Justin Oh Wedding Photography

G’day folks! Here I am to show off my latest purchase – the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L II USM

I picked this up from Tom Saade’s Camera House located in Westfield Paramatta. Awesome price and great customer service. I got to test the lens on a demo 50D in store and I was very impressed with the speed of the Auto Focus. Granted I tested the AF with a 50D, focus locked on immediately on almost everything even in the darker areas! The LCD on the 50D looks awesome by the way

A quick chat at the store with Mark S also confirmed that Canon prices will be increasing on Monday. Existing stock may still be available at the old price but it really depends if the store are willing to sell it at that price.

I was eager to test it on Alex’s 5D so we proceeded out of Westfield for a coffee while we were at it. The lens was quickly removed from the box and straight on the 5D. Here’s a shot taken with the 16-35 and Alex’s 17-40 in the background. Aaron also got a new Lowepro bag, still wrapped in the bigger Camera House paper bag!

Here’s a quick test shot to try out the wide angle + bokeh awesomeness! Coming from a 10-22 and cropped sensor combination, a wide angle shot with bokeh is very rare for me since I use it mostly for landscape shots with f/8 at a minimum. Still, the 16-35 opens up a whole new world of possibilities especially for weddings. I already have so many ideas in mind right now!

I apologise for the lack of a better subject – I just wanted to show a wide angle shot taken at f/2.8 I couldn’t wait to try out the lens so later in the night we headed to Martin Place to capture the Xmas tree there. Here’s the shot!

I love UWA angle lenses! Here are two other shots taken with the 40D.

Did I say that I love this lens? Here’s a shot taken with the 70-200 + 5D of the 16-35 + 40D.

Here’s the friendly security guard who helped watched our equipment and made sure our Xmas tree was safe for everyone to enjoy too According to him the Xmas tree lights turn off at 2am so get there before then if you’re after some shots!

There were a whole bunch of other people with DSLR’s yesterday night and there was also a private fashion shoot going on. Those guys had a whole crew working together and was quite interesting to watch. I had a brief chat with the photogapher as my Xpan caught his attention. Unfortunately I had just clicked the shutter and was counting my exposure time so I didn’t get his name. When I was done he had to get back to work If by any chance you’re the photographer and reading this, please contact me! I’d really love to see some of your work

Initial impressions of the 16-35 – a solid lens, smooth focus and zoom rings and quiet operation as with all other L lenses. Extremely fast AF lock, beautiful 2.8 glass that produces super sharp and contrasty shots out of the camera with no post processing. Less distortion compared to my 10-22 but still noticeable at the widest end. Definitely heavier than the 10-22 but the solid feel of its components and image quality makes up for more than that.

All in all I absolutely love it! Looking forward to test it more and also together with the 5D Mark II when it arrives.