The Sharpest Zoom Ever Made!!!

[Majeed Badizadegan]

The Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L II, the sharpest zoom ever made?

“This is short, sweet, and simple. The resolution absolutely, positively kicks butt and takes names. It is way better than the lens it replaces. It’s better at 70mm than the best Canon zoom I know of, the 70-200 f/2.8 IS II. It’s even better at 24mm than the sharpest 24mm prime we have, the Canon 24 TS-E. In the center, in the corners, it doesn’t care. We only had 5 copies to test, but they were all very similar with little copy-to-copy variation.

Resolution is not everything, of course. But it’s certainly an important thing. Unless the real lens reviewers find some dramatic problems with this lens, I’d have to lean towards worth-the-money on this one. I can’t believe I’m saying that a $2,300 standard zoom is worth the money. But then again, I can’t believe I’m seeing a zoom lens out resolve a $2,000 world-class prime, either.”


The Imatest results are below. The higher the number, the better.

Lens	24mm Ctr	24mm Avg	70mm Ctr	70mm Avg
Canon 24-70 f/2.8 II	954	831	950	809
Canon 24-70 f/2.8	730	605	705	570
Tamron 24-70 f/2.8 VC	815	765	735	655
Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS II	xx	xx	885	765
Canon24 f/3.5 TS-E	915	775	xx	xx

-- Via The Raw Data: The EF 24-70 f/2.8L II is the Sharpest Zoom Canon Has Ever Made « Canon Rumors




Sharper than the 24 f/3.5 TS-E prime!!! WHAT!!??

 

[mjhoward]

Canon's new lenses, and even their new teleconverters, are very sharp. We tested the new 400mm 2.8 II with the 2x Extender III against our 800mm 5.6 and resolution wise, we couldnt notice ANY difference unless we were pixel peeping very small TEXT (the warnings/disposal text) on a paint bucket from about 40m away. Under normal conditions, you probably wouldn't notice a difference even when pixel peeping. If I remeber correctly, I think there was a noticeable difference in contrast with that combo though, the edge going to the 800mm prime.

 

[rexbobcat]

And yet still no IS version.

 

[Derrel]

And yet still no IS version.

Of course there's no IS version! Canon leaves that to the Tamron VC model lens, which seems to test out better than the actual Mark I version of the Canon. Rest assured, the Mark III oughtta' have IS, so you can spent the $2,300 now, use the lens for a while, then when the IS model comes out, sell the 24-70 Mark II and buy the Mark III for $2,999,estimated future price.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

This looks like a great lens for star shots perhaps! Rex you have the 24 1.4, how do you like that?

 

[rexbobcat]

This looks like a great lens for star shots perhaps! Rex you have the 24 1.4, how do you like that?

I actually like it a lot. The images are pretty sharp at 1.4 and really sharp from about 2.5 onwards. It also has a kind of creamy quality while still remaining sharp which is kind of hard to explain.

There's some slight barrel distortion though, and quite a bit of CA wide open, but those aren't surprising characteristics really. I kind of expected it

I love how images at 1.4 kind of have a tilt shift look.

I'm glad I got the mark II version though. Apparently the first version was disappointing.

It was a whim purchase but I'm glad I did.

 

[Superdaantje]

And yet still no IS version.

Of course there's no IS version! Canon leaves that to the Tamron VC model lens, which seems to test out better than the actual Mark I version of the Canon. Rest assured, the Mark III oughtta' have IS, so you can spent the $2,300 now, use the lens for a while, then when the IS model comes out, sell the 24-70 Mark II and buy the Mark III for $2,999,estimated future price.

I almost bought the Tamron. The first copy had problems with the AF and sharpness. Second copy I get had similar problems but not that much as the first one. The third one the store tested an also found some problems with it. This is not my first time that I had a negative experience with Tamron. So Tamron is a real No Go here ;-)

 

[sovietdoc]

Rest assured, the Mark III oughtta' have IS, so you can spent the $2,300 now, use the lens for a while, then when the IS model comes out, sell the 24-70 Mark II and buy the Mark III for $2,999,estimated future price.

My plan exactly.