Personal experience w/Canon 24-70 2.8

Personal experience w/Canon 24-70 2.8

Ive been reading alot of reviews some good and some not so good about the Canon 24-70 2.8, I just sold my 24-205 to purchase this lens, but is it really soft. If you have this lens do you love or hate it and is it a true keeper.
I shoot outdoor portraits and I mainly use my 70-200 MarkII but thought the 24-70 would be a good walk around lens and good for some portraits.
Camera is Canon 5DII.
Thanks

I have the 24-70 and I have sent it into canon to be adjusted since it was varying focus throughout it's zoom range. I have since gotten it back and it still front focuses but it is one MA setting (+11) throughout the entire range so I am happier with it.
Although I still might send it back since +11 is not for me within standards or I might sell it. I do portraits and I tend to find the 24-70 a little too wide for my taste. I must admit that the IQ is gorgeous though.

I have it on my 5D2 and like most of my lenses, it required a little MA, but this value is consistent throughout the zoom range. I'm very happy with my lens as it produces great results under all conditions.

Mine is phenomenal.

Mine is being calibrated at the minute. Last week the tech doing it said he had never seen anything like it at 24mm. It was miles and miles out. I'm looking forward to getting it back as it is a lens that I really want to love

I hope it meets my expectations!

The one I used to own had to go back to Canon for calibration. The lens never did impress me on crop cameras, but on the 5D2 it was plenty sharp. The field curvature issue at wide angle settings was disappointing though. It does produce polished images with beautiful color and contrast.

Mine is amazing, just wish it was lighter.

First one had a problem after 2 weeks, at first the photoshop denied the problem because every time they tested it it was OK. Problem was that one of the lenses inside wasn't manifactured right, so sometimes it had some movingspace inside and i had most pictures out of focus. Moments later it was alright again and the pictures were OK. Took about 6 months and a lot of frustration, because it was a user error in their opinion, to find it out it was a real lens problem. Because it was now a 6 months old lens they didn't want to exchanse the lens and after sending it to Canon repair it took about 2 weeks i got a phonecall from Canon they would send me a new copy.

After picking up the new lens i found it not nearly as sharp as my older lens when it did work properly. Adjusting on my 50D was no problem but on a 40D it was soft and crappy, almost felt sorry for selling my old Tamron 28-75. Shortly after selling my 40D backup camera and buying a 5DII ( now my 50D is backup camera ) i sold the 24-70 for a 24-105. Much sharper and great IS on it, great allround lens.

When needing a bigger aparture i use my 50 f/1.4 - 85 f/1.8 100f/2.8

No need to say i dont mis the 24-70.

Mine is not sharp at 70mm f/2.8 but at the other FL it is very sharp. And it doesn't have focus issue, no MA needed. Mine is UY code. Wonder if the newer code has a better quality.

It really torn wether to buy this lens or not, Ive always wanted one and now reading as much as I can find, I may have to wait to see if something new comes out to replace it. I love 2.8 and if the 24-105 was 2.8 I would have never considered selling it.
I have the 70-200Is II but I dont want to tote it all day while on vacation. Now that I sold my 24-105 I just hope Im not sorry.

k9trainer wrote in post #11833834
Personal experience w/Canon 24-70 2.8

Ive been reading alot of reviews some good and some not so good about the Canon 24-70 2.8, I just sold my 24-205 to purchase this lens, but is it really soft. If you have this lens do you love or hate it and is it a true keeper.
I shoot outdoor portraits and I mainly use my 70-200 MarkII but thought the 24-70 would be a good walk around lens and good for some portraits.
Camera is Canon 5DII.
Thanks

The best thing you can do it is to call Canon and describe exactly the problem you have. You need to be as specific as possible, afraid just "soft" wouldn't take you too far. My experience is that it can be very sharp and have spot on focus at all zoom positions, but taking it there might require a trip or two to Canon service center.

FIRST I WANT TO SAY...

My copy is sharp as a tack on my 1.6x cameras but, I have never used it on a full-framer. That could possibly be a problem.

However, I am beginning to wonder if there might have been some problems over the past few years with the general Q.A. at the Canon Assembly Line for the 24-70L.

The reason why I am wondering is that up to the time I purchased my 24-70L (don't remember exactly when, but it was soon after Canon released the 24-105mm f/4L IS lens) I had never read a negative comment on the lens (except that it is darn heavy). I purchased the 24-70L used so it was probably several years old at the time I bought it.

It has only been within the past few years that the focus and sharpness complaints seemed to have begun appearing regarding the 24-70L.

Mine is so sharp that I have to be careful not to cut myself when I open any images shot with that lens...

I bought this lens a few years ago from B&H, went to Paris the day after it arrived and every image was 'soft'. B&H changed it with no questions, but the second copy never really lived up to my expectations, particularly as my 17-40 is as sharp as a pin. I sent it back to Canon, but it came back as being 'within tolerance' Just before xmas 2010, the pictures had gone 'soft' , so back to canon again, and they changed the zoom ring (for 200 GBP!)

So, no, my experience of this lens has not been great, but it could just be bad luck.

Mine was soft until I discovered it was front focusing; I now give it +8 MA and it's really sharp. I'm taking it to canon for warranty work, for $1,300 it should be perfect.

Tommydigi wrote in post #11835773
Mine is amazing, just wish it was lighter.

+1.