Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS USM

For street photography, this lens packs some useful features into a modestly sized build

The mighty EF 35mm f/1.4l II USM has professional-grade build quality and a fast f/1.4 aperture rating. But it’s quite heavy when compared to the Canon pancake lenses.

The 35mm f/2 IS USM is still great for street photography however. Its f/2 aperture should prove fast enough even under dull lighting, and this enables a fairly compact and lightweight build of 78x63mm and 335g.

Manual focusing benefits from a more generously proportioned focus ring than in Canon’s pancake lenses. The ring-type ultrasonic autofocus system is quick and quiet. While the manual override and fully manual focusing can be applied at any time, thanks to a mechanical rather than electronic linkage. Impressively, the rotational travel of the focus ring is quite long, enabling precise adjustments despite the speed of the AF system.

Given that street photography almost always relies on handheld shooting, the lens’ highly effective 4-stop image stabilizer is an absolute lifesaver. The only other lens on this test to feature stabilization is the Tamron.

Performance

In our lab tests and throughout real-world shooting, this lens proved almost as sharp as the top-grade Canon 35mm f/1.4 Colour fringing was also similarly negligible. There’s a touch more barrel distortion but not enough to generally be noticeable. Overall, it’s a high-performance lens that’s conveniently compact and absolutely wonderful for street photography. A must for the full-frame bodies.