Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM for EOS

The Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM Lens is a mid range lens and a big step up in quality from Canon's kit lenses. There are however two versions of these lenses and two manufacturing sites. It is hard to tell some of them apart but I will tell you how. It is nowhere near as good as the 24-105 f4L but to get one of those you will be parting with twice the price new and up to five times the price second hand.

The best one of the two types says Macro on the side in orange letters and has a 7 blade aperture the not so good one has a flower symbol in place of the word macro and has a 5 blade aperture and is more prone to flare and is not so good for producing an even bokeh when taking photos at wider apertures. The flower symbol lens is the older version. There are also two places of manufacture Japan and Taiwan but how you tell that I don't know I'm advised the jap lenses are best i think mine is taiwanese. Jap lenses often have a white date and manufacture code inside the lens mount.

Having said that mine is a very good lens (not a brilliant one). It is soft at wider apertures it gets a lot better at F5.6 on a small sensor digital. This is not the best lens for macro work as you really need something in the 200 to 300mm range for this. I would not recommend this for a full frame sensor camera as its not up to that and if you can afford a full frame camera you can afford a better lens.

Don't confuse this lens with the 28-105 F4 / 5.6 which is altogether a much nastier lens and not worth bothering with.

This is a very good lens far better than kit lenses it has decent optical quality from f5.6 and a very useful zoom range. It's an ideal everyday on the camera lens. But do use a lens hood to keep good contrasty pictures.

I am very happy with mine on a 20D but do remember to stick to f5.6 and above and all will be good. The much older 35-105 f3.5 is actually better wide open in my opinion and these are even cheaper but they do have a push pull zoom which is tricky to use unless you want to go from 35 to 105 fast.