24-70mm L 2.8 Discussion
Frog Costa Rica  | Portrait  |
Previous to purchasing the Canon 10D I had a 35-120mm zoom that was my most used lens. This was probably because my 200mm was not really powerful enough for animal shots and my 24mm had very high pincushion distortion. Since I no longer use any of my old equipment, and I now have a very good wide angle and telephoto zoom, I take far fewer pictures with the Canon 24-70mm mid range lens, though I can't imagine doing without it.
After I decided to purchase the Canon 10D I began doing research into lenses. First I had to decide what focal lengths I wanted to cover, and next what lens quality I wanted to pay for. After, reading many web sites it became clear that most pro's recommended Canon L glass. This is Canon's top of the line lenses and they cost significantly more than their other lenses. Any Canon lens that has an L in the name is considered top quality. You can go to Canon's web site and read the difference in the type of glass used if you like. For myself, it doesn't matter what Canon says about the glass quality because I don't understand it anyway. What mattered to me is what users saw in their pictures.
From all the research I did (andnow from my own experience) what youget with a top quality lens is much higher sharpness throughout theentire field of view, especially when the lens is wide open; lessdistortion (pincushionfor wide angle lenses and barreldistortion for telephotolenses); better contrast; less flare,faster and more accurate auto focus; and better build quality.
I use this lens mainly for portraits and macros. It works greatwith the EF12 Extension tube for enhanced macro use. It alsotakes great macros on it's own. I have been extremely happywith the quality of images produced while using this lens. Asyou can see from the imagesabove, this lens producesamazingly sharp, detail rich photos with great tone and contrast.
The frog was taken at 70mm (112mm corrected by 1.6x for the 10D'ssensor size) f 14, 200 ISO and, at close range for macro effect. I also utilizedthe 10D's built in flash for this photo. You can see how nicelythe E-TTL metering and built in flash worked in this shot.
The portrait was taken at 45mm (72mmcorrected by 1.6x for the 10D's sensor size)f 4.5, and 100 ISO. A little wide and close for a typical portrait, but I was just havingfun at a wedding and not paying too much attention. Regardless, the shot turned out very nice. You can see how thereis very little or no distortion even at this focal length. Thistime I used the external 550EX Speedlight for flash. The shot wastaken at night outside and at close range. Again the E-TTLmetering did a great job of setting the correct flash power, and theoverall tone of the image turned out very nice.
I must add that all of my images have gone through Photoshop. Icrop, sharpen, employ noise reduction techniques, adjust contrast,saturation, and sometimes tone on most of my photos. Out of thecamera the images don't look as good, but in my opinion this is thegreat benefit of the digital world. I believe that you shouldtake all of your favorite images and mess with them in Photoshop. But remember, in photography your photos will only be as good as yourweakest piece of equipment. If I was shooting with a lessercamera and with inexpensive lenses I would not have been able toachieve the quality of photos shown above, even with the help ofPhotoshop.
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Photos by Rob Bukar