Is this lens worth keeping?

[deadman]

I wanted to compare what my dads old 35-80mm lens that came with a Canon 1000F to my new 18-55mm IS lens that came with my 450D. Not scientific by any means but good enough to see some clear differences. I was surprised at how much lighter the image from the older lens is. I tried to keep the apertures close and focal lens same or close. 100% crop on all photos.

35-80mm at 35mm
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g190/deadman3000/IMG_0814.jpg

18-55mm IS at 34mm
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g190/deadman3000/IMG_0813.jpg

35-80mm at 53mm
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g190/deadman3000/IMG_0815.jpg

18-55mm IS at 55mm
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g190/deadman3000/IMG_0816.jpg

Worth keeping the 35-80mm or should I donate it to someone who was asking for one to replace his chipped lens?

[VTEC_EATER]

Have you checked the lens for fungus or anything? Its pretty cloudy looking. Color and contrast on that lens is pretty crummy if you ask me.

It isn't costing you anything to keep it, and based on its performance, I don't think you will really get much of anything for it.

I would maybe keep it if you wanted to do some experimenting, but other than that, it probably wont see much use.

[deadman]

I will wait for it to warm up a bit (Was in a cold room) and try again. I cannot see anything obviously wrong with it. Would not know how to clean it either. As you state I will probably never use it. So I will check it out again later once it's been sitting in the warmth for a bit. If it checks out OK I will see if I can contact that dude who wants it.

[michaelb]

The 35-80 is perhaps one of Canon's worst lenses and your examples show this quite well. Your new 18-55 IS blows it out of the water. I'd ditch that 35-80.

What this really shows is how much better Canon's "consumer" lenses are nowadays. The 18-55 IS is actually a very nice lens and compares favorably to the 17-55 f/2.8 IS in some testing that I've seen.