Canon makes a nice little 14/2.8L lens. It isn't really very useful most of the time. Its exposed half-dome front element will keep you in constant fear of water, grime, fingers, and the rest of the world. It costs $2,319.00 (B&H Photo, October 1995). I bought one. Why?

Canons new EF 14mm f/2.8 L II USM lens, an ultra-wide angle, is going have a lot of architectural, sports and press photographers lined up at the counter with their checkbooks or charge cards in hand.

The Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM Lens is currently my favorite ultra-wide angle EF lens . For many years, my preferred full-frame-capable ultra-wide angle lens was the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM Lens and then its replacement, the even better (at the wide end at least) Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM...

Canon's EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM lens replaces an existing lens with similar specifications. Designed for professional photographers and usable on both 'full frame' DSLRs and models with smaller ('APS-C sized') image sensors, it has many of the same specifications as the lens it replaces.

If you use one of the 1.6x image sensor Canon camera you are better off looking at Canon's 10-22mm zoom that provides true wide angle coverage for those cameras. It will save you some money and provides the equivalent of a 16-35mm zoom for that sensor size.

The version II of this lens is much sharper than its predecessor and is a great ultra-wide lens for the Canon pro bodies (14mm on the 1Ds Mark III and 5D full frame; 18mm equivalent on the 1D Mark III)

Not worth the money for 1.6x sensor camera bodies (i.e.; 20D; 30D; 40D; Rebel XTi; etc...)

I'm not a technical guy so this review will not be covering the tech specifications of this lens. I gather that if you're reading this you are pretty much in the same boat I was before buying.

The Canon EF 14mm f/2.8 USM L II is the widest full format lens in the Canon EOS lens lineup. Within its native format it covers a whopping field-of-view of 114 degrees. This is a bit beyond most ultra-wide applications for mainstream users but sometimes there's simply a need for such special effect...

A full-frame 14mm f/2.8 has been an anchor of Canon's premier L-series lens line for a quarter-century. This new upgrade, Version II ($2,199, street), has a second aspheric element and two elements of ultra-low-dispersion glass.

The Canon 14mm f/2.8 L is a marvelous wide angle lens. Image quality:It is a little fuzzy around the edges at 2.8 but by f/4 is sharp all the way across the lens. Since this is primarily for landscapes, your f-stop is going to be higher anyway, so the f/2.8 is uncalled for.

An ultra-wide angle lens, which sports a fast maximum aperture of f/2.8 and silent focusing with full-time manual focus override. This lens certainly isn't inexpensive, being available for around ￡1850. In this review we'll take a look at how it performs and whether the premium price is justified.