Ugly Ducklings: The Early EF Primes

Even among non-Canonians, Canon is known for its "L" series of lenses: optical marvels that incorporate the latest and greatest in technology, push the envelope in performance -- and cost a quite a bundle too, although not more than any other brand of professional lens, and a good deal less than some. Among Canon shooters, L fever is a known affliction: many people who really only shoot album pictures of the cat and the kids succumb to it, while among many more ambitious shooters it's pretty much the accepted wisdom that "nothing less will do." I used to own an L, once, but sold it. My lens love affair is a more modest one. It's with the first-generation EF primes, introduced between 1987 and 1989 along with the EOS system, in the days before bells and whistles like ring USM and image stabilization. I'm planning on doing a full write-up of all the lenses in this series that I'm lucky enough to own.

Articles completed in this series:

• The 24/2.8
• The 135/2.8 Soft Focus

What with Canon's tight grip on the number-one spot in the digital SLR market today, it's easy to forget where it was back in 1987. I remember it quite well, since that was the year I bought my first very own SLR -- a Canon T70, bought from a market in Singapore. At that time, Nikon still ruled the professional and high-end amateur roost, and Canon was the up-and-coming underdog. Then, in 1985, the Minolta Dynax/Maxxum 7000 hit the market, and nothing was the same since.

Auto-focus had been in the making for a while. Pentax was first out of the gate with the focus-assist ME-F already in 1981, Canon had responded with its focus-assist camera, the AL-1 QF in 1982, and Nikon had the first fully auto-focusing professional camera on the market, the F3AF, in 1983. The same year as the Minolta 7000 was introduced, Canon marketed the short-lived T80 -- a fully functional auto-focus SLR based on the FD lens mount. However, due to a number of technical and design issues, largely related to the problems of maintaining backwards compatibility, none of these cameras had quite managed to deliver an auto-focus performance capable of truly superseding the mature manual-focus cameras dominating the market at the time. Many people (myself included) felt that AF was a gimmick rather than a useful photographic tool.

"Cat Merchant." Canon FD 50/1.4 S.S.C. on Fuji Provia 100F.

The Minolta 7000 changed all that. Here was a camera that could undeniably focus and track faster and more consistently and precisely than even the most practiced manual-focus SLR shooter. It took the camera market by storm, and for a space Minolta looked set to take the top spot in the professional market as well. It was clear that Nikon, Canon, and Pentax had to do something -- or go the way of Olympus and give up on the SLR market. Nikon and Pentax focused on working out the problems in their backwards-compatible lens mounts, and eventually succeeded. Canon decided to make like Minolta. It scrapped its FD mount, killed off the T80 barely a year since its introduction, started from a clean slate, and introduced a new system, named EOS -- for "Electro Optical System" and the Greek goddess of dawn -- and a new lens mount, named EF, for "Electronic Focusing." Many professionals and advanced amateurs with a long-time investment in FD gear have still not quite forgiven Canon for this. Plainly, Canon had a knife at their throat: either the EOS system would beat the Minolta 7000 and 9000, or Canon would be relegated to niche status.

With so much at stake, Canon could not afford to take risks in the lens line-up it offered for its new system. The first EOS lenses had to be optically beyond reproach, mechanically reliable, fluid in use, and auto-focus well enough to put up a fight with the mighty Minoltas -- or they would risk tarnishing the name of the new system at the most critical point in its lifecycle. They also had to be priced to make the cost of entry into the new system low enough to make it appealing to the largest possible market, and the system had to be broad enough, even at its inception, to inspire confidence in the versatility and staying power of the new standard. A new mount was a "bet the company" strategy: Canon abandoned the gains it had made against Nikon with the very well-received AE-1 and A-1 series cameras, and had to start capturing market share from zero. A lemon in the 1987 line-up could have killed off the EOS system almost before it was born, and would have possibly lethally wounded a brand already bruised by the flop of the T80 and the bad-will inherent in abandoning an existing customer base. In 1987, that meant a series of optically impeccable but relatively modestly specified prime lenses: the zoom revolution had not fully bit yet, and the professional's standard lens was still a 50 rather than a 28-70 or similar zoom.

The upshot was that Canon produced a line of lenses that does not quite resemble anything it has made since. The early EF's build on the tried-and-true optical designs from the FD line, and have rather conservative specifications. They are engineered for reliability, durability, and optical mechanical performance at the best possible price point. Ever since, Canon has been notably niggardly in introducing prime lenses with compact form factors, reasonable prices, modest maximum apertures, and top-drawer optical performance: a few exceptions aside, the newer primes have been either big, bright, heavy, expensive L lenses or clearly underdesigned either in build (like the 50/1.8 Mk 2) or optics (like the 28/1.8 USM). The first-series "Ugly Duckling" primes strike a unique balance between optical quality, size, and value. Over the past few years, I have developed a real liking for the series, and have collected most of them: I'm only missing the 15/2.8 diagonal fisheye and the 28/2.8.

The best of the Eighties meets the best of the Noughties. At the back, the EOS-5D sporting the the 50/1.8, the first EOS kit lens -- almost twenty years of age difference, but still a handsome couple... In front, from left to right, the 24/2.8, 35/2.0, 50/2.5 Compact Macro, and 135/2.8 Soft Focus. Absent are the 15/2.8 diagonal fisheye and the 28/2.8.