It's not as sharp as a really good prime wide open, but it should be more than useable throughout the entire range wide open as far as sharpness goes. The amount of vignetting at 24mm is kind of ridiculous. That was my experience with the lens anyway.
These 3 pictures were taken from the same place, focused on the same spot. With the 24-105 (@105mm) I took 2 pics, one at F8 and one at F4. Then I took a shot with the 100-400 wide open (F4.5) at 100mm. I took another at F8 but it's pretty similar so I didn't bother to put it here.
What's your opinion? I constantly get similar results.
Tom Dix wrote:
how many shots do you take on a tri w IS off and a 2 second release?
however, I do agree it is not conclusive. Most of what I have seen at f4 is sharp to ok.
I thought it was common sense, but it's a test for softness. The IS off and 2-second release is to rule out user error. We have no idea if the image shown above is simply from slow shutter/movement.
amonline wrote:
Not enough info. To confirm, put it on a tripod, turn off IS and do a 2-second release. If it's still soft; then yes, there's a problem.
I've done 1000 shots like this, they're all the same, I'm not going to do test labs because when I take pictures and I need the lens to perform it's wide open hand held, and I'm used to doing that, so this is NOT movement. It's the actual IQ of the lens at F4.
zalle wrote:
I've done 1000 shots like this, they're all the same, I'm not going to do test labs because when I take pictures and I need the lens to perform it's wide open hand held, and I'm used to doing that, so this is NOT movement. It's the actual IQ of the lens at F4.
By the way, it was taken at 1/2000.
If this is as sharp as it gets then yes it looks quite poor and the lens should be better. I may want to take a slightly more scientific approach taking into account different distances, manually focused, and on a tripod, but that's me.
Thanks for all your answers. I finally got rid of it. Sold it to someone who tested it and was happy with the results.
I bought a brand new one and WOW! What a difference. It's as sharp as the 17-55 IS @ F4, so it's good enough for me. I now take pictures wide open from 24 to 105 without a thought (even though at the long end of the zoom it is not as sharp, but it is still pretty good).
I think that at F4 it is sharper than my friend's 24-70.
It's either a bad copy or you need to calibrate. For the cost, it's worth buying your own lensalign for about $80, allows you to make sure every lens is spot on.
..yeah, I saw that too.........duhhhh......