Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Standard Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras by Canon
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Digital camera reviews of Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Standard Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras
Digital camera Review: A great general-purpose lens
Summary: 5 Stars
I've owned the 24-70mm for almost a year now. This lens has been a favorite of many since it replaced its well-regarded predecessor, the 28-70mm. It shoots images that are very sharp and have excellent contrast and saturation. It's sharp wide open and only gets better when stopping down. The USM (Ultrasonic Motor) focuses very fast, and full-time manual focusing is allowed. I've thought about buying a 50mm f/1.4, but the results from this lens are so good, I'm having a hard time justifying the purchase. I've been nothing but pleased with the pictures I get from the 24-70mm. The constant f/2.8 aperture is great for shooting indoors and produces a very nice bokeh (background blur) when shooting portraits. This lens is much heavier than comparable consumer-grade zooms, but I don't object to the weight. I actually like the heft and feel of this lens on my 20D. The only feature I wish it had is IS (image stabilization).
The one thing preventing an unqualified recommendation is the recent release of the Canon 24-105mm f/4.0L IS. The latter lens costs about the same and has some noteworthy advantages. It is .7" shorter, .2mm narrower and .6 lbs. lighter. It has 3rd generation IS that gives you a 3-stop shutter speed advantage when shooting handheld. I know from my 70-200mm f/2.8L IS that image stabilization is a very welcome feature when shooting handheld at slow shutter speeds. And, obviously, the 24-105mm adds an extra 35mm of focal length on the long end.
The 24-70mm bests the 24-105mm in one way: It's a faster lens. That translates into the following advantages: At f/4.0, the 24-105mm cannot stop subject motion blur as well in low-light situations where the 24-70mm's f/2.8 can give you a shutter speed that is twice as fast. Note that IS does not have any impact at all on subject motion blur, only on camera shake on your end. If bokeh (background blur) is important to you, the 24-70mm will have a slight advantage over the 24-105mm given its wider aperture. A wider aperture also helps a camera focus a little better in low light.
The first run of the 24-105mm had a flare problem (see Canon's Web site for more info), and the early production models have been recalled. But the problem has now been fixed. You'll have to consider your photography priorities when deciding which of these two excellent lenses best suits your needs. You would be well served by either.
Update 5-17-10: It's been 4 1/2 years since I wrote this review, and I continue to use and enjoy my 24-70mm, which is now paired with a Canon 7D. Anyone considering buying this lens today, however, should know that a major Canon rumors Web site is reporting Canon is getting ready to update this lens in 2010. There are reports that the mark II is currently being field tested, and the new version is rumored to have image stabilization. No doubt, a mark II with IS would cost significantly more than the current version. FWIW, Canon updated their 70-200mm f/2.8 IS earlier this year; the mark II version of that lens brought improved optics and the latest generation of IS, but it was priced $500 (MSRP) more than its predecessor. A mark II version of the 24-70mm would be adding IS to a lens that doesn't currently have that feature, so the increase in price could be even more than $500. Just something to consider as you plan your purchases.
Digital camera Review: A great walk around lens
Summary: 5 Stars
I am very happy with this lens. I use it on my 5D Mark II and under the right conditions it really takes some GREAT pictures with the 5D II! It is on my camera 80% of the time and I have several other lenses. I do not care one bit that it doesn't have IS, I wish canon would have come out with one so that this lens would have been cheaper lol. It's not cheap but you do get what you pay for, great all round lens.
SAMPLES: Click on 'all sizes' above pic. to see the quality that this lens is capable of!
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Almost forgot to mention that I also use this lens for and it works very well for long daytime exposures with B&W ND filters. I guess it is all relative but I do not feel that this lens is too large. But, I also have the 100-400mm L and this is small compared to that. It also does not seem large when paired with a camera the size of the 5D II, maybe on smaller crop frames it would seem large or make the camera front heavy. I don't mind carrying it around at all though. I also was thinking I would get a wider angle lens for my lineup but I feel, so far, that this at 24mm is wide enough for my landscape shots on a full frame. Wouldn't be wide enough on a crop frame though.
Long exposure examples with this lens (click 'all sizes' above pics for larger views):
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Digital camera Review: A must
Summary: 5 Stars
This lens is a must for indoor shooting. The weight is a con but work out your forearms and its not a problem. The image quality on this lens is nothing short of awesome and it gathers more light than any other L lens in my bag (the 77mm really helps).Digital camera Review: A must have lens for those who...
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a must-have lens for those who appreciate great quality photos and the fixed f2.8. It could also be useful for photographers working on their biceps considering how heavy it is.Digital camera Review: A superb lens
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this lens to replace an old Tokina 28-70mm f/2.8 that I had been using since about 2001. The Tokina was a very good lens, but on digital cameras it had serious problems with ghosting whenever something like a light bulb or a flourescent tube was in the frame. It also had a very annoying mechanism for switching between auto-focus and manual focus that had to be worked just right or it wouldn't let you switch.
The Canon EF 24-70mm L USM is even more of an improvement on that lens that I had expected. Not only does it extend down to 24mm, focus faster, control flare and ghosting much better, and implement manual-focus sensibly (including, like all ring-USM Canon lenses, the ability to adjust focus manually even in auto-focus mode), but it's much sharper. I had no idea how sharp a zoom lens could be until I bought this lens! It is just a bit soft wide open at the long end of its range, but from 24-50mm or so it's quite sharp even at f/2.8, improving to stunningly sharp by f/5.6. Softness creeps in again at about f/11 due to diffraction limiting, but that's a natural optical restriction, not a flaw in the lens.
Ergonomically, the lens is excellent. The zoom and focus rings are well-placed and move easily, with a comfortable level of resistance. It is a fairly large, heavy lens, but typically so for Canon L-series lenses, and not much more so than the Tokina that it replaced in my setup. I don't find it uncomfortable to hold, but I do tend to keep my left hand under it for extra support when in use.
Aside from the minor softness at the long end that I mentioned above, the only significant negative of this lens is the lack of image stabilization (IS), which would come in handy in low light situations.
One interesting property of the EF 24-70mm is that it reverse-extends when zooming -- that is, the inner barrel is extended more at the shorter focal lengths, and fully retracted at 70mm. This seems counter-intuitive until you notice how this interacts with the lens hood, which is mounted on the outer barrel and so does not move with the inner barrel. The EF 24-70mm has a much deeper hood than I have seen on other standard-range zooms, and the extension of the barrel at shorter focal lengths means that the hood optimally covers the lens at all focal lengths. At 70mm, the lens is fully retracted, so the hood provides an appropriately narrow field of view; at 24mm, the lens is maximally extended, and the hood provides correspondingly less coverage.
To sum up, the EF 24-70mm L USM is an excellent lens, fully worthy of the L-series designation. The only improvements I would hope for in a future update would be IS and a little more sharpness at wide apertures near 70mm. Until that lens comes into being, I'll happily continue using this one.