Used on Canon 5DS R and 200D for landscape-type subjects, mainly hand-held. Excellent on APS-C or FF cropped. A bit iffy at the edges on FF uncropped.
On a FF sensor, the lens delivers really excellent sharpness in the central region at all apertures and focal lengths - on a par with primes even on the 50mp 5DS R. Sharpness can drop off quite a bit towards the edges and corners in many subjects, though this is often the result of field curvature/focal plane tilting rather than actual softness. So for landscape work on FF, this is really the main issue. It's quite hard to predict the behaviour of the focal plane as it varies quite a lot at different focal lengths, so careful focusing in live view may be required to get the very best results at the edges. Also stopping down beyond f/8 helps. Using it on a tripod therefore offers the best opportunity for getting sharpest results across the full frame image.
I personally value sharp edges for my work, so I have taken to using it in APS-H or APS-C crop modes on the 5DS-R, which still give enough resolution for great quality images. In APS-C mode, it's reliably sharp across the frame at all focal lengths, with minimal field curvature, distortion and vignetting. Of course for the wider angles, I have no choice but to use the full frame. It's pretty good of FF at 28mm, but at 24 the corners do go very soft.
I've used it on a 200D quite a bit, with very good results. Yes that camera is tiny for the size and weight of the lens, so handling isn't great, but it works well enough - I just support the weight with my left hand. However I then need another lens to access anything wider than 38mm equivalent, which I do need quite frequently, so the lens loses its 'all in one' appeal. On 1.5x crop cameras like Nikon and Pentax, you would get 35mm equivalent, which is a bit more palatable.
Overall clarity and colour is excellent. OOF areas are quite decent, though not super-smooth.
As most others say, the build quality is excellent - solid as a rock. The relatively stiff zoom ring is a plus for me, as once I've set the focal length, it won't change. The focusing ring is nice in function, but too small to find easily by feel without practice. I'd prefer it at the front of the lens and a bit wider, so that I could support the weight at the zoom ring with my palm whilst manually focusing . Still, once you've found it, it allows pretty good control compared to many AF lenses, and has a decent distance scale.
When I use the AF, it's mainly in live view for accuracy - and it works quickly and reliably.
The stabilizer is excellent and makes handholding viable for this kind of work.
One strange behaviour is that the IS element sinks downwards when the camera goes to sleep, and comes back up when it wakes up. Not a problem or even noticeable most of the time, but if you're using a tripod and compose through the OVF without waking the camera up, you will need to re-compose after the camera wakes up. Bit annoying until you get used to it.
Overall for landscape work, this lens is superb on APS-C as long as you are happy with the 38-168mm (Canon) or 36-157mm effective focal length range. On FF, the zoom range is great, but image quality is not the greatest due to edge sharpness/field curvature issues, though still capable of great results if you plan-in some cropping - especially for a squarer format. For other work where central performance is most important, it should be excellent.
On a FF sensor, the lens delivers really excellent sharpness in the central region at all apertures and focal lengths - on a par with primes even on the 50mp 5DS R. Sharpness can drop off quite a bit towards the edges and corners in many subjects, though this is often the result of field curvature/focal plane tilting rather than actual softness. So for landscape work on FF, this is really the main issue. It's quite hard to predict the behaviour of the focal plane as it varies quite a lot at different focal lengths, so careful focusing in live view may be required to get the very best results at the edges. Also stopping down beyond f/8 helps. Using it on a tripod therefore offers the best opportunity for getting sharpest results across the full frame image.
I personally value sharp edges for my work, so I have taken to using it in APS-H or APS-C crop modes on the 5DS-R, which still give enough resolution for great quality images. In APS-C mode, it's reliably sharp across the frame at all focal lengths, with minimal field curvature, distortion and vignetting. Of course for the wider angles, I have no choice but to use the full frame. It's pretty good of FF at 28mm, but at 24 the corners do go very soft.
I've used it on a 200D quite a bit, with very good results. Yes that camera is tiny for the size and weight of the lens, so handling isn't great, but it works well enough - I just support the weight with my left hand. However I then need another lens to access anything wider than 38mm equivalent, which I do need quite frequently, so the lens loses its 'all in one' appeal. On 1.5x crop cameras like Nikon and Pentax, you would get 35mm equivalent, which is a bit more palatable.
Overall clarity and colour is excellent. OOF areas are quite decent, though not super-smooth.
As most others say, the build quality is excellent - solid as a rock. The relatively stiff zoom ring is a plus for me, as once I've set the focal length, it won't change. The focusing ring is nice in function, but too small to find easily by feel without practice. I'd prefer it at the front of the lens and a bit wider, so that I could support the weight at the zoom ring with my palm whilst manually focusing . Still, once you've found it, it allows pretty good control compared to many AF lenses, and has a decent distance scale.
When I use the AF, it's mainly in live view for accuracy - and it works quickly and reliably.
The stabilizer is excellent and makes handholding viable for this kind of work.
One strange behaviour is that the IS element sinks downwards when the camera goes to sleep, and comes back up when it wakes up. Not a problem or even noticeable most of the time, but if you're using a tripod and compose through the OVF without waking the camera up, you will need to re-compose after the camera wakes up. Bit annoying until you get used to it.
Overall for landscape work, this lens is superb on APS-C as long as you are happy with the 38-168mm (Canon) or 36-157mm effective focal length range. On FF, the zoom range is great, but image quality is not the greatest due to edge sharpness/field curvature issues, though still capable of great results if you plan-in some cropping - especially for a squarer format. For other work where central performance is most important, it should be excellent.
