Canon 35mm/1.4 L Lens Rental {Review}

As you might know, I rented a LENS this weekend! I thought I'd share my review of the entire process...sorry if it's a little boring!

I decided to rent the Canon 35mm/1.4 L lens on Wednesday of last week because I had a few photo-shoots this weekend that I wanted to try them out on (planning on sharing them later this week!). After looking around a bit, I finally decided to order from Lens Pro To Go since I get a 10% Clickin' Moms discount (by the way, if you're into photography you should TOTALLY join CM because it.is.amazing)

As I was ordering, I had a few questions regarding shipping, so I called Lens Pro To Go and immediately was talking to the nicest man, who answered all my questions and even gave me some insight as to how this lens would work on my 60D, which is a crop-sensored camera. After I got off the phone, I ordered the lens and was at ease knowing it would be able to get to me by Friday.

Friday morning, just as promised, my lens arrived! I tore into the package and got that sucker on my camera right away and started shooting! I noticed the lens was a little different than my 50mm/1.8, but figured it was just me getting used to it. During lunch, I took the camera with me to look at wedding rentals and that's when it hit me that something.was.wrong. The camera was super blurry on the edges and I knew that I wasn't moving or doing anything that should make it do that!

{Notice how the centers of each picture above is clear and in focus, while the outer edges seem to be moving? Strange!}

After lunch, I uploaded some of the problem pictures to the Clickin' Moms forum to see what the problem was...me? the lens? I immediately got responses that yes, the lens was in fact messed up. It's so awesome to have a community of photographers to answer stupid questions like that. But their answer wasn't exactly good news....in fact, talk about a bummer! So back to the phone I went, to talk to the pros at Lens Pro To Go. They were so nice, and didn't even ask me to prove to them that the lens was in fact messed up. In fact, they just asked that I ship it back (shipping back is already paid for when you order) and they went ahead and overnighted me a new lens in the meantime -- which was awesome because I was guaranteed to get it before any of my scheduled photo-shoots!

The new lens came in early Saturday morning and it was MUCH better than the first one! I was so relieved! I pretty much kept it on my camera all weekend for all of my shoots! So here's a review of the actual lens that worked!

PROs:
• the 35mm/1.4L is a heavy lens, but in the good kind of way, unlike my flimsy 50mm/1.8. I knew it was substantial and sturdy!
• with the 35mm, I was able to "back up" without actually moving, since it is a wider-angled lens than my 50mm. This allowed me to get more stuff in the shots without being effected by distance restrictions. For example, I was able to do a few "above" shots without having to get on a ladder! Love this picture!

• the 35mm has a wider aperture, which means the camera opens up to let more light in. It also increases that buttery bokeh that people LOVE so I was really excited about that.

CONs: 
• the price tag is the BIGGEST con to the 35mm/1.4L lens. If I were to buy it, I'd be about $1,400 poorer than I am right now. That's a lot of babysitting!
• the 35mm is sharp, but I didn't notice a HUGE difference...however, I haven't edited all of my pictures so this could just be that I didn't notice as much in-camera.

Okay, stay tuned because I want to share some pictures from one of my photo-shoots either Wednesday or Thursday! Come back and see!