Canon 16-35L II softness issue

I notice some weird softness issue on my new 16-35L II. Sometimes it is there, sometimes it isn't. Some kind of glow against high contrast areas. But it doesn't look like fringing. It happens mostly in the 20-28mm range.

See this example at 24mm, f/2.8, 1/1000th

Here the whole snapshot:
http://farm8.staticfli​ckr.com …62950802_622768​c7bc_b.jpg

Here is a 100% crop of the area in focus:
http://farm9.staticfli​ckr.com …62951430_7cfb37​f5e3_b.jpg

Zoomed in to 200% to make it more visible (top side of cup and white chair):
http://farm8.staticfli​ckr.com …62951032_27c6d5​8ba1_b.jpg

While I really have to zoom in to see the phenomenon clearly, the whole picture itself lacks contrast and clarity, making it soft looking. Shall I return the lens to the seller? Sure would help if I have some idea of what is causing this. It doesn't seem to be focus related.

What do you make of it?

I would return the lens and ask for another, it's always going to bug you. You could also consider calling canon and maybe having it sent in for calibration? I dunno, but I had a sigma 12-24 that had the same random softness going on and it annoyed me, I returned the lens.

Yeah, maybe I should Canon take a look at it.

Stop it down a bit...

Silverstonev8 wrote in post #14782584
Stop it down a bit...

Yes, that helps, as you can see in these samples:

Images are RAW converted in LR3 with default values.

24mm, f/2.8
http://farm9.staticfli​ckr.com …67074908_4fd1d7​73f3_z.jpg

24mm, f/4
http://farm8.staticfli​ckr.com …67074794_07a19a​6028_z.jpg

28mm, f/2.8
http://farm8.staticfli​ckr.com …67074652_6939a4​8b0d_b.jpg

28mm, f/4
http://farm8.staticfli​ckr.com …67074492_d07a0f​88a7_b.jpg

35mm, f/2.8
http://farm9.staticfli​ckr.com …67074362_628831​7d20_b.jpg

35mm, f/4
http://farm9.staticfli​ckr.com …67074226_51ecae​af75_b.jpg

Does this look 'normal' for the 16-35L II wide open in hard contrast?

is this something that plagues the 16-35mk2?

Daan37 wrote in post #14781790
I notice some weird softness issue on my new 16-35L II. Sometimes it is there, sometimes it isn't. Some kind of glow against high contrast areas. But it doesn't look like fringing. It happens mostly in the 20-28mm range.

See this example at 24mm, f/2.8, 1/1000th

Here the whole snapshot:
http://farm8.staticfli​ckr.com …62950802_622768​c7bc_b.jpg

Here is a 100% crop of the area in focus:
http://farm9.staticfli​ckr.com …62951430_7cfb37​f5e3_b.jpg

Zoomed in to 200% to make it more visible (top side of cup and white chair):
http://farm8.staticfli​ckr.com …62951032_27c6d5​8ba1_b.jpg

While I really have to zoom in to see the phenomenon clearly, the whole picture itself lacks contrast and clarity, making it soft looking. Shall I return the lens to the seller? Sure would help if I have some idea of what is causing this. It doesn't seem to be focus related.

What do you make of it?

I don't see anything wrong with this image.

The lack of contrast is probably due to being taken in the shade. This can be fixed in post production.

I have the older version and it is so sharp, I would send it back if you have doubts, also the images looks like there is a lot of noise in them I would try shooting in a different lighting situation.

Edited to say I was looking at the bike image, the second set seems better but still off, I would do another test in open sunlight and see maybe use a tripod.