24-70mm Blurry Images Horror Stories

Good luck to you, Juan. Glad to see you´re taking in some of the more mature comments of the other members, and especially glad to see that you still have hopes of this working out somehow (in other words; you getting a good copy and learn exactly how to appreciate its pros and cons).

If things don´t work out between you and this lens, there are always options - involving either IS, wider apertures (primes) or flashes.

BTW: that shot done by sf_loft is beautiful, and only further justifies why I want a 24-70L!

justaf IREMAN wrote in post #9502517
Hand held at 1/20 of a second at 70mm? Of course it's going to be blurry. The cheaper lens has IS helping it out. Plus there is something amiss with the photo, the DOF is not the same which leads me to believe it's front focussing. It's not a fair test, use a tripod, MLU, manually focus, go somewhere with more light and up the shutter speed. That second photo from the brick shows camera shake.

Ditto 100% I see the same thing.

Not to ruffle feather but you seem to be getting mad at people who know what they are taking about . That is why We want a test shot. A picture tells a thousand word. Your looking at camera shake. You can not hold a 70MM lens at 1/20. You would need 1/125. Lens MM X crop factor = shutter speed and always round up. I am not sure what stop is is on that lens. If it is a 2 stop than you can hand hold that other lens at 1/30. Your very close at 1/20.

My 24-70 2.8 is sharp as a tack when used properly. Sometimes too sharp as I get pores and pimps in a bride 4Ft away from them. Thanks for Ps. This is my favorite lens and I use all L's

Juan Huerta wrote in post #9512390
That's not only a positive spin...that's HOPE, my friend.

Now, explain that rule again,...s-l-o-w-l-y,...please...

No sarcasm here. I am listening.

I will explain it to you when I have the time to pull out my 24-70 later tonight and show you that the same lens is not capable of 1/20s hand held. I will compare that to my 70-200 f/4L IS @ 70mm 1/20s with IS enabled to show you the difference. I consider myself pretty steady and even use several techniques to keep myself as steady as possible, but 1/20s is tough.

1/2 * (FL) - So in your case your shutter speed shoud be 1/(2*70) or 1/140s. Since you are on a crop body, meaning 1.6x crop, your 70mm is effectively 112mm. Using that same formula you should aim for 1/224s for your shutter speed. I went through the thread and your comparison isn't really apples to apples since you are comparing an IS lens vs. non.

Just as an example, here is a test shot I took awhile back, handeld, using my 70-200 @200mm f/4 3200 ISO and at 1/13s IS enabled. It's a 100% crop. I didn't even post the image with IS turned off because it was so bad.

Juan Huerta

No sarcasm meant. But you need to cancel your weddings and do some reading. I'm not bashing you but your taking a big chance with a brides wedding. Some of the points you have argued is basic photography. Thier is alot more to getting a good camera putting it in P and taking on weddings.

A great book to start is photography in focus. Yes it is a older book but the fundamentals are thier without all the cluter.

To be honest, I thought this thread should/could have been locked or removed a long time ago. It seems to be 85% personal attacks to and from Juan. Maybe Jerry Springer can step in and sort things out.

Juan, I have no horse in this race, so I will give my honest opinion.

I honestly think your testing methods are not sound. Without adding the insults that others have, I will state that you simply cannot snap a picture at 1/20; 70mm and expect to consistently produce anything but a blurred picture UNLESS you have used IS or some sort of stability aid, even with a perfectly functioning high end lens. However, I feel that the photography world should not be solely based on "test pics." It should, instead, be based on real world photos. At least that's my opinion. If you personally took all of the photos on your web site (from your signature), then you are obviously doing something correct because there are alot of good photos on there. Judging by your web site, you have alot of talent and a good eye, especially for someone in the beginnings of a career.

If I were you, I would simply NOT REPLY any further in this thread and maybe even PM a moderator (Suzy?) and ask for it to be locked so nobody else can post in it either. At this point, the dead horse has been beaten more than 100 times.

Good luck in your career. And, if you decide to purchase another 24-70L, I hope you get a good one so you can experience the best of this lens, it is a workhorse for many a fantastic photographer. The one you had was quite possibly just a lemon, unfortunately there are some out there. Not alot, but some. If instead you decide you need a lens with IS, try the 24-105L IS, it also is a superb lens that I personally can hand hold at 1/20 and 105mm And, since you use 1.6x crop cameras, the 17-55 IS is another great lens to consider. I used that when I had a 40D and I loved it. Again, good luck. Mark.

Thanks Mark,

Yes, I have taken all the photographs in my site and my blog. I am an artist who suffered too much to see a painting go...so illustrations and photography gave me the chance to "print" as many of my favorite pieces of work as I wanted, sell them and still keep them for myself.

A lot of people have a lot of math in their heads, but lack of any artistic sense. I am a bit obsessed with getting "sharp" images from this lens, but I am not really that obsessed to the point in which I will think that only "sharp" images are valid, artistic or worth of the moment...

I am into photography not for the money, not for anything else than for the great joy that gives me NOT TAKING IMAGES,....BUT MAKING THEM.

I do not spend my life testing or TAKING IMAGES. Like some great guy said once...I rather make them...on manual, program, AV, you name it. I am glad you mentioned that, in other words, life is bigger than a test.

I will give it another chance,...I will purchase another copy and see how it goes. I will read and follow some of the advice given to me in here...I did noticed that the colors were way more brilliant than the colors coming from my 17-85mm, but even though I sped up the lens a couple of times, I didn't get to see that the images were coming out as I wanted, not even with my flash and softboxes...

Thank you for stepping in as an adult. Thank you for the comments.

TheMirrorMan wrote in post #9512908
Juan Huerta

No sarcasm meant. But you need to cancel your weddings and do some reading. I'm not bashing you but your taking a big chance with a brides wedding. Some of the points you have argued is basic photography. Thier is alot more to getting a good camera putting it in P and taking on weddings.

A great book to start is photography in focus. Yes it is a older book but the fundamentals are thier without all the cluter.

If Juan is shooting in P-mode then I'm going to do the same. The images on his web site are very nice.

Well, that's enough of this. Topic closed.