I have to change my previous review of the lens. A used sample of the 28 F2.8 Canon lens, which I bought about 1.5 months ago for 100 euros, proved to be a serious performer. No major color aberration issues, no more excessive flaring and red-purple fringes etc, and sharp. Now I use this as my main walkaround lens on my 30D. So a good sample of this lens is worth having after all. Autofocus is OK for me, the lens is light and responsive. Obviously, previous sample I had was a lemon. The focal distance of this lens is equivalent to 45mm on a 1.6 crop camera, so it is a bit wider than a normal, but I prefer wider. I hope I'll find a good 24mm F2.8 sample in the future as well.

This lens is fairly decent for the money. Sharpness does not match L series primes, but it is not too bad either. Chromatic abberation may be present, but it is not overly pronounced. It's very small and lgiht, making it great for travelling.

Some say it is a fantastic lens, some call it rather mediocre. I think it is a good performer, just the AF is a little slow.

I bought this lens for about 190 euros to have a general use quasi normal prime lens on my Canon EOS 30D. I had read about color aberration problems, but what I found exceeded what I had read. In contrasty light situations some shadow areas had very dark red-purple green wide stripes (fringes). Since such natural light conditions (sunny days and contrasts of light and shadow) are a usual thing in my photography, I abandoned this lens. It's sharpness was average, nothing special, but if it didn't show the color aberration problems I would have kept it as a general shooting lens due to it's weight (very light) and size (small and handy). I had made an arrangement with the store I bought it and exchanged it after a month of use with the excellent 35mm F2, with which I'm more than happy. The only drawback of the 35mm IMO is that it is an equivalent of 56mm on a cropped frame digital EOS, and the 28mm was an equivalent of 45mm. I prefer wider angles, but 56mm is just as good for a normal and the results are excellent. The 24mm F2.8 is better than the 28mm F2.8 and worse than the 35mm F2.