Trying to love my 24-70mm but...

it just doesn't seem to give me the sharp images I had thought it would. Example: I took some pictures of my daughter today with it. ISO 400, 5.6 aperture, 1/400 speed, focal length 45mm. Manual setting. I usually choose my aperature and ISO, then spot meter and adjust my speed. When I look at the images 100% the sharpness is definitely not there. Of course, less than that it's not as noticeable. Today I also stopped down my f stop more than I have been. I love a blurred background and find myself shooting as wide open as I can but in an effort to achieve a sharper image today I closed it down to see if it improved things.
I really stretched myself to get this high quality lens but I am having a hard time seeing the fruits of my acquisition.

Please tell me it's user error. I can change that. I'd really like to love this lens.

Calibrate it or send to Canon for a check. I've been happy with FOCAL.

I've had two MkI's of that lens and neither made me very happy. I'll have to try out the MkII one of these days.

I use a 24-70 ver.1 with a 40d, and a 5dII. I use center point focus pretty much all the time, on both bodies. I was never happy with mine until I learned about zooming to 70 to focus, then zoom out. It would miss focus if I was trying to focus with the lens zoomed out to a wider angle. Have you tried this method? How does an image look when manually focused on a tripod, with good light?

30D....

Most people that uses 24-70 shoots ff, and that makes quite a diff imo.

Not saying it's the sharpnest lens out there, but it certainly satisfy a lot of pros and the like.

Thank you for the quick replies!
I just toyed with the +/- dial near the viewfinder and that actually made a big difference @70mm and improved some @ 24mm. *slaps forehead for not using this feature sooner* I'm still not sure it's as good as it could be (it is very late here and I'm sure my "testing" conditions aren't prime) but it is much better.

dbld49 wrote in post #15798901
I use a 24-70 ver.1 with a 40d, and a 5dII. I use center point focus pretty much all the time, on both bodies. I was never happy with mine until I learned about zooming to 70 to focus, then zoom out. It would miss focus if I was trying to focus with the lens zoomed out to a wider angle. Have you tried this method? How does an image look when manually focused on a tripod, with good light?

I'm assuming you keep your shutter button pressed half-way after you get focused @ 70mm and then zoom out? I'll try that. I've had the lens probably a year now but haven't had much use with it as I have been so stupidly busy that I can barely manage to remember I actually have a photography interest! lol I'll test your suggestions for sure! Thank you!

kin2son wrote in post #15798966
30D....

Most people that uses 24-70 shoots ff, and that makes quite a diff imo.

I'll tell my husband that I MUST get a ff now because I already own an appropriate lens.

daystar wrote in post #15798970
Thank you for the quick replies!
I just toyed with the +/- dial near the viewfinder and that actually made a big difference @70mm and improved some @ 24mm. *slaps forehead for not using this feature sooner* I'm still not sure it's as good as it could be (it is very late here and I'm sure my "testing" conditions aren't prime) but it is much better.

That's just the diopter for compensating our own less than ideal vision. It has no affect on the sharpness of the image.

cdifoto wrote in post #15798977
That's just the diopter for compensating our own less than ideal vision. It has no affect on the sharpness of the image.

And I had my hopes up...thank you for clarifying.

How old is the lens?

Are you the first owner of it?

There's a chance you may have to send it in to get it checked out as it may have some elements that have decentered.

Lens rental guy had a great write up about this issue.

My original 24-70 was only sharp from 3.5 onwards. Wasn't very sharp at 2.8.

The new 24-70 2.8II is a different beast. My copy is sharp at 2.8. Amazing lens

^ Similar things as he pointed out.

Another reason for me being that I use my prime quite often and because of it, I feel like my 24-70mm can't keep up when in reality it's a powerhouse of a zoom lens.

I MA'd two 24-70 lenses in the last few months and both were so out of focus they had to go back to Canon for AF adjustment and alignment of the elements. I know, a sample size of two means nothing, but I was a bit shocked at just how bad they were. Both photogs said they just could never get sharp pics with their 24-70, but it "looked ok." When testing using LensAlign, nothing was in focus.

cdifoto wrote in post #15798977
That's just the diopter for compensating our own less than ideal vision. It has no affect on the sharpness of the image.

Other than if the AF system did a great job and got the image in focus; when you looked at it on the LCD screen it would look OOF when it wasn't.
Obviously if you looked at the image later on say a PC, with your correct glasses on then the image you took would look in focus.

I do think if the diopter adjustment was slightly out for you and you managed to manually focus it, then surely the resultant image itself would be OOF. And therefore if you looked at it later on a PC then the image wouldalways be OOF?

(I'm not 100% certain of the later paragraphs logic, but pretty certain, as this mirror the statement on my Leupold 8-25 x 50mm LRT MI rifle scopes' manual. And that is accurate +/- 1/4" at 900m [probably more with the right rifle and shooter] )

the same with me...i am starting to hate my 24 70, for the price i paid for it...its not just worth it....heck on bright day my kitlens takes better picture than the brick and it has been to canon for calibration twice....

cdifoto wrote in post #15798977
That's just the diopter for compensating our own less than ideal vision. It has no affect on the sharpness of the image.

But if you're judging if something is in focus or not in the viewfinder and you're diopter is off you can still miss focus because you don't see it clearly.

Have you done a focus test? When done right it's a pretty good way to help eliminate or confirm user error.