Buying 5D III .. buy 24 II or 24-105?

Hey!

Been a long time lurker on this site.

Currently I have a Canon T2i, Sigma 17-50 OS, and Canon 100L.

I use my camera 60% stills and 40% video.

I want to buy a Canon 5D III, but I am not totally sure which lens to buy. I like to take landscape photos. I am debating myself if I should buy the 24-105 and be happy with a versatile lens, or if I should buy a 24II, because of its better IQ and longer focus throw for the video use. I am planning to sell the T2i and 17-50, but will keep the 100L.

Will be going on a road trip soon in Oregon and California.

Anyone here that uses their 24II as a walk-around lens on a FF?

For the price of 24II, you can almost get 17-40 + 24-105, meaning you have landscape and walkaround covered.

Thank you.

Can you tell me how many degrees the focus throw of the 24-105 is? I cannot seem to find it somehow. I read that the 24II has a focus throw of around 170 degrees.

I have also been thinking if I should just be satisfied with the 24-105, and spend the extra money of a decent flash.

Is there a website where I can compare pictures taken by the 24II and the 24-105 @ 24mm at different apertures?

HansenPhoto wrote in post #14733286
Is there a website where I can compare pictures taken by the 24II and the 24-105 @ 24mm at different apertures?

Not sure about the focus throw part, but your original post said that you want a landscape lens, so why limit yourself @ 24mm? 17-40 is a much better lens for the task. Just as sharp when stopped down for landscape, versatile and goes much wider.

24-105 @ 24mm is rather soft and distorted, but that's not the point.

Like i said before, for the price of a 24LII, you can get 17-40 + 24-105 (used maybe?) which imo is a much better combo.

If it's a question of prime vs zoom you may find an argument for both sides.

Personally I'd stick to primes, especially for wide angle. I'd also rather take a 24ii than a 17-40+24-105. For me the better image quality and aperture is more important than being able to zoom. When I had the 24-70 it only used it at 24mm for landscapes anyway, thus I traded it for a true landscape lens

I would pick up the 24-105 as part of a kit when purchasing the 5D III, then decide if you want something, wider, faster, longer, etc. At any rate, the 24-105 is a good lens to have, but you can easily sell it if for some reason it isn't for you.

I have 24L II, 17-40L & 24-105L; and I'm using more 24L than all zoom combine this day.

Simply f/4 just bit too slow for handhold low light shot most the time.

Not sure what you mean 'focus throw'; but I use 'One-Shot' in my 5D2, and whatever on my 5D3 without much missing focus problem.

Thanks you all for tips and suggestions.

x_tan, by "focus throw" I mean how long travel the focus ring has from infinity til it stops. Check out this video with Dave Dugdale, where he measures the travel of the focus ring on 24II. It is around 1:30 on this clip:

Canon 24mm 1.4 Mark II vs Sigma 24mm 1.8 Macro Lens Review

This is very important to me when taking video, when I have to manually control the focus. Having the 170 degrees on the 24II sounds very nice for video. Great control over the focus. I just don't know how many degrees the ring on 24-105 is.

At the moment the widest I have is 17mm on a crop(~27mm FF equiv.), and I normally use that FL when taking landscape photos. I think that 24mm would fit me very well, but then again, I have never tried anything wider.

Since you'll be doing your own focusing (MF) for landscape and video, what better lens can you get than the Zeiss ZE 21mm Distagon?

If you're going to spend ~$2k for a lens, you might as well buy the best.

For video use and landscape, the 24mmL should be very good, if you want longer and Even smoother focusthrow, one of the Zeiss lenses would be fantastic

HansenPhoto wrote in post #14733286
Thank you.

Can you tell me how many degrees the focus throw of the 24-105 is? I cannot seem to find it somehow. I read that the 24II has a focus throw of around 170 degrees.

I have also been thinking if I should just be satisfied with the 24-105, and spend the extra money of a decent flash.

Is there a website where I can compare pictures taken by the 24II and the 24-105 @ 24mm at different apertures?

The 24-105 has about a 110-120 degree focus throw.

Here is a good website for comparing lens sharpness at different apertures and focal lengths: http://www.the-digital-picture.com …omp=0&FLIComp=0​&APIComp=0

The IS on the 24-105 comes in handy for video, but the IS is noticeably noiser than other IS lenses I have used, and you will hear it if you use the built-in mic. http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=RKAjKfF8OS4

(starting at about 0:30 in the video you can hear the grindy/clicky noise of the 24-105 IS)

You can't go wrong with either lens.
The 24L II is the lens most often mounted to my 5DIII as a walk-around lens.
It's a lovely combination but I usually partner it with a 7D/Sigma 17-50 for versatility.
If your shooting style affords you the time to change out the lens, you might throw a cheap 50mm into the mix and have a 24-50-100 prime lineup.

Canon 35L

I bought the 24-105 before I got the 5D3 and really like it already on crop sensor. I used it a lot for video at the race track because of IS, and now I've been using it on the 5D3 and is loving what this lens can do even more. Just wish 5D3 had auto focus for video!!

These lenses really are completely different.

Each has their very own unique advantages that the other doesn't. To me, these are very different tools and should not be looked at as competing, unless you can't do both or they are too much to carry.

I'd get both. But, if not, I think the it comes down to whether you need the additional range or not.