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L lenses on 400D - no better than kit lens ?

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briandaly

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The sharpness of my 24-70L seems to be no better than that of the 18-55 EF-S kit lens, when used on the 400D. The 17-40L is even less sharp.

By comparison, on the 5D the 24-70 seems very sharp.

Is this potentially a calibration issue between camera and lens?

Here's a link to some photos taken using a tripod + 10-sec timer.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/briandaly/sets/72157594415288254/

The coin shots were taken with the 18-55 and the 24-70L.
The tree shots were taken with the 24-70L and 17-40L.
 
In the coin picture, I see that the 24-70 produces a sharper picture than the 18-55. In the tree pictures, I feel like you're doing something wrong but I don't know what.

By "10-second timer" do you mean that you pressed the button on the camera, and did not use a remote release? That will produce some shake, and I would recommend using mirror lock-up at slow shutter speeds because not doing a mirror lock up will also produce blurry pictures.
 
ohsotrue_ said:
In the coin picture, I see that the 24-70 produces a sharper
picture than the 18-55. In the tree pictures, I feel like you're
doing something wrong but I don't know what.

By "10-second timer" do you mean that you pressed the button on the
camera, and did not use a remote release? That will produce some
shake, and I would recommend using mirror lock-up at slow shutter
speeds because not doing a mirror lock up will also produce blurry
pictures.
Click to expand...
Yes - I don't have a remote release so I used the 10-second timer. When I get a remote release, I can do some tests with mirror lock-up.

While the 24-70L is marginally sharper than the kit lens, the 17-40 doesn't seem to render anything in sharp focus.

I just wondered if anyone had these lenses on a 400D and were getting razor-sharp results.
 
On the 400D, are your shooting RAW or JPG? If JPG, what Picture Style setting are you using? If RAW, what raw to jpg conversion software are you using?
 
something is wrong here

plus you dont need a cable release for mirror lock use the self timer
 
If you really want to test the lenses...

On solid tripod in good light, shutter speeds above 1/100th, with self timer or remote shutter, all shooting the same detailed and contrasty non-moving subject at more than the minimum focus distance... ... and all either post processed not at all or the exact same way.

Take test shots comparing:

18-55 f/3.5
24-70 f/2.8 L
17-40 f/4 L

And post 100% crops at center and corner for all tests, with exif information. It is important to show both center where you will see the best performance and corner of the frame where you will see the worst.

At all lenses wide open. This is the worst case for all lens sharpness.

In this case, the kit should be dreamy soft. The 24-70 sharp enough, the 17-40 only OK.

At f/4. This is the first place you can do a "fair" comparison. The 24-70 should be RAZER sharp already stopped down one. The 17-40 only ok, as in the first test wide open. The 18-55 should sharp enough, but still last.

At f/8. All lenses should be very sharp. If you are really critical, you may find the L lenses slightly better than the 18-55.

If you get anything less than that, then return either the camera or lens or ship them all off to be calibrated!

Best of luck!

--
CityLights
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/favorites
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/show_case
.
 
Are these any help?

400D image & EF15mm



400D image & EF17-40 L



400D image & EF 100-400 L



I grant that the 100-400 L image is not razor sharp, but my excuse is the subject was a bit quick.

--
Sid
 
briandaly said:
The sharpness of my 24-70L seems to be no better than that of the
18-55 EF-S kit lens, when used on the 400D. The 17-40L is even less
sharp.
Click to expand...
maybe you got a bad lens? but the kit lens for me works very well when stopped down to F8 or so and it is quite sharp.

I think on a 1.6x crop factor camera, the advantage of the L lens won't be so obvious as the edge of that lens would probably be sharper..not that the EF-S would fit on a FF camera anyway..
briandaly said:
By comparison, on the 5D the 24-70 seems very sharp.

Is this potentially a calibration issue between camera and lens?
Click to expand...
could be.

to me the coin shot looks sharper with the L lens.

--



http://www.pbase.com/zylen
 
CityLights said:
If you really want to test the lenses...

On solid tripod in good light, shutter speeds above 1/100th, with
self timer or remote shutter, all shooting the same detailed and
contrasty non-moving subject at more than the minimum focus
distance... ... and all either post processed not at all or the
exact same way.

Take test shots comparing:

18-55 f/3.5
24-70 f/2.8 L
17-40 f/4 L

And post 100% crops at center and corner for all tests, with exif
information. It is important to show both center where you will
see the best performance and corner of the frame where you will see
the worst.
Click to expand...
CityLights said:
At all lenses wide open. This is the worst case for all lens
sharpness.

In this case, the kit should be dreamy soft. The 24-70 sharp
enough, the 17-40 only OK.

At f/4. This is the first place you can do a "fair" comparison.
The 24-70 should be RAZER sharp already stopped down one. The
17-40 only ok, as in the first test wide open. The 18-55 should
sharp enough, but still last.

At f/8. All lenses should be very sharp. If you are really
critical, you may find the L lenses slightly better than the 18-55.

If you get anything less than that, then return either the camera
or lens or ship them all off to be calibrated!

Best of luck!

--
CityLights
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/favorites
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/show_case
.
Click to expand...
Thanks everyone for all your suggestions and photos.

I've re-tested using tripod, mirror lock-up, 2-sec timer, flash-illuminated target.
Here's the link to the new photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/briandaly/sets/72157594417483426/

Results much the same as before:
24-70L OK but not razor-sharp.
17-40 fairly poor (at its worst at f/22! - diffraction???)
 
My kit lens continues to impress me. It is extremely sharp and I would not be afraid to put it up against any L lens. BUT ... (yes there is always a but) only at f11. Wide open it is not nearly as good as any "L". In my opinion you pay for the larger the sweet spot with "L" lens. Go with good primes if you are on a budget but want the larger f-stop range in a lens.
 
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