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Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II
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Review Date: Dec 20, 2014
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Recommend? |
Price paid: Not Indicated
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Pros:
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Nothing enough to counterbalance the poor quality of the left side of the picture.
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Cons:
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Confirmed unacceptable poor resolution in the left part of the image;some defective finish details
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Even the second copy of the lens I received after a 2-week waiting showed the same severe asimmetry in the two sides of the picture, without any shifting or tilting, of course; the fall in resolution in the left part , and not just the corners, would be unacceptable for any lens, not just for one pretending to be a professional one.
Given the price exceeding the equivalent of US $ 2,000, I found it surprising even the lack of precise alignment of the lines at zero setting in the lower tilt scale.
I did not want to engage with a third copy; the dealer - who was not less amazed than me - behaved fairly as usual, and gave me my money back.
Case closed, given the double failure I would rate this lens no more than 3.
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Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II
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Review Date: Dec 6, 2014
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Recommend? no |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 5
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Pros:
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Unnoticeable vignetting and distortion
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Cons:
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Extremely poor resolution in the left side in the clearly defective copy I goit
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I was thinking at this lens as the very best 24 mm on the market, accepting its weight, clumsiness, 3.5 aperture and lack of autofocus as the price to pay for such quality, and considering its tilting and shifting options just a plus for occasional use.
First of all, the lens does not cover the 24 mm angle, being it clearly narrower than that of the 24-70 zoom at the corresponding length.
Then, I was immediately struck by the very poor resolution on the left side, not just the corners, but a diffuse lack of detail along all the side.
As a minor remark, the optional bigger knob for the shift showed some play at the zero set.
Almost unnoticeable vignetting and superlative distortion correction were as expected.
Being the lens clearly suffering from a native defect, I returned it to the dealer, who promptly agreed in recognizing it, and I’m waiting for replacement.
I’m confident that a second copy will work uniformly at the expected level, or I will ask for my money back, but the non occasional occurrence of severe defects in - as expression of lack of thorough control - is somehow amazing , especially for the pretended cutting-edge equipment.
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Canon EF 24-70mm f/4L IS
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Review Date: Nov 21, 2014
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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Soundness of building, overall good optical quality
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Cons:
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None, as long as prime lenses performances are not required
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I’ve got this lens to improve some floppiness of my 9 yr. old 24-105, as summarized by its lens dangling down to tele position, and the underexposure I had in my copy besides vignetting.
I did a hundred shots or so to test my new lens, and although I didn’t yet used it all around, I could appreciate some relevant features.
It is very well built and gives a feeling of precision and soundness.
It matches well the 5D body e fits my hand as well.
The 24-105 distortion was something I could live with, but its reduction in the 24-70 is immediately perceivable, both at 24 and 70 mm.
Resolution is not dramatically different at center, but more uniform across the whole image at any focal length.
CA control, on the contrary, is much much better.
Vignetting is very evident at f4, only the center of a white ceiling remains white, but is less than the 24-105 and closing just one stop significantly ameliorates.
Autofocus is fast and accurate: I saw no difference as compared to manual focusing with e-live at 10x magnification.
Incidentally, I observed no focus shift, even shooting at less than 1 meter small written words on a flat surface.
I had the felling IS doesn’t really work down to the declared 4 stops, I would say 2.5, but maybe is just my hand becoming sometimes insecure..
So, overall, I’m very happy so far with this lens. Maybe just because the 24-105 really has had its day and I hadn’t the high expectations as for the top L prime lenses.
Of course, the 24-70 can’t return the image quality given by the 200/f2, nor the uniformity of the 85/f1.8 or 35/f1.4 stopped down a bit.
I must in any case honor my 24-105 , that had been the only possible, and overall faithful, choice to me when walking around for a whole day and I could also sell it for good money . But this 24-70 undoubtedly surpasses it.
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