Review: Canon’s EF Lens Work III, The Eyes of EOS, 8th Edition (2006)

CANON’S EF LENS WORK III, THE EYES OF EOS, 8TH EDITION (2006)

This is just a short post to highlight a rather useful Canon resource which sometimes gets overlooked as it is hidden deep inside Canon’s huge web of web sites. It is Canon’s book EF Lens Work III, The Eyes of EOS, 8th Edition (2006).

Being a Canon book it will inevitably have quite a bit of Canon’s marketing material in it but if you go past that, you’re left with a very useful resource on lens design, photo techniques and general optical terminology. In fact I found the Optical Terminology chapter the most useful acting almost as a miniature optical reference work in itself (it has only 25 pages).

All Canon’s lenses are represented in some detail in the ‘marketing chapters’ but also, more usefully, in MTF charts, specs tables and lens maps. This is a great help when deciding on your next lens purchase as long as you remember that MTF charts are not the definitive marker of lens quality.

Previous versions are available on sale through Amazon at an average price of £25.00 but the current version in only available online from Canon’s site and it is free. You can download chapters by clicking on links below or straight from the site following this link.

Links to chapters (will download a PDF file from Canon’s web site):

1. THE EF LENS CONCEPT
2. CANON’S CHALLENGES
3. THE EF LENS WORLD (SINGLE FOCAL-LENGTH LENSES)
4. THE EF LENS WORLD (ZOOM LENSES)
5. THE EF LENS WORLD (EF-S LENSES)
6. EF LENS ACCESSORIES & VARIETY IN THE CANON LENS WORLD
7. THE BASICS OF INTERCHANGEABLE LENSES & CORRESPONDENCE OF EF LENSES TO DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
8. PHOTO TECHNIQUES
9. EF LENS TECHNOLOGY
10. OPTICAL TERMINOLOGY & MTF CHARACTERISTICS
11. DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS & LENS MAPS

Aside from Lens Work, Canon also publishes booklets on following subjects:

• Flash Work
• Using Image Stabilizer Lenses
• Do More with Macro!