Review on 📷 High-performance Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Lens: Ideal Zoom for Canon SLR Cameras by Noah Lewis

I love landscape, travel and macro photography and I think the 24-70 4L IS USM suits me. Here's what I thought about it after a few months of use. The CONSTRUCTION is excellent: high quality plastic, weatherproof seals, attractive semi-gloss finish and strong metal fixings. Electrical switches are powerful and are unlikely to be accidentally changed. The knurled rubber zoom and focus rings are large and comfortable and positioned the same as my 17-40L and 70-200 4L IS. Appearance is similar to 24-105L but slightly shorter and lighter. On my 6D it feels solid and balanced. The FOCUS is built in so the barrel does not rotate or change length. AF is lightning fast and accurate on my 6D. Manual focus is always active (no switch required) and is smooth and smooth, allowing for fine adjustments. SCALING is done with a single cylinder. The zoom movement is smooth but a bit stiff between 50 and 70. There's no zoom shift when zooming up or down, so locking the barrel at 24mm feels like overkill. However, zooms tend to loosen up with use, so maybe in a few years I'll appreciate the lockdown. The midframe is similar to my 24-105 4L, but the corners are greatly improved. The best overall performance is seen at 24mm and 70mm, with a slight deterioration at 50mm. This lens required a micro adjustment of +5 (MA) at 24mm for optimal sharpness (was front focusing). The long end was sharp (0) by default. In contrast, my 24-105 4L has a default sharpness (0) and requires no MA on my 6D or 5D MKII. At 24mm and F4 there is a slight dimming of the light and darkening of the corners respectively, but in this respect it is clearly better than 24.-105 4l. The light penetration at 70mm is about the same as the 24-105L. With an aperture of up to F5.6, the light attenuation becomes negligible. I don't notice any light attenuation unless I'm testing on a white wall. The most notable improvement over the 24-105L is the almost complete absence of barrel distortion at 24mm. My sea horizons are true! Chromatic aberration (CA) has also been reduced, with a small fringing of color visible at 24mm through pixels peeking out of the corners, but almost nothing at longer settings. It definitely outperforms my 24-105 4L in that regard. Sunsets, headlights and other bright light sources produce almost no glare. Anti-glare is significantly better than the 24-105L, making it easy to capture dazzling Hawaiian sunsets! However, it is recommended to use the included EW-82L hood for protection against stray light, raindrops and dog noses. This hood is decorated with viscose flocking, the matte black color matches the lens and petal cutouts. It does have a release button, but it's a bit loose and comes off with a light tap or a hard rub against the beer gut. I prefer the close fitting EW-82H, OEM hood for 24-105 4L IS USM. And yes, the EW-82H is perfect for 24-70 4L, albeit a little deeper. There is absolutely no vignetting so I'll stick with my 24-70 4L. Macro results are impressive at 0.7x, making it ideal for flowers, small products and artwork. Press and hold the macro switch while zooming beyond 70mm to activate macro range. Combined with hybrid image stabilization, I get sharp shots of still colors that would normally require a tripod. I still prefer a tripod for this type of shot, but the ability to capture sharp, on-the-fly macro shots is a great feature for travelers. and 8 hours of sleep!). The main one is hybrid image stabilization, which compensates for up-and-down motion as well as back-and-forth motion. The wiggling back and forth often disrupted my attempts to photograph museum art where tripods were banned, so a useful feature along with the auto pan mode. In a quiet room, I cannot hear the image stabilization mechanism when using the camera. IS is only audible if you place your ear directly on the lens. So quieter than the image stabilization unit in the 24-105 4L USM (you can hear a faint crunch in quiet rooms). FINAL RECOMMENDATION: I had to calibrate this lens for optimal sharpness (MA). After adjustment, the image turned out to be quite clear, contrasty and bright from edge to edge. The game-changing principle - and the main reason for choosing this lens over the 24-105L - is its macro and hybrid image stabilization capabilities. It's basically two lenses in one - a regular zoom and a macro - and I can leave my macro lens at home when I'm traveling light. Finally, the most common criticism of this lens is its high retail price ($1,499). As of August 31, 2014, Canon has reduced the MAP to $999, making this a hell of a deal.