This is going to sound like a contradiction to my last post titled "I wish Canon would make better small lenses." I am greatly enjoying my cheap new lens, the EF 28mm f/2.8, which arrived in the mail yesterday. I dsicussed my rationale for purchasing this lens here. The 28/2.8 is so light and compact, it's almost like there's nothing on the 5D at all. It's just long enough to use the left hand for balance. The manual focus ring, while nothing great, is leaps ahead of that found on similarly inexpensive Canon lenses like the 50mm f/1.8 and the EF-S 18-55mm "kit lens." I like what I see so far in regular use, nice color and contrast stopped down. I haven't had reason to shoot it wide open yet. This lens has excellent flare resistance. Edge and corner sharpness are better than most reviews had seemed to indicate. Unlike my 24-105L, which has considerable barrel distortion on the wide end, this lens is nearly distortion free. For non speed freaks, this would be a very nice normal lens for a Rebel XT or XTi, providing great image characteristics in an extremely light and compact combination. For the 5D, I think the 28mm f/2.8 and 50mm f/1.4 will make a terrific light kit for my style of shooting.

Downsides are as follows: Autofocus, while pretty fast, makes an annoying high-pitched noise. Lots of light falloff at maximum aperture. Build quality is overall cheap. As stated in the previous post, I really wish Canon would improve the build quality on these small primes.

A few examples from yesterday and today: