Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM Lens

The Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM Lens is an L-series professional wide-angle prime lens designed for full-frame Canon EF-mount cameras, boasting the brightness of the largest aperture in its class paired with unrivaled natural delineation. Introduced in 1998, it’s a longstanding favorite for photojournalism, street photography, environmental portraiture, and available-light shooting.

Optically, the lens offers a 35mm focal length with a maximum aperture of f/1.4 narrowing to f/22, delivering a 63-degree diagonal angle of view. The 11-element, 9-group optical design includes a ground-and-polished aspherical glass element (9th element) that thoroughly eliminates spherical aberration and distortion, along with a floating optical system that corrects aberrations at medium and near focusing distances, maintaining the lens’s image quality from its closest shooting distance all the way to infinity. An 8-blade diaphragm contributes to the lens’s background rendering, and all eleven lens elements are made of environmentally friendly, lead-free glass.

Autofocus is handled by a ring-type Ultrasonic Motor (USM) paired with a rear-focusing system, delivering silent, high-speed autofocus along with full-time manual focus override via a wide, comfortable focus ring. Because the lens uses rear (internal) focusing, the front element and 72mm filter ring remain stationary and non-rotating, making the lens convenient to use with circular polarizing and other special-effects filters.

Build quality reflects the lens’s L-series positioning, with weatherproof seals protecting against dust, humidity, and light splashing. The lens has a closest focusing distance of 0.3m (1 ft.), yielding a maximum magnification of 0.18x (1:5.5-5.6), and measures approximately 79 x 86mm, weighing approximately 580g. It does not include image stabilization and is not compatible with Canon’s teleconverters.

As a full-frame-compatible lens, the EF 35mm f/1.4L USM produces its full 63-degree angle of view on full-frame Canon bodies and an effective 56mm equivalent focal length on APS-C bodies.

Key Features
– 35mm f/1.4L wide-angle prime lens for Canon EF mount
– 11 elements in 9 groups, including 1 aspherical (ground-and-polished) element
– Floating optical system for consistent image quality at all focus distances
– Lead-free glass elements
– Ring-type USM autofocus with rear-focusing system
– Full-time manual focus override
– Non-rotating front element and 72mm filter ring
– 8-blade diaphragm
– Weatherproof sealed construction
– Closest focusing distance of 0.3m (1 ft.); 0.18x maximum magnification
– 72mm filter thread
– No image stabilization; not compatible with teleconverters
– Approximate weight: 580g
– Compatible with full-frame and APS-C Canon EF-mount cameras