Home · Register · Join Upload & Sell

Moderated by: Fred Miranda
Username  

  New fredmiranda.com Mobile Site
  New Feature: SMS Notification alert
  New Feature: Buy & Sell Watchlist
  

FM Forums | Canon Forum | Join Upload & Sell

1
       2       end
  

Archive 2017 · Opinions on the 24-70mm 4/L

  
 
Macrogirl
Offline

Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Opinions on the 24-70mm 4/L


Hello All,

I'm very tempted by the canon summer rebate currently offered on the 24-70mm f4/L. I have a nice lens collection, but no 'walk around' lens/travel zoom and this summer have really noticed that lugging a few primes around is not ideal on family holidays. The focal length is great for me, only possibly bested by the 24-105mm (v1. for budget reasons). Needless to say I love the macro feature on this lens but there are so many vastly different opinions out there, ranging from "Aaaargh RSA" to "wow absolutely love!".

I would like to hear some opinions from forum members who have used this lens extensively in real world scenarios. Also alternative suggestions - but preferably not above $600 (this is what the lens currently costs with the rebate). One point of worry for me is that I have been spoilt by the distortion free sharpness of my primes (mostly the 40mm and 85 1.8) and would be disappointed by the pics coming from this lens. Is this justified? I would be mostly shooting architecture, general travel photos and people with this on a 5DII.



Aug 14, 2017 at 10:15 AM
howard
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Opinions on the 24-70mm 4/L


It's good; better than either of the 24-105s.


Aug 14, 2017 at 10:20 AM
LinuxHack3r
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Opinions on the 24-70mm 4/L


I am by no means a professional, but I am an extremely enthusiastic hobbyist. I recently took a trip to Puerto Rico and wanted a lens much like you described. As such, I ended up buying a "new/used" 24-70 f/4.0 IS here on the Buy/Sell.

Of the photos I took while there, here are some of them:

https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1503294

https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1502251

Overall, I was very happy with this lens. I typically have preferred faster primes so i missed having the speed of an f/1.8 lens, but overall the lens performed to what I had hoped and the reason I purchased the lens.

I have an "itch" to upgrade it to the 24-70 f/2.8 II lens, but that's a chunk of dough

As a sidenote, I shoot with a 6D and also love the 85mm 1.8. My experience closely resembles yours I believe.

The main reason I purchased the 24-70 in the first place was so that I could take a single lens and not have to worry about lens changes. It was very nice at accomplishing this.

Sidenote again, where have you found it for sale that price + rebates would be $600?



Aug 14, 2017 at 10:27 AM
Macrogirl
Offline

Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Opinions on the 24-70mm 4/L


Thank you both for your comments!

There are some lovely images in your thread Linux - particularly like the one with the netting wall and the snails. It does sound like we are in a similar position lens-wise. I have a few short trips to cool locations for work coming up where I could not really take a ton of gear along, so the 24-70 could be perfect. The 85 1.8 is so lovely that it's hard to beat - particularly for portraits. I can't really afford the 24-70 2.8II, and also the IS is a definite draw for me - I can have jittery hands sometimes, which resulted in one of my favourite shots on a recent trip being slightly blurred - with full sun out!

The price I found it should have read £560. That's $726 I think...



Aug 14, 2017 at 11:46 AM
jeetsukumaran
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Opinions on the 24-70mm 4/L


FWIW, I've compared the 2.8 and 4 IS versions of the lens extensively recently, and describe my findings here:

https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1502301/0#14129356

TL;DR --- the f/2.8 is optically the best, of course, especially wide-open and in edges/corners. But the f/4 IS is very, very, very, very good, and, in the center, arguably as good as the f/2.8.

Now, these were not for (pseudo-)macro applications, and I did not test it here (since the f/2.8 does not even do pseudo-macro), but while I did have the f/4 IS in my hands I did take some close-up shots and, frankly, they were spectacular! In fact, I would say this is where the lens really took my breath away. I would say that, at least in the main part of the frame it is about as good as it gets, with the only issue being it does not go to 1:1, but, honestly for most subjects frog-sized and up, that's enough.



Aug 14, 2017 at 12:01 PM
rstoddard11
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Opinions on the 24-70mm 4/L


I have taken only this lens on several trips and it works great. It is sharpest at f5.6 and works great as a general purpose zoom.

That being said, if I was running around with my family and didnt want a clunky camera with me, I'd probably go for the 40mm fixed prime pancake lens that I have or a smaller camera, especially if there is a lot of hiking or backpacking involved.



Aug 14, 2017 at 12:03 PM
Macrogirl
Offline

Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Opinions on the 24-70mm 4/L


rstoddard11 - I have and love the 40mm pancake for exactly that reason. But I have recently been asked to take images of buildings for work, and while the 40mm is great for that, I felt I need a more flexible lens to capture more of the building on the wider end as well as more detail with the narrow end. That's why I'm interested in this focal length - my budget won't allow TS, and I want more flexibility.


Aug 14, 2017 at 01:10 PM
DougVaughn
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On
p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Opinions on the 24-70mm 4/L


A year or two ago, I bought the 24-70 f/4L for my wife, and I'm continually amazed at how good the lens is. Maybe we got a near perfect copy. I have the f/2.8II, and her f/4 rivals it for all around shooting. The IS is handy since she doesn't tend to hold things as still as I do, and she likes the macro in a pinch. More often than not, she steals my 100mm macro.


Aug 14, 2017 at 01:23 PM
sungphoto
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Opinions on the 24-70mm 4/L


I loved mine. Wish I hadn't sold it when I got my 24-70 f2.8 L v2 as it was as sharp wide open, the IS worked great, and it's nice and compact/light. If you can get a used one for around $500 or so, then I def recommend it.


Aug 14, 2017 at 01:36 PM
Macrogirl
Offline

Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Opinions on the 24-70mm 4/L


I've read a lot about the focus shift issues. What are your experiences with that? Or does it not matter too much irl?


Aug 14, 2017 at 02:18 PM
15Bit
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Opinions on the 24-70mm 4/L


Had one for two years now, and i'm very happy with it. I'm pretty sure it outresolves my 5D even at f/4, and it's a very convenient focal length. The IS seems to work fairly well too. A 24-105mm range would be better, but those are available and don't seem to perform as well. And obviously i'd love better subject isolation options, but you get what you pay for and i don't have money for the f/2.8.

I would say that i don't think much of the macro mode. I tried it, but i just prefer longer focal lengths for their field of view - for butterflies and similar sized bugs i favour a 70-200mm with macro rings, and for flowers it just doesn't render anywhere near as nice as my Voigtlander 90mm with close-up adapter.

I remember i did notice some focus shift early on when i was testing out what i could do with the lens, but it wasn't awful. And having decided i preferred other lenses for closeup work anyway, it doesn't really affect me. Certainly if you are using it as a walkaround lens, the focus shift is a non-issue.



Aug 14, 2017 at 02:54 PM
Dietrich
Offline

Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Opinions on the 24-70mm 4/L


AFAIK RSA could be a problem in normal (not macro) mode below 1m focus. I didn't have problems with it yet switching to macro mode if I need close focus.

For me it's an excellent lens with low distortions for a zoom, high contrast, and sharp corners. At 24mm vignetting could be better but it's ok. It is well made and balances fine on a 6D being quite short and light.

Edited on Aug 15, 2017 at 07:32 AM · View previous versions



Aug 14, 2017 at 05:48 PM
MatthewK
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On
p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Opinions on the 24-70mm 4/L


I like the 24-70 f/4. I've owned one a couple of times, and am leaning towards acquiring it again, one last time. It's a veritable Swiss Army Knife of a lens. As for focus shift, you might see it shooting stopped down at MFD @ 70mm. I never did, and it wouldn't be something I'd be concerned about. If you have doubts, switching to the macro mode supposedly prevents it.

I like shooting macro, so having that feature bundled with a general purpose, IS equipped, light weight zoom, is awesome.

One final fly before winter by M K, on Flickr



Aug 15, 2017 at 05:03 AM
dmacmillan
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: On
p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Opinions on the 24-70mm 4/L


Go for it! I took a trip to Europe last summer and was missing coverage from 40mm to 70mm. I rented the 24-70L. Most of the photos I took were with that lens. F4.0 isn't fast, but the IS works great. I have some shots taken at 1/15 at 24mm and they are tack sharp.

I liked the lens so much that I kept it. I'm on a business trip and brought my 5D2 with two lenses- the 24-70 and the 85 1.8. It's a great travel kit.



Aug 15, 2017 at 05:46 AM
Macrogirl
Offline

Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Opinions on the 24-70mm 4/L


damacmillan - that sounds like my dream travel kit! Weight is such an important factor for me and this way I would be covered in most situations I might encounter. I have found the 85 1.8 to be an excellent landscape lens also.

Matthew - that's a great picture, showing just the type of performance I was hoping for.



Aug 15, 2017 at 06:36 AM
jcolwell
Offline
• • • • • • •
Upload & Sell: On
p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Opinions on the 24-70mm 4/L


The 5DII + 24-70/4L IS + 85/1.8 weighs 1.9 kg, total volume 2.1L.
The SL1 + three IS STM zooms* weighs 1.2 kg, total volume 1.6L.

Just sayin.


* (EF-S 10-18mm, 18-55/3.5-5.6, 55-250mm)



Aug 15, 2017 at 06:45 AM
Macrogirl
Offline

Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Opinions on the 24-70mm 4/L


jcolwell - I'm sure your combo would do a great job, but it's my 5dmkii I love. If I ever get rich enough I might jump on the Sony/metabones bandwagon in the future (though not sure weight saving would be significant), but right now the 5dmkii is my trusty friend...


Aug 15, 2017 at 06:54 AM
howard
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Opinions on the 24-70mm 4/L


I will elaborate a little more on my previous comment.

For several years the 5DII + 24-70 f/4 was my default wide-to-normal travel kit (I usually travel with two bodies, another being the 7DII or 70D + 100-400 II) and this is a very good combo. I had 2 copies of the original 24-105 f/4 but they were not nearly as good in terms of sharpness, distortion and vignetting. Of course, the 24-105 wins with the longer reach, but my APS-C kit compensates for that.

For my most recent travel (to Portugal and Ireland), for the first time I tried to travel light(er) and replaced the FF kit with the EOS M5 + 10-18 STM and 17-55 f/2.8 (with adapter). I had mixed feelings about this decision. On one hand, it was lighter; and the f/2.8 was useful on occasions. But I missed the more uniform image quality of the 24-70 f/4 (the 17-55 is no so good toward the edges).



Aug 15, 2017 at 09:36 AM
gfiksel
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Opinions on the 24-70mm 4/L


howard wrote:
I will elaborate a little more on my previous comment.

For several years the 5DII + 24-70 f/4 was my default wide-to-normal travel kit (I usually travel with two bodies, another being the 7DII or 70D + 100-400 II) and this is a very good combo.


Almost mimics my travel kit. I have a 24-70 f4 attached to 5Div and a 55-250 STM attached via an adapter to M6. It's a great poor-man equivalent of FF 100-400 and miniature M6 is a sort of a great sensor slapped to the end of the lens Extremely light and a pretty good quality.




Aug 15, 2017 at 09:51 AM
rstoddard11
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Opinions on the 24-70mm 4/L


A lot of people dismissed the 24-70 f4L because of the initial price well over a thousand bucks. Now that you can get them for under 900, they are a bit sharper and have less distortion than the 24-105 and more compact if you don't need the 105 end of the range.

I got a well used one with chew marks from a dog on the barrel and a scratch on the objective for 450 on lensauthority and its my go to lens as I mentioned before.



Aug 15, 2017 at 10:01 AM
1
       2       end




FM Forums | Canon Forum | Join Upload & Sell

1
       2       end
    
 

You are not logged in. Login or Register

Username       Or Reset password



This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.