Lens advice please - what to do if you got a soft copy?

Hi folks,

Just bought two new lenses from different vendors to get the best deals. One is a 70-200 F/2.8 IS and the other 24-70 F/2.8.

The 70-200 blows me away. Could not be happier. But the 24-70 is soft everywhere and has some purple chroma and even some red chroma on white letters on black backgrounds. I shot down to F4 and the same softness. My 24-105 is sharper. There is only a hint of backfocus, so this is not the problem.

I can send it back and pay freight and exchange and hope the next copy is better, or I can send to Canon under warranty.

What would you do? I think once it goes to Canon it is mine, but also exchanging might not be an improvement at all. And then again, it could be.

Thoughts?

~Bob

The Canon 24-70L is a dog. Don't hope too high on getting both ends tack sharp. It's not like Nikon version which comes out of the box sharp on both ends.

maverick678 wrote in post #9940362
The Canon 24-70L is a dog. Don't hope too high on getting both ends tack sharp. It's not like Nikon version which comes out of the box sharp on both ends.

My 24-70 is one of my sharpest lenses and probably the one i shoot with most.
If i was in your shoes i would send it into Canon and get the problem resolved. What if u exchange it and its another soft copy? Waste of time IMO.

Send it to Canon and when it gets back nice and calibrated you tell me if its a "dog".

LOL...I had 5 copies of this junk. Some of them I've sent three times.. Canon couldn't get it right. I don't know what standard you have as far as sharpness though.

chomish wrote in post #9940398
My 24-70 is one of my sharpest lenses and probably the one i shoot with most.
If i was in your shoes i would send it into Canon and get the problem resolved. What if u exchange it and its another soft copy? Waste of time IMO.

Send it to Canon and when it gets back nice and calibrated you tell me if its a "dog".

maverick678 wrote in post #9940411
LOL...I had 5 copies of this junk. Some of them I've sent three times.. Canon couldn't get it right. I don't know what standard you have as far as sharpness though.

Wow that sucks for you i guess. You must have horrible luck.

Your rite, my standards are really low. And so are the standards of all the people who buy probably Canons most sold lens.

If i where u i would try for #6 cause its really a great lens.

Knowing you...you can defend it as much as you want. This lens is the one I'll stay away from forever.

chomish wrote in post #9940642
Wow that sucks for you i guess. You must have horrible luck.

Your rite, my standards are really low. And so are the standards of all the people who buy probably Canons most sold lens.

If i where u i would try for #6 cause its really a great lens.

maverick678 wrote in post #9940667
Knowing you...you can defend it as much as you want. This lens is the one I'll stay away from forever.

You know me? What, from the five posts youve read of mine? Thats good to know.

But your rite. One mans trash is anothers treasure. And im sure the 24-70 will continue to be one of Canons most sold lenses for years too come.

Hope you dont have to go through 5 mak II's when they finally release them. Hehe.

I could care less if it sells the most. I'm not even planning to get the version II, I'm happy with the Nikon version.

chomish wrote in post #9940706
You know me? What, from the five posts youve read of mine? Thats good to know.

But your rite. One mans trash is anothers treasure. And im sure the 24-70 will continue to be one of Canons most sold lenses for years too come.

Hope you dont have to go through 5 mak II's when they finally release them. Hehe.

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

The 24-70L is certainly not the sharpest zoom out there, but it's also misunderstood due to the perception that there are lots of "soft" copies floating around. There are definitely those who have stuggled mightily to get a good copy. No denying that.

I have owned this lens twice now. The first one was great. I'll be honest and say I never really srcutinized that copy b/c I quickly sold it to get another lens I wanted more.

The second copy, which is the one I have now, was pretty much a dog when I got it. It took 3 trips to Canon to get it right, and it's great now. Is is tack freaking sharp? No. But it's sharp enough that I don't worry about it. Is it as sharp as the 24-105L I used to own? I would say they are close and at f4, perhaps even closer.

So I would say to the OP, send it in anc get it calibrated. Hopefully it won't take 3 times like me. But even if it did, they will foot the bill on any subsequent return. You pay once when you ship to Canon. That's it.

Good luck and it you need more info, let me know.

I'll post 2 100% crops that I found from last year when I testing things out.

Keep in mind these have ZERO sharpening. Meaning, sharpening was manually set to zero in ACR, then imported into PS CS4 then saved as JPEG.

pcunite wrote in post #9940908
http://www.lensrentals​.com …s-is-soft-and-other-myths

I have read that and one of the first things I checked was focus. It is only slightly back and I have not tried Micro Adjust yet. Happy with my other 3 L's with very little adjustment, but I do not think that will make that big a difference with this lens.

I might try this weekend with my Lens Align to see, but would be surprised.

But thanks for that link.

~Bob

And thanks Nick.

I'll try to play a little more today. Lens literally got in end of yesterday UPS and I shot 6 quick shots. However, did the same with the 70-200 2.8 when it arrived a few days earlier and they were just spot on. So part of the reason I started this thread was to see if my expectations for this lens were too high. But since my 24-105 also seems sharper, I think this needs to make a trip to Canon.

The CA does bother me too. Not noticeable on any other L lens I have.

~Bob

If you just want it to be sharp @ f/4 Canon calibration will work. My posts were directed toward f/2.8 as always.

rebop wrote in post #9941823
And thanks Nick.

I'll try to play a little more today. Lens literally got in end of yesterday UPS and I shot 6 quick shots. However, did the same with the 70-200 2.8 when it arrived a few days earlier and they were just spot on. So part of the reason I started this thread was to see if my expectations for this lens were too high. But since my 24-105 also seems sharper, I think this needs to make a trip to Canon.

The CA does bother me too. Not noticeable on any other L lens I have.

~Bob

maverick678 wrote in post #9940411
LOL...I had 5 copies of this junk. Some of them I've sent three times.. Canon couldn't get it right. I don't know what standard you have as far as sharpness though.

And your standards must be really high.