PRO Lens Mount Adapter adapter).  The Fotodiox adapter has an extra element in it to correct for the difference in mounting position between the EF/EFS mount and the FD mount. I have been told that glass degrades the image a bit. However, the L-series being 3 stops faster makes it worth it in my book. I used all manual settings while using the L-series lens, and landscape mode with the EF. I found the images quite similar while shooting in broad daylight. In fact I may like the cheap zoom better. (I think the Canon software was the real winner here, the auto settings just did better then I did with the manual settings)

The L-series lens really began to shine when the sun went down. Although it is a faster lens, I shut the iris down as far as I could for depth of field, and let the camera determine the shutter speed. The top photo was shot with the L-series Lens, the bottom was shot with the zoom.The zoom lens was set to fully automatic, and shot at a 4.5 for a 3.2 sec exposure, while the L-series lens had a 32 sec exposure at an f16.

In these shots (taken of San Francisco from Ft. Baker), it is clear to see that the L-series lens is considerably sharper.

In these photos of the iconic bridge, (taken from a fishermans' pier in Ft Baker) the quality of the L-series lens is obvious. Although for ease of use, and flexibility, the cheap zoom is a great lens to have, I Think my L-series prime will always be in my bag when I am planning on shooting long exposure night shots.

*If you would like to purchase a print of the Golden Gate Bridge, I have them for sale (along with other prints of my work) at Deviant Art.

*The star pattern you see on the shots from the L-series lens are the result of the iris being stopped all the way down to f16. The "star light" is actually the light bleeding through the blades of the iris. The zoom lens was shooting at f4.5 (almost wide open for that lens) so you have a rounded light pattern in those shots.

Using the HD video mode on my Canon, I also shot this video of the Golden Gate Bridge. See if you can tell which lens I was using for these shots.