24-70 L II: Is close focusing softness a serious issue?

wcan wrote:

Rick Knepper wrote:

wcan wrote:

Just read the review here on the Canon 24-70L II and noticed the calling out of softness at close focusing distances. I currently have the Mark I version of this lens on a 5D2 body. Typically, if I'm working with a model outdoors, I certainly will do some full face close-ups and am concerned with the reported softness. Was thinking about upgrading to the 24-70II but am concerned that portraits which fill the frame (i.e. 70mm close to subject) will appear soft with the new lens (I really don't want to have to change lenses to overcome this shortcoming). Any opinions?

"The lens does have one clear optical flaw, although it's a comparatively minor one in practice. It gets very soft when shot wide open towards its minimum focus distance, and autofocus accuracy can suffer as a result. This means it's not a good choice for selective focus close-ups, but we suspect most serious users will choose a proper macro lens for this purpose anyway."

What scares me is: "...It gets very soft...". If I was using this lens and wanted to fill the frame with someone's face or facial feature requiring me to get in really close when at 70mm, I don't want to have to worry about ending up with a "very soft" image because I got too close.

But what you seem to be skipping over in the review is "...it's a comparatively minor one in practice..." and "...we suspect most serious users will choose a proper macro lens...".