Trying out lenses in Tokyo

35mm f/2, originally uploaded by electrolyte2006.

I guess I have two types of people reading this blog - people who want to find out what I've been up to and other people who are interested in photography and cameras. I'm afraid this post will really only interest the latter and I use the word "interest" in its loosest definition.

When I was in Tokyo last week - sorry for bringing that up again - I went to BIC Camera, a HUGE consumer electronics store. The store has on display virtually every kind of camera lens available for my camera and most were available for me to attach to my camera to try them out. And try I did. I was there with Richard and Sam, my colleagues from work. Richard has a camera similar to mine so he was trying out lenses too. Sam doesn't so he tried to not get too bored and occasionally he acted as my model.

Anyway, what lenses did I try? Well I tried out a Canon 35mm f/2 and this was the lens used for the main photo at the top of this post, and this one too:



I also tried out a 50mm f/1.4:



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a Tamron 11-18 (sorry Sam for publishing this!):



a Canon 17-40mm f/4 L:



a Canon 24-105 f/4 IS L



a Canon 60mm f/2.8:





and a Sigma 50mm f/2.8:



So which was my favourite lens? Surprisingly it was one of the cheapest lenses I tried, the 35mm f/2. On my crop sensor this equates to almost 50mm and this was the 1st time I had tried a "proper" 50mm view on my camera and it looks just so natural. I loved it in fact. Next fave was the 24-105 f/4 IS but that is serious money so I guess I'll have to wait 'til I've won the lottery to buy that big boy. But of course I was just testing these lenses for their ability as portrait lenses. Of course some of the others will probably be better as landscape, sports or macro lenses but as portrait lenses these two were my faves.

Anyway, I had a great time and wish there was a shop like this in the UK. I could have spent more time in the shop but even Richard was getting bored so I had to leave the lenses alone.