| What’s the difference between all the Canon
28-105mm lenses? Canon sell and have sold a number of different lenses which use the 28-105mm focal range. EF28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 USM, flower icon (  )This is the first version of this popular lens, released in the early 1990s. It’s a midrange consumer zoom with decent optics and a fast and silent ring USM motor with FTM. The mark I version with a flower icon on its lens barrel apparently had a 5-blade aperture diaphragm. Marked with a striped gold line since it’s a USM lens, and has a metal lens mount. Discontinued. EF28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 USM, “MACRO” icon (  )This is the second version of the lens, though it was never officially identified as such - it’s still considered to be a mark I. It’s identical to the first version but it has the word MACRO printed on the lens barrel in lieu of the flower (closeup) icon. Internally, however, it has a 7-blade aperture diaphragm, which in theory offers slightly better bokeh, or out-of-focus blurring. Marked with a striped gold line since it’s a USM lens, and has a metal lens mount. Discontinued. EF28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 USM II This is the official second version of the lens, as indicated by the II symbol. According to Canon the original 28-105 and the mark II versions have identical optics as the 7-blade aperture diaphragm version, but the mark II version has slightly different external styling, including an allegedly slightly tougher design. According to Canon Malaysia an internal component used in the zoom mechanism has been updated to metal from plastic. Marked with a striped gold line since it’s a USM lens, and has a metal lens mount. EF28-105mm f/4-5.6 USM This lens is a cheapie lens, released in 2002. It is a completely different and very much inferior lens from all the ones listed above. It’s almost entirely made of plastic (including the lens mount) and has vastly worse optics than the faster lenses. It can easily be identified by the silver (chrome) ring around the end of the barrel. Interestingly, while it uses a micromotor USM autofocus system it nonetheless supports full-time manual, according to Canon’s literature. It’s a lens intended for consumers and does not fit the same position in the lineup as the 28-105 3.5-4.5 USM II. In short, be very careful when shopping for a 28-105 lens. You don’t want to buy a lens thinking it’s the popular midrange lens only to end up with the bottom of the line cheapie instead. Always double-check the listed aperture range before buying. |
