1Dsmk3 and 24mm ... very soft

*Jeroen* · May 5, 2008

The 24-70mm 2.8 is a lens is used very much on my 1Dsmk2. Groupportrets when using the wide side of the lens looks absolutely great. Unfortuanately the images made with the 1Dsmk3 looks extremely soft and blurry. De 70mm side of the lens is okay. Sharpness is good. I'm afraid I can't use this lens anymore the way I used to.

Sounds familiar to someone ?

Jeroen

JClaude · May 5, 2008

I would tend not to blame the lens, and look elsewhere for the source of the problem..ie the camera! The DsIII is NOT that much more to turn image from that great lens suddenly "soft" (I own all the gear you mention, and had not such problem)

--
JClaude
http://www.opusmeum.com
Personal Creative

Brian Choi · May 6, 2008

Sounds like a problem with your lens if one end is sharp and the other is muddy. Granted, the 70mm end should be sharper, but not drastically.

Mikael Risedal · May 6, 2008

I tryed out 3 different examples of 24-70 lenses before I got one good at 24mm.

Look also at: http://www.photozone.de/Reviews/Canon%20EOS%20Lens%20Tests/184-canon-ef-24-70mm-f28-usm-l-test-report--review?start=1

Well, I guess everybody has a nemesis and mine is the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 USM L. It took me 4 (f-o-u-r) samples of the lens to get a good one - please note: "good", not a "great" sample. The first three variants showed rather hefty centering defects which spoiled the results quite a bit.

Ghozer · May 6, 2008

A guy I know went through something like 3 24-70s and multiple trips to Irvine to get it worked out. There are bad ones out there. I got one and have no issues that I've found at all. I've found it very sharp, especially at 24mm.

Mikael Risedal said:
I tryed out 3 different examples of 24-70 lenses before I got one
good at 24mm.

Look also at:

http://www.photozone.de/Reviews/Canon%20EOS%20Lens%20Tests/184-canon-ef-24-70mm-f28-usm-l-test-report--review?start=1

Well, I guess everybody has a nemesis and mine is the Canon EF
24-70mm f/2.8 USM L. It took me 4 (f-o-u-r) samples of the lens to
get a good one - please note: "good", not a "great" sample. The first
three variants showed rather hefty centering defects which spoiled
the results quite a bit.

--
Cheers,
Doug

http://www.doglesbyimages.com

astirusty · May 6, 2008

Mikael Risedal said:
It took me 4 (f-o-u-r) samples of the lens to
get a good one - please note: "good", not a "great" sample.

Good grief! Does Canon even have a clue about quality?

astirusty · May 6, 2008

Ghozer said:
A guy I know went through something like 3 24-70s and multiple trips
to Irvine to get it worked out.

Given two stories of multiple failures of 24-70s, I have to wonder how bad the problem is - with respect to people not realizing it and this is just one of many photography forums.

Has Canon recalled any of the 24-70s?

JClaude · May 6, 2008

I must be the luckiest guy on earth, check my profile for my lens list, I have no problem to report with any of them, except maybe my fairly common inability to use them properly and blaming the lens rather then myself, but I am still learning.
Is that any good for a clue ?

astirusty said:
Mikael Risedal said:

It took me 4 (f-o-u-r) samples of the lens to
get a good one - please note: "good", not a "great" sample.

Click to expand...

Good grief! Does Canon even have a clue about quality?

--
JClaude
http://www.opusmeum.com
Personal Creative

Barry Goyette · May 6, 2008

Jeroen, you didn't report whether the images are being manually focused or AF.

If it's AF, then I'd try the microadjustment on the camera. I did it and was able to fix focus shift problems that I was seeing. Additionally, the word from Canon Service in Irvine is that these zooms need to be recalibrated for us on the 1d bodies. I haven't sent mine in, but a friend did, and his was returned in a few days, for no cost and it was working fine after the calibration.

Barry

astirusty · May 6, 2008

JClaude said:
I must be the luckiest guy on earth, check my profile for my lens
list, I have no problem to report with any of them,

After looking at your list of lens, I can only say - you must be the luckiest guy on earth.

Rootbeer · May 6, 2008

[B] Jeroen said:
The 24-70mm 2.8 is a lens is used very much on my 1Dsmk2.
Groupportrets when using the wide side of the lens looks absolutely
great. Unfortuanately the images made with the 1Dsmk3 looks extremely
soft and blurry. De 70mm side of the lens is okay. Sharpness is good.
I'm afraid I can't use this lens anymore the way I used to.

Sounds familiar to someone ?

Jeroen

Yes, that sounds familiar.. I had a 28-70 L that did the same thing.. What happened was that it got bounced around a bit, and one of the lens elements came slightly out of it's position, resulting in the left side being sharp, and the right side being "mushy"..

You might have to have your lens readjusted to factory specs.

JP

--
http://www.Myspace.com/JPphotographer [/B]

*Jeroen* · May 6, 2008

Hi Barry,

I focus with AF.

I don't expect micro adjustment will do any good because the 70mm side of the lens is ok. Strange is that this lens did a great job on my 1Ds2. Very sharp.
So I guess it's something in combination with the 1Ds3

Jeroen

Barry Goyette said:
Jeroen, you didn't report whether the images are being manually
focused or AF.

If it's AF, then I'd try the microadjustment on the camera. I did it
and was able to fix focus shift problems that I was seeing.
Additionally, the word from Canon Service in Irvine is that these
zooms need to be recalibrated for us on the 1d bodies. I haven't sent
mine in, but a friend did, and his was returned in a few days, for no
cost and it was working fine after the calibration.

Barry

JClaude · May 6, 2008

I agree and I am sure there are plenty other that do not have problems with their lenses, when I (too often) hear people mentioning they went through 3 or 4 units before finding a good, I wonder how many of these are based on user error, exacerbated fussiness or people with nothing better to do with their time (given some might in fact be unlucky with the units their are getting, all of them, all 3 or 4 times)

astirusty said:
JClaude said:

I must be the luckiest guy on earth, check my profile for my lens
list, I have no problem to report with any of them,

Click to expand...

After looking at your list of lens, I can only say - you must be the
luckiest guy on earth.

--
JClaude
http://www.opusmeum.com
Personal Creative

rrcphoto · May 6, 2008

[B] Jeroen said:
The 24-70mm 2.8 is a lens is used very much on my 1Dsmk2.
Groupportrets when using the wide side of the lens looks absolutely
great. Unfortuanately the images made with the 1Dsmk3 looks extremely
soft and blurry. De 70mm side of the lens is okay. Sharpness is good.
I'm afraid I can't use this lens anymore the way I used to.

Sounds familiar to someone ?

Jeroen

the higher pixel density is probably showing a decentering that you weren't able to see on the DsII

did you try all f-stops and see if sweet spot has moved? with the variation of pixel density, the sweet spot will atypically move. ie: if it was sharp at 5.6 on your DsII, might have to be at f/8 to be as good.

and ps.. I love my 24-70, one lens that will have to be pried from my cold dead hands - but yes, there seems to be some sample variations with the 24-70.[/B]

*Jeroen* · May 6, 2008

rrcphoto said:
[B] Jeroen said:

The 24-70mm 2.8 is a lens is used very much on my 1Dsmk2.
Groupportrets when using the wide side of the lens looks absolutely
great. Unfortuanately the images made with the 1Dsmk3 looks extremely
soft and blurry. De 70mm side of the lens is okay. Sharpness is good.
I'm afraid I can't use this lens anymore the way I used to.

Sounds familiar to someone ?

Jeroen

Click to expand...

the higher pixel density is probably showing a decentering that you
weren't able to see on the DsII

did you try all f-stops and see if sweet spot has moved? with the
variation of pixel density, the sweet spot will atypically move. ie:
if it was sharp at 5.6 on your DsII, might have to be at f/8 to be as
good.

and ps.. I love my 24-70, one lens that will have to be pried from my
cold dead hands - but yes, there seems to be some sample variations
with the 24-70.

Thank you.

I loved this lens to but i hope not that I can only use it from f8 and up because of the sweet spot. I bought a 2.8 lens because it's fast and has a great large aperture.

Jeroen[/B]

rrcphoto · May 6, 2008

fast lenses are always a tradeoff especially zooms.

if I had a dollar for everytime someone bought even a prime and then complained it wasn't tact on sharp wide open .. I'd have alot more L glass than I currently do, oh, and a nifty 5DIR body as well.

any lens with some very notable exceptions will only hit their sweet spot when stopped down - especially at extremes. Even the zeiss distagon 21mm which when stopped down is breathtaking, doesn't perform up to it's gobsmackingly good resolving power at f/2.8. Nor the equally as wonderful zeiss 80mm/1.4 - and they are considered two of some of the best lenses on the planet.

your DsIII will push that to the max - which is why I'm morbidly curious of the rumoured 24Mp sony and nikon arrive - we'll hear the same comments on the other side of the fence.

part of the "joy" cough .. is discovering where the optical characteristics of your entire system reside and where they are the best. that is a combination of your camera's digital sensor capabilities and pixel densities, your raw conversion, and the lenses themselves. you've changed one aspect of your digital system - the optical systematic characteristics will change.

astirusty · May 6, 2008

rrcphoto said:
Even the zeiss
distagon 21mm which when stopped down is breathtaking, doesn't
perform up to it's gobsmackingly good resolving power at f/2.8. Nor
the equally as wonderful zeiss 80mm/1.4 - and they are considered two
of some of the best lenses on the planet.

rrcphoto said:
your DsIII will push that to the max - which is why I'm morbidly
curious of the rumoured 24Mp sony and nikon arrive - we'll hear the
same comments on the other side of the fence.

Which leads to two questions:
Is Canon's older L glass up to the task (1Ds Mk3)?
Is any of Canon's L glass up to the task?

Ghozer · May 6, 2008

I can tell you that the 24-70L, 24L, 35L, and 70-200 f/4L work fine on the 1Ds3.

astirusty said:
rrcphoto said:

Even the zeiss
distagon 21mm which when stopped down is breathtaking, doesn't
perform up to it's gobsmackingly good resolving power at f/2.8. Nor
the equally as wonderful zeiss 80mm/1.4 - and they are considered two
of some of the best lenses on the planet.

Click to expand...

astirusty said:

your DsIII will push that to the max - which is why I'm morbidly
curious of the rumoured 24Mp sony and nikon arrive - we'll hear the
same comments on the other side of the fence.

Click to expand...

Which leads to two questions:
Is Canon's older L glass up to the task (1Ds Mk3)?
Is any of Canon's L glass up to the task?

--
Cheers,
Doug

http://www.doglesbyimages.com

love_them_all · May 6, 2008

Are you saying the 21mp sensor out-resolve the 24-70 @ the wide end? Are you comparing images @ 100% or down res to the MkII resolution? If the output size is the same I wonder if you can notice the images are softer on the MKIII.

Some examples would be great.

Having said that how about using any primes? Same results?

[B] Jeroen said:
The 24-70mm 2.8 is a lens is used very much on my 1Dsmk2.
Groupportrets when using the wide side of the lens looks absolutely
great. Unfortuanately the images made with the 1Dsmk3 looks extremely
soft and blurry. De 70mm side of the lens is okay. Sharpness is good.
I'm afraid I can't use this lens anymore the way I used to.

Sounds familiar to someone ?

Jeroen

--

[/B]

Ron Geur · May 6, 2008

Mikael Risedal said:
I tryed out 3 different examples of 24-70 lenses before I got one
good at 24mm.

Mikael, I realize that when spending that kind of money on a lens, you should be entitled to a "good copy." But I was curious, do you think had you kept one of the "bad copies" that it could have been "fixed" (calibrated?) to optimal specs at a Canon service center, or do you think the "bad copy" is generally beyond salvage.

With so many stories of people having to sort through multiple copies of an L lens to get a good one, I'm beginning to think it makes the most sense to routinely send in all new lenses to the service center (assuming they do quality work) to get calibrated.

Ron
--
http://www.pbase.com/loonbay7
http://www.rongeur.zenfolio.com

1Dsmk3 and 24mm ... very soft

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