Lens: Canon EF 16-35mm ƒ/2.8 L USM (Photography Museum)

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Canon EF 16-35mm ƒ/2.8 L USM

The Canon EF 16-35mm ƒ/2.8 L USM lens, introduced in 2001 was an amazing lens at the time. It replace the six-year-old EF 17-35 ƒ/2.8 L USM. The 16-35mm is a large, heavy, and expensive lens, but worth every penny for a wide-angle shooter such as myself. (I paid ~$2600 CAD for this lens, which was a lot for new art school graduate.)

For many years this was my primary lens, originally on the last of my film bodies, and then later on my first DSLR, the ground-breaking Canon 10D. However, as time went on and I started travelling more, I switch to using a smaller, lighter, cheaper, and more versatile Canon EF28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM as my everyday lens.

In early 2017, the Canon EF 16-35mm ƒ/2.8 L USM suddenly refused to focus. I had just upgraded my camera body to a Canon EOS M5 and I was keen to shoot more with this focal range, but couldn’t justify the price (or weight) of the the newer EF 16-35mm ƒ/2.8 L III USM. After reading all the on-line reviews I decided the image-stabilized Canon EF 16-35mm ƒ/4 L IS USM was a better fit for my needs.