Canon 24-70L

scotts1919 · May 3, 2011

So i just ordered my first L lens after having my 50d for 2 years and using the 28-135. I am very excited to add it to my small collection which will include the 24-70 and a 50mm 1.8.

My question is, i keep reading about bad batches of these 24-70 lenses. How do i test properly once i receive it so i can figure out if i have a lemon or not?

Thanks for any info...

sparkling elk · May 3, 2011

i did following:

shooting series @f2.8, including portraits and at infinity, verifying the sharpness.
well, mine was not sharp enough wide open, so i sent it for callibration.

since then, its perfect and i am amazed by the combination of sharpness and bokeh wide open.
the lens is even better than i thought.

scotts1919 said:
So i just ordered my first L lens after having my 50d for 2 years and using the 28-135. I am very excited to add it to my small collection which will include the 24-70 and a 50mm 1.8.

My question is, i keep reading about bad batches of these 24-70 lenses. How do i test properly once i receive it so i can figure out if i have a lemon or not?

Thanks for any info...

--
Eckhard Aland
http://www.flickr.com/photos/proud-elk/collections/

Peter 13 · May 3, 2011

Let me be blunt. It is the wrong lens for your camera. The 17-55 has a more useful range, IS, costs less, weighs less, and is sharper.

MitchAlsup · May 3, 2011

Peter 13 said:
Let me be blunt. It is the wrong lens for your camera.

It may be the wrong lens for you and your camera and your shooting style, and still be the right lens for him and his camera and his shooting style. {Mathew 7.1}

Peter 13 said:
The 17-55 has a more useful range, IS, costs less, weighs less, and is sharper.

The utility of the 17-55 over the 24-70 is highly dependent on what kinds of things he wants to shoot. Especially if he values the 55-70mm range of zooming more than the 17-24mm range of zooming. He may have asperationfs of a Full Frame camera a few years down the road, or enjoy the build quality advantages of the hefty L.
--
Mitch

Scales USA · May 3, 2011

I tried five of them, all from different years and batches, but none compared well on a crop camera to my 24-105mmL or my 17-55.

Compare it to another "L" or 17-55 in the same range to see which you like. Its not the best choice for a first "L" lens, since you have nothing to compare it to, it might look good to you and average or even defective to someone who has other expensive lenses. however, if you get a good one, then they are excellent.

http://www.photozone.de/canon-eos/184-canon-ef-24-70mm-f28-usm-l-test-report--review

scotts1919 · May 3, 2011

Thank you mitch and Elk. My plan is to sometime down the road get a full frame so then i can take full advantage of the wide open end of the lens. I know that a lot of people like the 17-55 and i did look at it, but i wanted to think about the future.

Thus getting an EF-S and then getting a full frame in a year or 2 makes me have to sell the 17-55, thus losing a little money during resale.

I asked a simple opinion of how i can check sharpness, not get opinions on how much of an idiot i am for getting a 24-70 on a crop sensor! I had the 28-135 and i felt the 28mm was wide enough, so now im going down a little to a 24mm, even better.

My other thinking was to get the 17-40 but i wanted the f2.8 more than getting a wider lens.

Some of you make it seem like it was the biggest mistake to buy a 24-70? Why?

For me going from a 28-135 to a 24-70 2.8 is a huge jump in picture quality and lens build. Am i wrong about this?

Peter 13 · May 3, 2011

MitchAlsup said:
The utility of the 17-55 over the 24-70 is highly dependent on what kinds of things he wants to shoot. Especially if he values the 55-70mm range of zooming more than the 17-24mm range of zooming.

The extra sharpness of the EF-S zoom at 55 mm (per PZ) compensates for the loss of 15 mm at the long end. Crop, and you will have a similar photo. Also, there is little difference in the AOV between 55 and 70 mm, compared to 17 vs. 24 mm.

MitchAlsup said:
He may have asperationfs of a Full Frame camera a few years down the road, or enjoy the build quality advantages of the hefty L.

The 24-70 is likely to be updated soon. A few years down the road, he may decide that he wants the new one, or the 24-105, or he may decide that he does not want to go FF.

AOKH · May 3, 2011

Personally, I never "test" a lens from the get-go as I always find that that any flaws will be evident through normal usage, especially when used wide open. However, there are lots ways to test, if you prefer. One of themore popular here: http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/technical/lens_sharpness.html

I got the 24-70L for my 5D2 a while back and could not be happier with it. Sharp wide open and no MA needed. I suggest you enjoy the lens, take some real-life photos (making sure you use if wide-open on some of them). Personally, I would only bother with testing if you feel the pictures are not coming out the way you expect. It is a great lens, indeed (the range on a crop not-withstanding).

For a more balanced read of (over 500) users of this lens, please see http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=5&sort=7&cat=27&page=1 .

Good luck.

scotts1919 said:
Thank you mitch and Elk. My plan is to sometime down the road get a full frame so then i can take full advantage of the wide open end of the lens. I know that a lot of people like the 17-55 and i did look at it, but i wanted to think about the future.

Thus getting an EF-S and then getting a full frame in a year or 2 makes me have to sell the 17-55, thus losing a little money during resale.

I asked a simple opinion of how i can check sharpness, not get opinions on how much of an idiot i am for getting a 24-70 on a crop sensor! I had the 28-135 and i felt the 28mm was wide enough, so now im going down a little to a 24mm, even better.

My other thinking was to get the 17-40 but i wanted the f2.8 more than getting a wider lens.

Some of you make it seem like it was the biggest mistake to buy a 24-70? Why?

For me going from a 28-135 to a 24-70 2.8 is a huge jump in picture quality and lens build. Am i wrong about this?

--
Regards. Anders

scotts1919 · May 3, 2011

Thank you AOKH. Thank you Elk and Mitch.

So i frequent this forum fairly often but i haven't as much lately because of the issue i had with the majority of people posting negative comments and negative information. The same issue i had with this forum a year ago is still evident today!

Im not saying that everyone that posts on this forum is negative or has bad opinions but there is such a scolding feeling brought by some of the people posting on here.

This forum should be more of a open opinion and open discussion and it seems it is more of a bashing and ridicule forum.

Thank you to those who help and no thank you to the people that just want to bash people and pretty much call them idiots.

"Opinions are like a* holes. Everybody's got one and everyone thinks everyone else's stinks."

Peter 13 · May 3, 2011

Lighten up. Pointing out a mistake, if the poster believes it is a mistake, is not a "negative opinion". It is the best help that you can get. Of coures, you are free to ignore it, and that poster might be wrong.

And you are the onlly one so far who used the word idiot , twice, and bashed somebody else.

HarryLally · May 3, 2011

I'd also recommend the Bob Atkins testing procedure. The trouble with any testing of this lens, though, (particularly in shooting a brick wall) is that it has pronounced field curvature at the wide end and you need to use special techniques to overcome it. See an explanation here:

http://www.photozone.de/canon_eos_ff/528-canon2470f28ff?start=1

Michael

Gunzorro · May 3, 2011

I agree with you. My 24-70 was my first great zoom lens. I'd owned some single foclal lengths that were great, like the old 24TS (in its day, it was great), and the 24-70 blew the others away.

I think I got mine primarily for my original 5D, but it might have been while I had my 20D. Anyway, it was basically the same approach you are taking.

Congrats! You'll enjoy it.

I wouldn't bother with an intense testing program unless you find it has problems. You should check your images closely, and do some informal testing, but the likelihood is that yours is going to be fine.

scotts1919 said:
Thank you mitch and Elk. My plan is to sometime down the road get a full frame so then i can take full advantage of the wide open end of the lens. I know that a lot of people like the 17-55 and i did look at it, but i wanted to think about the future.

Thus getting an EF-S and then getting a full frame in a year or 2 makes me have to sell the 17-55, thus losing a little money during resale.

I asked a simple opinion of how i can check sharpness, not get opinions on how much of an idiot i am for getting a 24-70 on a crop sensor! I had the 28-135 and i felt the 28mm was wide enough, so now im going down a little to a 24mm, even better.

My other thinking was to get the 17-40 but i wanted the f2.8 more than getting a wider lens.

Some of you make it seem like it was the biggest mistake to buy a 24-70? Why?

For me going from a 28-135 to a 24-70 2.8 is a huge jump in picture quality and lens build. Am i wrong about this?

balloonchasers · May 3, 2011

scotts1919,

Congrats on your new lens! The 24-70 was my go to lens with my 30D for about 2 years and now is my lens of choice with my 50D. I do test my lenses when I first get them... so the first thing I always do is the old front focus/back focus test.

Once a lens passes this test then I simply shoot my usual stuff and review the images at 100% from time to time.

With my new 50D I did go a little more in depth with the testing since I could microadjust the focus (+7 needed). This was done with a well lit, stationary object, camera on tripod, fast shutter speed, etc...

Enjoy your new lens and you will soon learn why it is called "the brick". ;-)

John
--

Feel free to use any of these additional letters to correct the spelling of words found in the above post: a-e-t-n-d-i-o-s-m-l-u-y-h-c If you find any extra letters, please place them here for future use...

steve ohlhaber · May 3, 2011

I have had to send back EFS and EF lenses to canon for being stupidly off. I just do a wide open aperture corner test. Shoot the same thing in the extreme corners from a tripod. You need to get the lens centered over the tripod at the focus axis, whatever its called. Then, you should see the same amount of blur in each corner. I shoot something about 12 feet away that has print on it so I can see how clear it is. I shoot raw with no sharpening at all so I can see what the cam is doing. I then take each corner and chop it out and make a new single image with all the same corner from each shot on one page so I can take a look at it. The corners should all have the same amount of blur.

I had 3 bad lenses so far. In each case, the replacement was perfect. I dont think people realize how off so much product is. I suspect some of it is shipping. I never trust any lens if its been dropped. If I do drop it, its back to the corner test again. There are apparently a great number of faulty lenses out there and people just haul off an assume its right cause its new. Dont.

panzer_kusanagi · May 3, 2011

Yes, it can be a little soft wide open @70mm. But for my needs, it's a fantastic lens (low light portraits with incredible bokeh for isolation). While I've been using it with my 7D, I am also looking forward to using it with the 5D III. You will love it.

DBCossini · May 3, 2011

I cant begin to tell you how much I love mine! I have had it for several years now and it is sharp wide open at 70mm and 24 as well. Even if a new comes along I will buy it, but I will not get rid of my original 24-70 it is my bread and butter for weddings it stays glued to my 5DMKII and classic 5D

This is a photo of my Pops at the Doctors office. But I have to say you will get better results when you go FF with this lens.

time20n · May 3, 2011

( Thank you to those who help and no thank you to the people that just want to bash people and pretty much call them idiots. )

Your making more out of what he said, then what he was really saying, many people may not understand and he was trying to be helpful.

It goes both way on any forum, people can take things the wrong way, if they are thinking people are just trying to get on them, I did not see that at all here.

Now your reaction seems a bit over the top for what was said, if your looking for trouble with people, then you'll likely find it pretty fast.

--
My psig photos at photosig http://www.photosig.com/go/users/userphotos?id=169695

time20n · May 3, 2011

Congrats on your new L lens, your first is always a big thing for anyone, now you'll love it so much you will want more L lenses to go with it.

I check out my lenses by just taking some shots with it out side, I take shots of signs and house with different kinds of lines, if it passes that ok, I don't worry much as you can send it in to get fixed later.

When I did the test shots I go from wide open, then down in steps and do them in groups, and make sure I focus on the center of the frame, you need to make sure you take the lighting into account as well.

--
My psig photos at photosig http://www.photosig.com/go/users/userphotos?id=169695

jayboo · May 4, 2011

Yes - I am sure it is annoying when you have made your choice and people tell you it was the wrong one - I'm sure you thought long and hard - when spending this much money who doesn't.

Having agonised about testing when buying a new lens myself - now I find it best to just go out - somewhere I regularly shoot - and take some pictures - then I test if I am not really happy with results - but only if after studying exif I am sure I wasn't too much of an idiot with regard to SS etc - its usually in my case - user error - when things aren't as good as expected.
For a quick test I do as above with the battery line up - that works for me.
Good luck and enjoy your new lens.
Jayboo

barbossa3127 · May 4, 2011

I have the 24-70 as well and it's a mainstay on my 7D. I absolutely love the lens and can't say enough good things about it. I read a lot of reviews that it wasn't a good lens on a crop sensor, but went with it regardless and have no regrets. It's an awesome lens. Enjoy it!

--
Life is tough, but it's tougher if you're stupid.

-John Wayne as Sgt. Stryker in Sands Of Iwo Jima

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