> Hello, > I am seriously thinking of going for this zoom, as i do not have any wide > angle lens for now. I only use primes, and i think this lens could take a > good place in my bag with the 2.8/60mm, 1.8/85mm, 2.8/180mm, especially > when hiking and for landscape photography. An aditionnal advantage for me > is the 62mm filter thread that is common with the 60mm and 85mm. I don't > know how is rated this lens, and have never seen one in a store. I just > wonder if some of you could give me their feelings about it, optical > quality, vignetting with a polarizer, does it come with a hood, how does it > focus manually, is it push-pull or 2 rings, etc. Franck, I have not used this lens but have read about it. This is a two-ring zoom, not push-pull. It autofocuses down to 0.6m, with manual "macro" mode down to 0.5m This is not very close focusing for this focal length, and may limit your ability for near-far landscape shots which make wide angles are so useful. It has no depth of field lines, which I find useful for landscape photography. I don't know if it comes with a hood (HB-3), I think you will need to buy it separately. Optically it is supposed to be very sharp, almost as good as prime lenses like the 24/2.8. However, it has more barrel distortion at the wide end, and suffers from more flare. I'm not sure how well it works with polarisers. Being a wide angle lens it may vignette with a normal polariser - you would need to test this out yourself. The filter rotates when you focus. Alternatives which may be worth considering: Get a prime lens (or two) such as the 24/2.8, 28/2.8 or 35/2. These are all very good lenses which focus closer than the zoom, have DOF marks, are very sharp with low distortion and flare. They all have 52mm filters so you could use a 52-62mm step-up ring and use your current filters (this would mean you can't use the lens hood) However, 52mm filters are relatively compact and cheap, if you don't have many filters it may be worth buying another set. You might also want to consider the new 28-105/3.5-4.5 zoom. Although it lacks the wide end of the zoom range, it covers a very useful range of focal lengths. It also focuses very close - down to 1:2. Unless you need 1:1, it could well replace your 60/2.8 lens. It also takes 62mm filters. This is a new lens - I have not heard how well it performs yet. Hope this helps, Roland. == Roland Vink ============================ [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://home.ait.ac.nz/staff/rvink/
