New 24-105, Faulty IS????

Just a quick update on whats happening,

Lens went off to Canon, they tinkered with the lens alignment and replaced the IS unit. Took about two weeks, it was much improved. However, still not brilliant. (It at least didnt blur it at 1/40th at 24mm anymore!) Had it for a couple of weeks before deciding something still wasnt right and that my photos should be sharper so i went back to the camera store.

At the store we tried many many things, different bodies, different lenses and we found a few things out.
Their old, second hand 24-105's IS works much better than ANY of their new 24-105's IS.
IS works much much more effectively (about 1 stop better) in One Shot AF mode than AI Servo, we noticed this across multiple 5D3s and multiple copies of the 24-105 however, we only tried this with their new lenses not their second hand one. This was even noticeable on bodies such as mine where I use BBF, the AF mode dictated how effective IS was even if AF wasnt being used when taking the photo. I have not been able to replicate this effect on my 70-200.

We then sent an email off to Canon explaining what we found and the store will call me when they get a response.

And Pepeto2001, I tried that and got much better photos, but if I'm gonna have to do that for photos with an exposure longer than about 1/12s, its really just an annoyance.

Thanks for posting, it's quite interesting. I heard that the v2's were not worth the jump in price and it's good to have some solid evidence!

Faulty IS unit. I had it once on a 70-200 f/4 IS... pics were sharper without IS than with IS activated.

GunKim wrote in post #14736849
Thanks for posting, it's quite interesting. I heard that the v2's were not worth the jump in price and it's good to have some solid evidence!

There is no v2; the 24-105 was announced in late 2005, and is still in its first incarnation. Maybe you're thinking of the 70-200, or 24-70?

Maybe something changed in the manufacturing process or suppliers at some point. Reminds me of this:

http://www.canonrumors​.com …-is-soft-and-other-myths/

Final update!
I got my lens back again, after it had been at Canon for about 3-4 weeks. When they first get it they put it in their test rig and decided it worked, called up the store and told them this. Apparently it took one hell of an argument to get Canon to put it on a camera and take a photo, but when they finally did that, they completely agreed that there was a problem.

So new IS unit, and new electronics, and apparently new firmware in the lens and bam, it works!
Getting sharp pictures at 24mm at around 0.5-0.8s, and down to 1/10th at 105mm!

Looking forward to finally enjoying this lens!

Glad it worked out for you as mine has served me well. Crazy that a 'qualified' tech couldn't get it right on the first attempt.

My quick check with new 5dmk3 and brand new 24-105 shows that IS is working fine at 1/13sec @105mm.

glad you go it fixed! take lots of great pictures with it!