I just received the new lense and compared some test shots to the same ones taken with the old lense and am disappointed. The old lense photo's are sharper than the new and the new one does have move color contrast/saturation. Does anyone have any opinions about this new lense?
The few people who have already gotten the new lens all seem to be raving about it and the tests that LensRentals have done on their five copies show very little copy variation and image quality that is better than even the best current lenses Canon has.
This doesn't mean that what you're seeing isn't true, but it might be an anomaly. How have you gone about testing your new lens to determine whether it's sharp or not? Did you auto or manual focus and if AF, did you do the AF MicroAdjust for your lens? Was the camera on the tripod or handheld?
If there truly is a problem with the lens, I would either return it to where you bought it or send it in to Canon to have it checked out. If there's a problem, they'll find it and fix it, but it sounds to me like you either haven't given it a good chance or you did get a defective lens. It does happen, but it seems to be less often than in the past.
I had a problem with my Canon 1ds MK III camera, had it fixed and have to retract most of what I said about the lense. Not the fact that I had an order in since March and just received it this month, but also that for the money it should have had image stabilization.
This test is a really good test revealing the shortcomings of this very expensive lense, so I'm putting back some of my objections to this lense being that good for the money.
I just picked up the 24-70L II last week and shot an event this past weekend. The lens, like my 70-200L II, is as good as any prime L lens I own.
Also the AF is simply amazing. I didn't see a single image among 1000+ that looked even slightly out of focus.
I'll probably buy at $1900 in a few months. That said, I have definitely seen some samples posted here at 70mm @ f/2.8 that look terrible, especially for a current $2400 asking price. If I get a bum copy I'll definitely be sending it back.
Took it to 8,500' and 300 mph right out of the box and it's spectacular in every way. We've made 60 inch prints from the images and they are everything I expected and more.
