Canon EF 24-70mm f/4.0L IS USM Standard Zoom Lens

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I enjoy landscape, travel and macro photography and felt the 24-70 4L IS USM would be a good fit for me. Heres what I thought about it after several months of use. BUILD is excellent: quality plastics, weather seals, attractive semi-matte finish and sturdy metal mount. Electrical switches are beefy and nearly impossible to inadvertently change. The ribbed rubber zoom and focus rings are large and grippy, and positioned similarly to my 17- 40L and 70-200 4L IS. Appearance is similar to the 24-105L but slightly shorter and lighter. It feels solid and balanced on my 6D. FOCUS is internal so the barrel doesnt rotate or change in length. AF is blazing fast and accurate on my 6D. Manual focus is always active (no switch flip required), smooth and finely pitched, allowing precise adjustments. ZOOMING is accomplished via a single nested barrel. Zoom action is smooth but slightly stiff between 50 and 70. There is no zoom drift when pointed up or down so the barrel lock at 24mm seems superfluous. However, zooms tend to loosen with use so maybe Ill appreciate the lock a few years from now. OPTICAL PERFORMANCE at F4 is sharp edge to edge. Center frame is similar to my 24-105 4L but corners are vastly improved. The best overall performance is at 24mm and 70mm, with slight deterioration at 50mm. This lens required +5 Microadjustment (MA) at 24mm for optimal sharpness (was front focusing). The long end was tack sharp at default (0). In contrast, my 24-105 4L is sharp at defaults (0) and required no MA on my 6D or 5D MKII. There is a small amount of light falloff or corner darkening at 24mm and F4 but noticeably better in this regard than the 24-105 4L. Light falloff at 70mm is about the same as the 24-105L. Stopping down to F5.6 renders light falloff inconsequential. I dont notice light falloff unless testing on a white wall. The most noticeable improvement over the 24-105L is the near absence of barrel distortion at 24mm. My ocean horizons are true! Chromatic Aberration (CA) is also reduced: a tiny amount of color fringing is visible via pixel peeking in corners at 24mm, but almost nothing at longer settings. It certainly bests my 24-105 4L in this regard. Sunsets, spotlights and other bright light sources exhibit little to no flare. Flare resistant is markedly better than the 24-105L, making blazing Hawaiian sunsets a snap! However, use of the included EW-82L hood is recommended for protection from stray light, raindrops and doggie noses. This hood sports rayon flocking, matte black paint matched to the lens and petal cutouts. It has a lock release button but is a little loose and will come off with a light whack or firm rub on a beer gut. I prefer the snug fit of the EW-82H, the OEM hood for the 24-105 4L IS USM. And, yes, the EW-82H fits the 24-70 4L perfectly albeit slightly deeper. There is absolutely no vignette so its staying on my 24-70 4L. Macro results are impressive at .7x, making it ideal for flowers, small products and artwork. Press and hold the macro switch while turning the zoom past 70mm to engage macro range. Combined with Hybrid Image Stabilization I got sharp free standing flower shots I normally need a tripod for. I still prefer a tripod for such shots but being able to get a sharp impromptu macro is a wonderful feature for travelers. IMAGE STABILIZATION (IS) gave me three additional stops of hand holdable range at 70mm, sometimes four on a good day (no coffee and 8 hours sleep!). The big deal is Hybrid Image Stabilization compensating for both up-and-down and swaying forward and back movements. The swaying back and forth movement often foiled my attempts at shooting museum artwork where tripods werent allowed, so a welcome feature along with auto panning mode. In a quiet room, I cant hear the IS mechanism while using the camera. IS is only audible if I place my ear directly on the lens. So quieter than the IS unit in the 24-105 4L USM (audible as soft grinding in quiet rooms). LAST BLURB: I had to calibrate (MA) this lens for optimal sharpness. Once dialed in, images were satisfyingly sharp, contrasty and vivid from edge to edge. The game changer--and the main reason to pick this lens over the 24-105L--is the macro and Hybrid IS features. Its basically two lenses in one--normal zoom and macro--and lets me leave my macro lens at home when traveling light. Finally, the most frequent criticism of this lens is the high selling price ($1499). As of August 31, 2014, Canon reduced MAP to $999, making this a darn sweet deal.

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I already have a 24-105mm L lens and love it, but after reading the many rave reviews on this lens and considering the $200 rebate I just had to order it. It completes my lens collection along with my other 70-200mm L. I do have the 50mm 1.8 prime that is easy to carry and gives surprisingly great sharp photos with both my 6D and 60D Canons. The final price of $799 really hooked me as I want to do more macro shots in addition to closer work with the less of a long 70 reach than the 105 lens provides. Some of the reviews claimed it does a better job than the 24-105 on edge sharpness, but I havent had a chance yet to compare it in the field. The macro feature is pretty straight forward but I had to read the manual to realize that you have to hold forward pressure on the macro switch as you go beyond the 70 telephoto into the macro mode. I did a macro shot of a rose that I attached to this review. Im pretty happy with the outcome as it was handheld at 5000 ISO with not much noise and quite sharp. The color seemed deep and the dew drops were mostly clean and sharp to the eye. The bokeh background really was impressive at F4. I highly recommend this lens also based on the IS. Im older and not as steady as I used to be. The IS feature made the difference to me compared to the 24-70mm 2.8 that did not have IS and was much more money. I felt that most of my shooting is outside and I didnt really need the faster f2.8 advantage.

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I will start by saying that Ive owned all three of Canons current "standard zoom" lenses, the 24-105 f4 L IS, the 24-70 f2.8 L II, and this 24-70 f4 L IS. I will explain below, but if you read no further than this sentence, just buy this lens (and buy it used if possible!). I am a gear nerd, and after shooting with all three of these lenses, I can honestly say that this lens is the best of all worlds if you can only carry one lens. Sure, it cant do portraits as well as the 24-70 f2.8 L II, but for almost all other situations, since I shoot between f4 and f5.6 most of the time, the IS system and the size advantage will more than make up for the lack of f2.8... not to mention that at f5.6 this lens is just as sharp as the f2.8 L II! If you want to compare to the 24-105 f4 L IS, its a slaughter. Simply put, this lens is smaller, sharper, has a better IS system, and has a zoom lock. When you take into account how much sharper this lens is than the 24-105 (at least the one I owned), the extra zoom is easily negated by the ability to crop zoom OR just walk a few steps closer (Im an old prime lens "zoom with your feet" kinda guy). If thats not good enough, and you spend much of your time above 70mm, you should just get one of the wonderful 70-200 options, or an older 80-200. they will all serve you better than the 24-105, I promise. To the point about the zoom lock: the 24-105 is pretty prone to barrel creep while you walk around, I never thought a lens lock would be a big deal, but after dealing with the 24-105 constantly "zooming out" while it was around my neck, the built in zoom lock on the 24-70s is wonderful. Frankly, Canon dropped the ball by not including one on the 24-105. I bought this lens to be the "walk around" lens on my 6D for every day photography, the 24-70 f4 steps in and perfectly fills this role. I previously used the 24-105, but the size and the lack of zoom lock were intolerable for me, and the harsh sharpness downgrade every time I switched back from the 24-70 f2.8 was too painful. Now I dont have to worry about it. Unless Im shooting people, or low-light, the 2.8 can stay in my bag and I carry the f4.

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My 24-105 F4 L has been my go-to lens for years. Based on a few suggestions, I purchased this because of its improved build and slightly smaller/lighter body. I can easily say that Im probably done with my old "go-to". Despite its lower price than most L series lens, the glass quality here is outstanding. I would put it up there with my 135 F2. Another (huge) improvement over the 24-105 is the zoom is just stiff enough to hold its position without creeping out (from gravity), but lose enough to quickly and accurately get the desired shot. For these reasons, I am now more than willing to sacrifice a little bit of zoom in favor of going with the 24-70. Im so happy I took the chance on this one.

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Images are sharp. Build is good. focus speed and accuracy are very good with lots of light, but focus lock and tracking fall off when lighting levels start to drop. This is not a low light lens. I have had better luck with my 3 year old 24-105 f4 IS, than with my new 24-70 f4. I am not going to return it because it has an awesome macro. Its is a great "walk around" lens, but I will not be shooting events with it. It is just to slow to focus in challenging lighting situations. All tests done on a 5d mk4

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Canons EF 24-70 f/4 IS is a sweet lens. Its extremely well made and offers extremely sharp photos, especially for a zoom lens. Colors are rich and saturated. The lens is just a joy to use, and works with every Canon SLR camera (both film and digital) that theyve brought out for the last 40 years. Whatever your model of Canon camera, youll get superior photos with it. The image stabilization is superb, and it means that you can shoot without a tripod in almost any lighting conditions, even low light. I cant say enough about the quality and durablity of this lens.

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Not long after I received it became a useless lens. Aperture Flex Ribbon became damaged and the camera was unable to focus on any aperture above 2.8 a $400 dollar fix. Camera kept giving Err 01 Message. Lens could not make communication with body. Focus ring was not smooth to move around when shooting in Manual. Im assuming the Aperture ribbon was already damaged and through usage it finally ripped. This happened after the 30 day warranty offered. I read some people have issues with focus ring as well.

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Great versatile lens. This lens is great if you need a mid range zoom with some macro capability. The macro feature on this lens is better than most zoom lens that purport to have a macro ability. It is not as good as a true macro, reaching only 0.7 magnification, but it is a nice feature to be able to have without switching to a true macro lens. The macro feature allows (and requires) you to get very close to your subject, within inches. This can make lighting with a flash difficult and is not practical for some living subjects, but for stationary subjects, it is fine. The lens is great for full-frame and is as sharp as can be expected. Pair this lens with a telephoto and that is all you would need for most causal shooting. It is pretty compact and balances well on a full-frame. It has a pretty close focus distance of 1.25 which is great for getting in close to your subject. Obviously the zoom range is less than a 24-105 or 28-135; that might be an issue for some, but for most shooting, you will have a telephoto lens handy for the longer shots. The IS works great which means for low light with a high ISO the lens is very usable. But with the f4 it still wont be as fast as the more expensive f2.8 in low light conditions. For most shooters though the high ISO of cameras now combined with the great IS will be sufficient for the majority of shooting situations. On a crop sensor the lens still performs great, and balances well on the higher quality (and heavier) cameras like the 70d. However, it is not wide due to the 1.6x crop factor. It is sharper than the 18-135 IS STM, but that lens is plenty sharp and offers a much wider zoom range on a crop body. The reason to use this on a crop body would be for the excellent build quality, weather sealing, and most importantly, (I think) the macro feature. If getting in close and getting close to 1:1 (0.7 as I said before) is important without needing to carry a dedicated macro lens, than this lens could make sense on a crop body. Especially if the wide shots are not as important or you are carrying the 10-22mm or the new 10-18mm STM

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Great lens at a great price. With todays HDR and Low Light,,high ISO cameras, I just dont see a need for the 2.8 lens. This,lens is incredibly sharp,,very happy..will take thousands of fab photos with the beauty. Like the newly designed lens hood, has a push button to,release so it doesnt fall.off, also has the new center pinch lens cap. Same size as the older "kit" lens, but much better build! Yes you should,buy a B+W Pro UV Nano filter for it, Will save you money if you ever get in a dirty environment of sand, grit other stuff blown in the wind.

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I used to own the 24-70 F/2.8L USM, and sold it to purchase this lens. Great decision. I love having the Image Stabilization, and for most of my photography typically do not seek the shallow depth of field that comes with apertures wider than f/4.0. My neck and arms really appreciate the slightly smaller size and weight compared to the f/2.8 version. Build quality is excellent, lens operates very quietly with fast auto-focus performance. Macro mode is a plus. Lock switch on the lens (to keep it from sliding out when you are not holding it) is a bonus, but I have not found it to be necessary.

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