Canon 24-70 vs 24-70 II

[sovietdoc]

I am looking to buying one of these but I am kinda lost at the whooping price difference. The only thing the mark 2 lens have over the predecessor is a zoom lock from what I can figure. Can someone tell me why it costs that much more? A lot better IQ? E-peen?

 

[DorkSterr]

Not knowing about Canon lens my guess is a little better IQ, a little better AF, newer technology.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

Supposed to be much sharper wide open. The Canon 24-70(version 1) never blew my socks off.

 

[TimGilbertson]

The 24-70L I is a little bit of an under performer, although it's one of my most used lenses.

The massive price difference is that version II is better in every possible way. The MTF charts show substantially better sharpness wide open. It's lighter, and handles flare and CA better (although version I was pretty good for both). It looks like it puts its sharpness closer to the 70-200 2.8L.

 

[analog.universe]

The 24-70 version I had a lot of optical problems, especially at the wide end, and the hope is that these are resolved in version II. No one will really know how much they fixed until one gets properly run through some lab tests.