DPReview.com is closing April 10th - Find out more

STUNNING Optics

Started Mar 26, 2020 | User reviews thread
OP sneakyracer Regular Member • Posts: 462
Re: STUNNING Optics

shawnphoto wrote:

sneakyracer wrote:

This lens is so so good. I use it almost 100% of the time at f2. This lens lives on my EOS R while I am on motion picture sets. It really substitutes three L primes (24, 35 and 50) and it is better optically (and with faster and more accurate AF) than any of those EF lenses wide open.

Here is the one big problem with this lens that nobody mentions. It has substantial focus breathing up close. This is a bummer because it does limit the amount of background blur you can get with that huge f/2 aperture. You can get pretty close with the lens but the focus breathing keeps the maximum magnification low at around .18x while the RF 24-70 gets .3x.

It just sucks that such an expensive lens isn't really hitting 70mm in a lot of portrait scenarios. I'm actually thinking about selling mine as much as I like it for the fast aperture and high image quality. It's huge and I feel that due to the weight and bulk and intimidation factor (I have had more than one customer mention that the lens is huge), it might not quite add up.

True, if one does not NEED the f2 aperture one is better off with the 24-70 no question and for portraits the 70-200 f2.8's are even better.

That said since I shoot from a fixed position a lot of times and in tight and dimly lit spaces a LOT, the flexibility of the zoom range and the f2 aperture is awesome to have. It has made so many more shots possible for me.

The lens does offer an awesome look to the images shot at f2 even with the focus breathing. It really approaches cinema lens quality which is unreal for a MILC zoom. It is the best zoom made for mirrorless bar none.

 sneakyracer's gear list:sneakyracer's gear list
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Canon EOS 5D Mark III Canon RF 28-70mm F2L USM Phase One Capture One Pro +1 more
Keyboard shortcuts:
FForum PPrevious NNext WNext unread UUpvote SSubscribe RReply QQuote BBookmark MMy threads
Color scheme? Blue / Yellow