24-105 IS advice needed...

I was interested in this lens...pros and cons...besides price!!!

Just take a look at the lens image archive and decide for yourself.

I now use this as my walk-around lens and I'm very very pleased with it. Great detail, sharpness, colour and the IS is very effective. It's just a little slow for indoor work if you don't have a flash.

If you're tempted enough to ask, you're tempted enough to buy. And you won't be disappinted with it.

Do a search...there are tons of thread on this lens...and welcome.

For me it covers the vast majority of my 'walkabout' shooting. On a crop body It's not really wide enough for some things, but I have to 10-22mm to cover this. but If I had to choose one lens the 24-105 would be it.

The IS is really handy down to about 1/15th sec for my hands, particularly at the wide end, at the 105mm end you may need 1/30th to get really sharp results, it all depends how steady you can hold it.

The f/4 is not a problem for my type of shooting, more often than not, the larger aperture can give you focus problems due to a lack of DOF.

If you need a fast lens you may as well get a fast prime like the 50/1.4 or the 85/1.2 etc. IMO.

IQ, colour rendition etc. is excellent, particularly from f/5.6 on, although f/4 is not bad it is noticeably softer, but then so are most lenses wide open.

Just go out and get it

If you have a 1.6x crop camera....go for the Canon EF 24-70 L

the.digital.guy wrote in post #2276290
If you have a 1.6x crop camera....go for the Canon EF 24-70 L

Why (just out of interest?)

the.digital.guy wrote in post #2276290
If you have a 1.6x crop camera....go for the Canon EF 24-70 L

Oh?

I have both....I use the 24-105 almost all the time. Having 50% more focal length is very handy, regardless of crop factor.

Ditto...

Anyway, crop factor's pretty meaningless if you don't miss it (like the rest of us without FF cameras)

kevin_c wrote in post #2276298
Why (just out of interest?)

the 24-70L is a better portrait lens -- better bokeh, more DOF field control and my 24-70L has slightly better IQ than my 24-105L . also f2.8 has an edge in freezing action.

in general tho i would say most would be better suited with the 24-105L because of its versatility.

ed rader

ed rader wrote in post #2276333
the 24-70L is a better portrait lens -- better bokeh, more DOF field control and my 24-70L has slightly better IQ than my 24-105L . also f2.8 has an edge is freezing action.

in general tho i would say most would be better suited with the 24-105L because of its versatility.

ed rader

I was assuming it was a 'general' use lens, no mention of doing a lot of portraits, I'd agree with you on the 24-70 for that Ed

kevin_c wrote in post #2276357
I was assuming it was a 'general' use lens, no mention of doing a lot of portraits, I'd agree with you on the 24-70 for that Ed

i wasn't assuming anything. i was telling the OP why i prefered the 24-70L since it gets compared with the 24-105L more than any other lens.

i used the 24-105L heavily for 8 months so my observations are probably a bit more valid than someone who speaks with authority but haven't used both lenses.

ed rader

I use the 24-105 F4L as my walkaround lens (on 1DS MKII), it's sharp and sweet, and the IS is great.
The only downside is there is slight vignetting at F4 at 24mm.

If you are buying second hand, make sure the serial number is higher than 1,000, canon had a re-call on lenses with serial numbers less than 1,000.

gqllc wrote in post #2276057
I was interested in this lens...pros and cons...besides price!!!

You don't say whether or not you have a crop camera. I reckon the 24-105 is a great walkaround for my 5D, but would probably do something different with a crop camera to get better wide angle views.............mayb​e a 17-40.

gqllc wrote in post #2276057
I was interested in this lens...pros and cons...besides price!!!

You don't tell us what camera you are using it with (full frame or APS-C etc) or what you want to shoot, or what lenses you have already. We could help more if you tell us.

However, my copy on APS-C (20D) is very sharp, sharper than the 17-40 at the wide end, not as sharp as the 100mm macro at the long end but better than I expected. The IS works giving about 2 stops at the long end and 1-3 stops depending on sharpness criteria at the wide end.

Build quality is OK, shame the zoom action is not internal (the lens extends with increasing focal length).

On the negative side the lens has significant chromatic aberation, not bad but rather more than the 17-40 for example. However CA is easy to fix with CS2, I have ACR corrections for it on APS-C on my web page.

It is also much more prone to flare, probably the worst lens I have for flare. I have not noticed a problem with ordinary daylight use but I would be carefull about nighttime or sunset work.

Thankfully, we can have more than one lens. But still, if I was reduced to that, it would be my 24-105. I went through a long period of deciding between the 24-70 and the 24-105, but I think it makes the better one lens solution. That of course is my humble opinion.
Extra FL and IS.