A few months on, my thoughts on the 24-70L

I have been the frustrated owner of this lens for several months now and after a rocky start I can say that things have settled down.

Firstly, when I looked over the results this lens gave, and became disappointed by them, I started to read the many threads regarding soft or focus issues and began to think that it was a manufacturing fault that caused so many of the users to be so disappointed also.

I have never experienced such a low percentage of keeper photos from a camera/lens combination as the 20d and 24-70 L combo.

Not from the kit lens (plastic fantastic) not form the 70-300Is and definitely not from the 50 1.4 or the 85 1.8.

The results I was achieving where dismal and I had come to expect better results than from the above line-up. But then again, I was used to multi focus selection and whatever shutter speed the camera selected in AV etc… But I can’t do that with the 24-70.

After mush testing I have finally achieved super sharp, brilliant contrast and quality shots. How? Simple, just use it tripod mounted, manually focus and shoot with an elinchrom flash in what effectively became a home studio set up!.

This lens is designed for studio work. It is the first lens that allows you to manually focus you subject even with a crop sensor camera. I consistently kept the shutter at 200 and aperture at 5.6 and presto, the perfect studio lens, You can zoom in on your subject for tighter crop etc it is a real joy in this environment.My pictures are quite sharp, worth the reputation of the L.

As a walk around, I would not recommend it as its not that forgiving, I can achieve far better shots outdoors and shooting action now days but the parameters are restricted compared to other lenses. I can only achieve results by using centre focus and by always keeping that shutter speed up or else shake is evident.

If you are shooting weddings I imagine it would be great too as your subject will always be set up first or positioned therefore giving you time to concentrate on the shot and parameters.