Canon 24-105mm lens: review, specifications, reviews. Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:46

Canon is developing the L line with f/4 lenses alongside more traditional f/2.8 lenses. They are smaller, cheaper and lighter than conventional ones, but they are of high quality and have features such as tightness and strength.

The f/2.8 series includes professional lenses for Canon such as 70-200, 24-70, 16-35 (IS). F / 4 are models 70-200, 24-105, 17-40 and IS. This review will focus on the EF 24-105mm/4L IS USM.

Features overview

The fact that the device belongs to the L series, you can tell as soon as the lens falls into the hands. And not only because of the presence of a red ring at the front edge - this is indicated by its strength and reliability. A metal mount is much less prone to wear and tear than a plastic mount, and dust and moisture protection comes in handy when shooting during light rain. The ultrasonic ring motor accurately, quickly and almost silently finds the perfect focus. Manual tuning mode is also available.

EF 24-105mm/4L is a Canon lens with specifications that make itgreat set of focal lengths. Probably even better than 24-70mm/2.8L. 24mm provides a true wide angle. Both lenses cover the normal 50mm range, but this model also covers portrait, as many people call 80-100mm focal lengths. Full-format cameras with such parameters provide excellent head-and-shoulders shots. The 70mm limitation of 24-70 means this lens is less suitable for these shots.

In addition, this model perfectly captures landscapes, groups of people and buildings. It's one of those general purpose lenses that you can't live without and make for a great vacation. For those who like to shoot with long focal lengths, the model will provide such an opportunity. Of course, 105mm is not enough for photo hunting - it will have to be supplemented with telephoto optics 100-400mm / 4.5-5.6L.

At 670g, the lens is significantly lighter than the 950g 28-70mm/2.8 model. However, this does not make it light or compact.

A maximum aperture of f/4 isn't the limit, but at least it's consistent throughout the zoom range and a whole division better than most zoom lenses at their upper limit. To shoot indoors in low light conditions, high ISO settings will be needed. But on the other hand, another advantage of the Canon EF 24-105mm / 4L is the built-in image stabilization system, which allows you to increase the shutter speed by 3 times. So if the photographer gotsharp photos without IS at 105mm in 1/125s, now it can take pictures in 1/15s. This is why the lens is well suited for indoor shooting, especially during the daytime, although IS cannot prevent moving objects from blurring, only a faster shutter speed can do it. F/2.8 optics EF 24-70, which doesn't have IS, or the smaller 17-55 are more suitable for capturing shots in low light conditions. Of course, a flash can always come to the rescue, but it destroys the atmosphere of natural light.

When the lens (along with the 70-300 IS) first appeared in 2005, the first examples suffered from flare under certain conditions. The design was quickly corrected, and since 2006 lenses have been produced without this drawback.

The optics are made up of 18 elements, including one Super UD and three aspherical elements, to increase image quality and minimize aberrations even when the aperture is wide open.

This Canon camera lens is fully sealed, which means there are gaskets under the focus switch and zoom rings, as well as on the mount. The latter is fully effective only when the optics are used with a sealed chamber. These are mainly EOS 1 series devices. For added protection, Canon recommends using a 77mm UV filter when using the lens in the rain.

Design features

The lens is perfectly balanced with 40D or 5D cameras. It is not lightweight, but quite compact and comfortable to hold in your hand. The only thing that confuses users a bit is that the zoom ring is on the back while the focus ring is on the front. Other professional lenses for Canon with USM motors (eg 20-35, 28-135 IS, 17-85 IS) differ in that they are reversed. This can quickly get used to, but according to users, they often get confused and change focus when they want to change the zoom.

The construction is very solid, although it uses more plastic than other L-series all-metal lenses. Zooming and focusing is smooth and smooth, as is the case with the entire range. The black color certainly makes the device a bit more "ste althy" than white Canon EF 70-200mm/4L lenses.

The lens hood that is included costs $60 if purchased separately. It is quite small, but since the lens zooms up to 24 mm, it is simply necessary. It has a petal shape, which gives the greatest possible coverage, but it is still not very effective when the optic is extended to 105mm. This is the problem with all zooms. One advantage of a shallow lens hood is that you can reach it and rotate the lens polarizer. Designed for use in a full-frame camera. The lens hood works fine on other DSLRs as well, though not as effective even at 24mm as the smaller angle of view requires a deeper lens hood to get rid of vignetting.

77mm filter will fit andto some other lenses such as EF 300mm/4L, 20-35mm/3.5-4.5, 400mm/5.6L, 17-40mm/4L, 16-35mm/2.8L, EF-S 10-22mm etc. Please note that the EF 16-35mm/2.8L II needs an 82mm filter. This may be the only Canon lens that needs a larger size. With a downsizing adapter, 77mm filters can also be used on smaller optics. True, in this case it is no longer possible to install a lens hood.

According to user feedback, the available set of focal lengths is best used on a full-frame camera. An APS-C body turns a normal lens into a tele-zoom, since from 24 mm to APS-C they give the same angle of view as 35 mm at full frame. But the Canon EF 24-105mm/f 4L IS USM pairs very well with the 10-22mm/3.5-4.5 on 40D type DSLRs. If both lenses are available, no one will regret not having a 23mm, having the equivalent of a 16-168mm in terms of a full-frame camera.

Performance

This is mostly for full size sensors (such as the EOS 5D), but the Canon 24-105 f/4L lens can be used in other manufacturer's DSLRs including the EOS 20D, 30D, 40D and the Digital Rebel series. Since cameras with an APS-C sensor essentially crop a full-frame image, their performance in terms of things like distortion, vignetting, edge sharpness, and chromatic aberration will be even better than full-frame ones. This is because the APS-C sensor simply captures the "sweet spot" in the centerframe where most aberrations are lower than at the edges. The price to pay for this is the loss of some angle of view and the need to enlarge the cropped image by 1.6 times in order to obtain an equivalent image size. This reduces the overall quality, like printing from small negatives compared to large ones.

Distortion

Distortion ranges from moderate barrel distortion at 24mm to very slight changes at 50mm and soft pincushion distortion at 105mm. Distortion probably won't be very noticeable in most normal shots, but if your subject is architecture with lots of vertical and horizontal lines around the edges of the frame, it can be a problem. Distortion can of course be corrected - Canon's own DPP RAW converter is able to automatically apply corrections to RAW images taken with the 24-105/4L. When shooting slides or negatives for conventional optical printing (which is very unlikely, but possible), you should probably choose a lens with minimal distortion. For all other cases, scale distortion is a fact of life and can be corrected with little or no noticeable impact on image quality.

Vignetting

As you would expect, vignetting becomes noticeable in full-frame shots when the aperture is wide open. At 24mm at maximum aperture, dark corners can be seen, especially in a photo with a uniform tone (for example, a blue sky). Vignetting at 50 and 105 mm is not the samestrong, like at 24 mm, but it is there. Again, it will become noticeable when shooting scenes with uniform angles. Setting it to f/5.6 greatly reduces the amount of vignetting. Since the APS-C sensor crops the image from the center of the full frame, this effect is not noticeable on such SLR cameras, even at a maximum aperture of 24mm. Some APS-C owners who have already used full-frame lenses and have switched to appropriate cameras may be in for a surprise when they see most (if not all) of their optics begin to show vignetting.

After automatic image correction, brightening of the corners becomes noticeable. This feature can also correct distortion and chromatic aberration at the same time. Users note that when printing large pictures, all standard paper sizes cut off the corners, since no standard has a 2:3 aspect ratio. Therefore, dark areas of the photo will be cropped anyway.

Bokeh

Bokeh, or out-of-focus image quality, is more than decent for f/4 lenses, especially at longer focal lengths. The out-of-focus edges are a bit congested and harsh, but that's normal for this kind of optic.

The degree of blur is highly dependent on the ratio of distances from the camera to the subject and from the subject to the background. As long as it is closer to the camera than the background, the bokeh will be pleasing.

Although the lens cannot compete with wider aperture lenses, especially EF 85mm/1.2L, 24-105mm/4L, on105mm separates the subject from the background quite well.

Stabilization

Canon claims that turning on the image stabilization function allows you to increase the shutter speed by 3 times. Shots at 24mm at 1/6s are pretty sharp and even about 50% of shots taken at 1/3s are good. At 105mm, most of the good photos can be taken at 1/13s. Of course, the shots are not quite the same as if they were taken from a tripod, but clear enough. These figures are consistent with Canon's claim of three additional divisions. When shooting at such slow shutter speeds (1/3s at 24mm, 1/13s at 105mm) it is always a good idea to capture at least two or three frames, this will greatly increase the chances of getting at least one sharp image. It's all about percentages. The more photos you take, the higher the chances of getting a good shot.

Sharpness

The Canon 24-105 mm f/4L lens captures sharp images at all apertures, both in the center of the frame and in the corners, even when using the EOS 5D full frame sensor. There is only a slight increase in sharpness when closing down to f/5.6, which is a testament to how good the optics are at f/4. It may be less crisp at 105mm than it is at 24mm, but it still delivers plenty of sharpness at those focal lengths. The fact that the Canon 24-105/4L lens is sharp wide open is impressive. Since the relative aperture is smaller, there is no need to narrow the diaphragmfor clear shots is a definite plus.

The Canon 24-105 lens is described by users who compared its sharpness with 24 / 2.8 optics as sharper in the corners, but also with a greater level of vignetting and distortion. Clarity in the center is maintained, and at smaller apertures, the optics provide good quality, even at the edges.

The result looks even better on APS-C sensors, since the corners of the full frame are cut off and the sensor sees only the central part of the image, where there is less aberrations.

Chromatic Aberration

According to owners, chromatic aberration is within acceptable limits at all focal lengths. Very faint color fringing is visible at the edges of the full frame, but if you shoot in RAW mode, then automatic correction in DPP can fix this, or you can use a graphics editor such as Photoshop. Distortion levels at 24mm are comparable to 24mm/2.8, although perhaps slightly less.

Glare

Users report that glare is well controlled. The Canon 24-105/4L has a rectangular aperture in the back, which certainly contributes to their low end. When the model was first introduced in 2005, it had a slight flare issue at 24mm, but this was quickly corrected and has not been seen since 2006.

EOS integration

The lens provides information about the distance to the subject being shot, making it compatible with 1D and 5D E-TTL II flash. When used with an EX Speedlite, it transmits information aboutdistance to the exposure calculation program, which significantly improves the result. In addition to maintaining the dust and water resistance of a professional camera, the lens is equipped with an O-ring at the point of attachment to the camera, as well as numerous seals for moving components. The shape of the AF and Image Stabilization mode switches has been reshaped to prevent them from being accidentally turned on or off.

Accessories

Optics are sold in a standard modest bag along with a hood. There is also a Canon 24-105 mm f/4L lens cap. While the lens hood is not made of modern, rough-surfaced plastic, which is much better at protecting it from scratches than the shiny plastic used here, according to the owners, it does an excellent job of preventing flare - unwanted reflections in a photo caused by the sun, which is in the frame, and haze - a loss of contrast and color saturation, also caused by a bright light source that is not necessarily present in the picture.

The lens hood is made in the form of petals and is small enough to allow access to 77mm filters. The use of circular polarizers and gradient filters, which must be rotated before each shot, according to user reviews, is not difficult, since the front element of the device does not rotate when zooming or focusing.

Canon 24-105 Lenses Specifications Overview

According to users, 24-105/4L is one of the best standard zoomsgeneral purpose lenses. It is very durable, equipped with an excellent ring-type ultrasonic focusing motor and an image stabilizer, which allows 3 times the exposure time compared to normal conditions. The maximum aperture is constant throughout the focal length range, which, according to the owners, is not very attractive in wide-angle shooting, but very good for 105mm. Users do not recommend using this lens with APS-C cameras due to the fact that the effective range of 38-168mm is not very practical.

The lens is very sharp and its resolution is superior to the more expensive 24-70mm/2.8L. At wide-angle zoom, image distortion and curvature of the focal plane become a real problem (the rest of the focal lengths are fine). Color bands appear in in-focus parts of the frame near the corners, but the effect is less noticeable out of focus. The round aperture provides good bokeh. As with all wide-angle lenses, there is shadow in the corners of the frame, but this can be reduced by reducing the aperture or programmatically (in case this interferes).

Although the lens is not small or light, it is much more comfortable than the larger and heavier 24-70mm/2.8L.

Long-term users who have taken many photos are very satisfied with the lens. This is a truly versatile optic, and you can take it with you on trips to nature. For professional work, owners recommend using the 24-70/2.8L due to its narrower focus range, which is faster and provides morecreative possibilities. According to owners, the Canon 24-105 lens (price - $999) is worth the money, but the buyer himself must decide what suits him best. An f/2.8 variant with the size and cost of the EF 24-105/4L would be ideal, but the manufacturer doesn't make such optics yet.

Verdict

Canon EF 24-105mm/f 4L IS USM is a really good lens. On full-frame DSLRs, owners say its range of focal lengths is ideal for general-purpose optics, including its use for landscapes and portraits. The lens allows you to shoot wide open and produces very sharp images, and stabilization increases the allowable shutter speed by 3 times. Clear photos are obtained at shutter speeds up to 1/3 s at 24mm and 1/12 s at 105mm. Somewhat reduces the overall impression of noticeable vignetting and distortion, especially at 24 mm. This can be easily fixed in digital post-processing, but it's always better when it's not necessary. If a Canon lens had been designed to eliminate vignetting and distortion, it would likely have been much larger, heavier, and more expensive, and would have lost some of its focal lengths. If this is so, then the compromise found justified itself.

On a non-full-frame DSLR, the focal length of the Canon 24-105/4L lens is equivalent to the 38-168mm of a full-frame camera, so the user loses wide-angle coverage. However, the image quality is very high, as the edges and corners of the frame, where vignetting and aberrations are strong, are cut off. If acarrying a Canon EF 24-105 lens paired with a 10-22/3.5-4.5 lens will provide 10-105mm coverage.