Ordered on Monday from Flash Camera, arrived on Tuesday so great service.  Now as with most modern lenses I always seem to get that initial slight disappointment regarding build quality for the money.  Don't get me wrong here, I know that modern plastics are a good material and the inner electronics and glass are probably top notch, but compared to say the recently purchased (Korean) Samyang 8mm, the Canon just feels cheap!  Anyway, in-line with the modern paranoia regarding AF lenses and back/forward focusing issues, the first thing I did was set up a test shot and of course it's spot-on and nice and sharp :-)  If I remember I'll post a picture of the test chart, results.  To be honest I not to rigorous with my testing methodology its just a printed page at 45 degrees to the camera on a tripod with the lens wide open and at about minimum focussing distance (MFD).  A little later along with the test picture I'll post up a link to the document where you can down load the target and instructions if anyone is interested?  Although perhaps for many ingnorance is indeed bliss and if you are happy with the performance of your current lenses, why would you test them?

Anyway, looking forward to giving this a good test drive in the studio tonight.

Keeping busy & getting a bit of a change of perspective, I'm doing some structured studio photography in the evenings at the local College of Arts.  First thing I needed to come to terms with is that my Sigma 18-125mm definitely has a fault and now continually to miss-focuses and my older 35-70mm is just to soft at wider apertures!  So it is time for another lens and whilst I will either send the Sigma in for repair or repalce it with the newer Optically Stabalised (OS) version, this is a good excuse to get a fast(ish) portrait lens.  Now in the old film days my favourite focal length for portraits was 135mm which on a crop sensor equates to about an 85mm as near as.  So just placed an order for a Canon 85mm f1.8, which hopefully will be here intime for the next session.