Canon Road Trip in BC - Canada Tried the RF 28-70 and love it

gimp_dad wrote:

MannyV wrote:

Canon Canada is having a road trip in Province of British Columbia. Previous week Saturday the location was Bloedel Conservatory in Queen Elizabeth Park.

I had the opportunity to participate in the Portrait session. I chose the RF 28-70mm F2 as the lens. Since I have the R6, I chose that camera as I wanted to try the RF28-70 lens with that camera.

A lot of youtubers say the lens is heavy and hefty and more importantly front heavy.

My own experience it is for sure heavier than the RF24-70 2.8 which I own. And it is much much chunkier. Oddly the chunkiness makes this lens feel more balanced in real life handling. I did not feel the front heaviness. It seemed to me well balanced.

Now here is the thing. I shot SOOC JPG's and 90% of time at F2 at various focal length with various camera - subject, and various subject - background distances. When I came home and reviewed the images, I was stunned. The colours, the sharpness, rendering, and the bokeh just stuns me. To the point this lens is now on my want to buy list.

I tried to shoot some images to see how my 24-70 fares. The good news is if I can manage the camera to subject vs the background distance appropriately, at f2.8 the rendering and bokeh is also very pleasing. So while I do not regret this purchase and I won't sell my RF 24-70 (as that is my general purpose lens), if I knew what I know now, I would have prioritized the RF 28-70 first and then buy the RF 24-70.

Anyone with both lenses or the RF 28-70 - what has been your experience? Please share.

Yes. Apparently I am a hardware collector with vain sensibilities because I have both of those lenses...

And my experience matches your assessment. The RF28-70/2L is the ultimate event lens (weddings, parties, etc.) and is a joy to use. However, it is not a joy to carry on an extended trip.

Enter the RF24-70/2.8LIS which is significantly lighter and smaller while providing an excellent focal range for travel and still delivering very good contrast, sharpness, bokeh (for an f2.8 lens) and saturation. It's definitely usable for environmental portraits as well as many landscape situations. Some might prefer a collection of decent primes for this purpose but I find I enjoy shooting with mostly one zoom lens when traveling.

And, if you do a lot of event work, it's clearly useful to have a solid backup to the RF28-70/2L (in case of damage during a once-in-a-lifetime event). The RF24-70/2.8LIS fills that role quite well.

My thinking is similar to yours. The 28-70 has a clear purpose. It is unlikely to become my general purpose lens though. The 24-70 will keeps it place. I guess time will tell once I have both lenses and over a period  of time I may see a pattern of which lens I end up picking.