EF 24-70mm F/2.8L II USM Zoom Lens

The Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM is a superb, versatile, all-round lens. The overall build quality is fantastic, as you would expect from an L-series lens, and is a welcomed upgrade to the Mk. I version of this lens.Stretching from 24mm (Medium-wide) to 70mm (short telephoto), the 24-70 f/2.8 lenses are perhaps best known for their workhorse nature. Having one of these in your bag often means you can leave the heavy collection of prime lenses at home on a normal day's shoot; in fact, that's what I've found myself doing more and more with this lens. I can drop this, my 5D Mk III, and a flash into my bag, and be ready for a lot of situations that present themselves, without needing to worry that my images won't be sharp or slightly distorted at the edges.The fastest aperture of this lens, at f/2.8 isn't the best in the lowest of light situations, however, in normal working circumstances this is more than enough for most day-to-day shooting scenarios. At an average of 2 stops slower than most of the primes that the zoom range cuts across, you would expect backgrounds to be slightly sharper than the prime equivalents, however this lens does an excellent job of blurring the background out for portraits and close-up work, whilst still being pin-sharp when you stop it down to f/8 or above for landscape work.At nearly 1kg, this lens is by far not the lightest zoom Canon makes, however the weight is truly reflected in the stunning images you can capture thanks to the glass inside. This may be slightly buffeted by the fact that Canon chose not to build IS of any kind into the lens, opting for a purely optical design, much like its predecessor.. Unlike it's predecessor, this Mk. II version of the lens features a plastic/thin metal construction. Some people may be put off by this, however, I for one am not careful with my lenses and don't treat them like babies, and after 5 months of hard use, there is no physical or visual wear and tear to my lens.The lens hood supplied with my own lens was of the newer-style button release lens hoods. Unlike the Mk.I version, the hood now directly attaches to a bayonet around the outermost lip of the 82mm filter ring. The barrel no longer travels inside the lens hood. This means that Canon used their normal zoom layout of shortest to longest clockwise, however that added protection from knocks and bumps to the barrel is no longer there.Overall, I think that the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM is an excellent and versatile lens, well worthy of its L-series designation and pricing.Pros:Nearly prime-quality sharpnessFast maximum aperture for a zoomProfessional build qualityWeather sealingVersatileCons:Slow maximum aperture for ultra-low light workNo IS

This is a fantastic lens for those investing in their first L series lens.Its versatility in it's zoom range of 24-70mm is really useful.The Image Stabilisation (IS) works brilliantly and image is sharp pretty much across the frame.The macro feature is a brilliant feature. I can take portraits, landscapes and some close up photos all with this one lens. It's not strictly macro but it is very close to it.It's aperture is wide open at F/4 so your not going to get a lot of bokeh or background blur in your photos. But again it was than I was expecting especially on my Canon 6D.It's an EF lens so will work on both the Canon crop sensor and full frame camera bodies.It works a treat on my Canon 550D, my Canon 6D and my friends Canon 700D.With the crop sensor camera's you just have to remember that 24-70mm becomes 38-112mmSo an exceptional quality lens that ticks many boxes. It's a little heavy at first but you soon get used to it.

First of all, I just want to make potential customers aware that the supplied Canon Lens Hood used to be the EW-83L, but has now been replaced with the EW-83M - The only difference I can see (apart from the L was made in Japan, and the M is made in Taiwan) is that the inner part of the petal is no longer covered with felt, but just blackened plastic. I don't know if the felt caused any optical problems, but I assume it may have if the felt is no longer used ???The lens has nice build quality and is a lovely thing to hold, with a reassuring feel. However, I'm not totally sure about the consistency of this lens' AF accuracy. I have just returned one copy of the lens and had it replaced with one from a completely different batch (now supplied with the EW-83M Lens Hood, as opposed to the EW-83L). The AF inconsistency seems to be the same, so I am fairly confident I don't have a dodgy copy .. So, in conclusion, occasionally when auto focusing but repeatedly pressing the shutter release while trying to focus on the exact same spot, the focus will, on occasion, vary a little, confirmed by the distance scale showing a different distance and a whir of the AF motor. Any comments would be very welcome.

I'm into landscape photography and wanted to upgrade my kit lens as I wasn't happy with the focusing ring when manual focusing. It's far too loose for my liking , so you can never get anything absolutely pin sharp. I always had to take a "I suppose that'll do" approach to focusing on live view using a tripod. No more!This lens is superb. It's also got longer focal length than the 18-55 kit lens which is a bonus.All the focusing is done internally, so you can put a filter on without having to readjust it every time you change focus on a subject.Focusing is a dream on live view using a tripod, you just dial in the focus on the area you want to focus on. I can now absolutely control the focusing manually on a tripod.Autofocus is great when shooting handheld as it's fast, quiet and provides crisp images.IS is a welcome bonus for the price as the lens I was originally looking at cost an additional £1k for IS built in!The £160 cash back from Canon helped me to justify the purchase with my wife as I would have been over budget without it.This is my go-to lens everytime.