topic Re: Lens Upgrade in EF & RF Lenses

Lens Upgrade

Liz22012 — Thu, 28 May 2015 19:43:43 GMT

Help....Canon ef 24-70mm f/4l is usm lens vs 24-105 f/4l is usm?
I shoot a lot of barns and landscapes. Not sure if I should upgrade from myCanon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Lens .

Re: Lens Upgrade

jrhoffman75 — Thu, 28 May 2015 20:29:34 GMT

Here is a site I rely on for lens reviews:

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/

Re: Lens Upgrade

Liz22012 — Thu, 28 May 2015 21:02:52 GMT

Thanks I will check it out.

Re: Lens Upgrade

ebiggs1 — Fri, 29 May 2015 14:50:21 GMT

Liz22012,

I really hate those reviews. I suppose you can read them for funsy but they tell little on how a lens will perform in the real world.

The best recommendations are from people that use the product without an ax or agenda. (Paid by a sponser.)

For what it is worth, my accessment of the EF 24-105mm f4L IS, it is the best buy in a Canon lens there is. It may be the best lens you can buy period if you are going to have only one. Couple that with the fact you may be able to find a 'white box' version. It will be far less than the full retail price and is the exact lens with full Canon waranty. They are also great lenses to buy on the used market.

I will assume you have a crop body camera since you indicated you have the kit lens. The EF 24-105mm f4L IS will not be quite as wide as your lens. But it will have much more reach on the tele end. Sorta give to get.

Make no mistake the EF 24-105 f4L IS is a full on professional lens in every spec.

Re: Lens Upgrade

Liz22012 — Fri, 29 May 2015 19:21:25 GMT

Thanks ebiggs1. I mostly take pics of old bans and farmhouses.
Trying to find the best lens for this. I have 7d mk II.

Re: Lens Upgrade

jrhoffman75 — Fri, 29 May 2015 19:38:18 GMT

You may find that the 24mm end isn't wide enough for you.

I suggest you set your current lens at 24mm and try some shooting? Is it OK or do you want wider? Deciding between 24-70 or 24-105 would be futile if you really want a 15 or 18mm wide end.

"L" lenses are great; I have several of them. You generally can't go wrong purchasing one, particualry the zoom versions. But, depending on your end use you may not need to features of an "L" lens? Are you printing large prints or are you sending digital files to a digital picture frame? Are you getting the quality you want from your current lens? Where is it holding you back?

You may be better served by getting the Canon EF-S 10-18mm wide angle and pair it with your current lens.

Re: Lens Upgrade

Liz22012 — Fri, 29 May 2015 19:51:39 GMT

Thanks. Sometimes the image seems soft. I do zoom into certain images this is why I was consider those lens.

Re: Lens Upgrade

ebiggs1 — Fri, 29 May 2015 19:55:46 GMT

Or better yet, pair the EF-s 10-22mm with the EF 24-105mm. Now we'er talking as this is about as good as it gets.

Do you ever shoot HDR? The photo below is an HDR shot with a 24mm lens. Does it look like it will work for you?

Re: Lens Upgrade

Liz22012 — Fri, 29 May 2015 20:28:05 GMT

That's it! No I have not.

Re: Lens Upgrade

Liz22012 — Fri, 29 May 2015 20:44:29 GMT

Do you use photomatix?

Re: Lens Upgrade

ebiggs1 — Fri, 29 May 2015 20:56:26 GMT

Yes I do and that particular photo was made with Photomatrix Pro. However, Lightroom 6 now has HDR stacking included with it. It can do this ....

This, like the other, was three shots. One is under exposed by 1 stop, one is correct and one is over exposed bu 1 stop. Then the three are stacked and aligned by software. Some folks use 5 or more shots.

Re: Lens Upgrade

Liz22012 — Fri, 29 May 2015 20:59:01 GMT

They are great.

Re: Lens Upgrade

ebiggs1 — Fri, 29 May 2015 21:00:52 GMT

Thank you. You should try it.

Re: Lens Upgrade

Liz22012 — Fri, 29 May 2015 21:28:52 GMT

I will. Thank you for the info.

Re: Lens Upgrade

amfoto1 — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 16:44:27 GMT

@Liz22012 wrote:
Help....Canon ef 24-70mm f/4l is usm lens vs 24-105 f/4l is usm?
I shoot a lot of barns and landscapes. Not sure if I should upgrade from myCanon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Lens .

The EF-S 15-85mm is one of the sharpest, most versatile and compact lenses available for Canon APS-C cameras, such as your 7D Mark II. It's main drawbacks are a relatively high price and variable aperture (f3.5-5.6). The price obviously isn't an issue for you, since you already have it. The variable aperture is of little or no concern for the type of photography that you say you want to do with it.

There would be little to be gained and potentially a lot to be lost by instead going to one of the full frame capable lenses with your present camera. In one case you'd be losing focal length range both at the wide end and the tele end, and in the other case losing out at the wide end with only a slight gain at the tele end.

I think you may be the very first person I've ever seen or heard refer to the 15-85mm as "sometimes soft". Frankly, I'd look to your techniques, rather than blame the lens. While faulty lenses aren't unknonwn, it's pretty ulikely and the 15-85mm is considered by many to be one of the sharpest lenses available. Have you got a "protection" filter on it that's compromising your image quality? Do you have and regularly use the lens hood with it? Do you use a tripod? Do you usually try to stop it down a little for optimal image quality? The only slight "issue" sometimes observed with the 15-85mm is a little chromatic aberration that tends to mostly occur at either the wider or more tele focal lengths.... but is very easily corrected in post-processing (even by some automatically applied lens profiles, such as Lightroom uses).

The 24-70/4L IS is a very high quality lens and might slightly out-resolve the 15-85mm at a few of the focal lengths they share... but not by much. And, seriously, is it enough difference to be worth giving up the 15 to 23mm and the 71 to 85mm ranges? Stop the 15-85mm down to f5.6 and it's image quality should rival any L-series.

The older 24-105L IS has been a venerable and versatile full frame capable lens, but has it's faults too. I don't think it will be as sharp as the 15-85mm or 24-70. And it has some fairly strong optical vignetting at the 24mm end. It also loses the 15 to 23mm focal lengths, though it gains 86 to 105mm. To me, the wide end in particular would be more valuable for landscape/architecture photogrpahy, such as you want to do.

The EF-S 15-85mm is also considered one of the best built of the EF-S series lenses. The 24-70/4L might be a little better sealed. The 24-105/4L actually might be about equal to the EF-S 15-85mm.

Note: No EF-S lens is an "L-series", nor will one ever be. Canon's definition of what constitutes an "L" makes it impossible. One of their three criteria is that "an L-series lens must be compatible with and usable on all EOS cameras past, present and future". EF-S lenses are not. They are limited to use on APS-C crop sensor digital cameras only. So, no EF-S lens can ever get the red stripe of an "L"... But this doesn't mean that an EF-S lens can't rival "L" performance... and the 15-85mm is one of several that do (EF-S 10-22mm, EF-S 17-55mm and EF-S 60/2.8 Macro are some others).

Which brings us to one other thing... Your EF-S lens is only usable on APS-C crop sensor cameras, while either of the EF lenses could be used on a full frame camera such as 6D or 5D Mark III (or the new 5DS). For architecture/landscape a full frame camera might be a desirable upgrade to eventually consider (7DII is a great camera and capable of many things, but especially excels at sports/action shooting).

However, if you ever go to a full frame camera, for architecture in particular you also might want to check out the TS-E "Tilt-Shift" lenses. Canon offers17/4L, 24/3.5L II, 45/2.8 and 90/2.8 TS-E lenses... and the first three, in particular, are especially ideal for architectural photography. These are manual focus lenses, but all are highly corrected and have lens "movements" that can be used to correct for keystoning and other optical effects when shooting buildings, as well as means of controlling the plane of focus in interesting ways.

Frankly, if it were me, I'd stick with the 15-85mm for use on the 7DII and only reconsider the other lenses if changing to a full frame camera, too.

***********

Alan Myers
San Jose, Calif., USA
"Walk softly and carry a big lens."
GEAR: 5DII, 7D(x2), 50D(x3), some other cameras, various lenses & accessories
FLICKR & EXPOSUREMANAGER

Re: Lens Upgrade

Liz22012 — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 16:41:38 GMT

Thanks for all the info. I am enjoyed the 7d mkii as it is a very nice camera. I am also making some adjustments with the 15-85 to see how I can improve.

I do have a protection filer on the lens and also use a hood.

Re: Lens Upgrade

ebiggs1 — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 17:50:46 GMT

"The EF-S 15-85mm is one of the sharpest, most versatile and compact lenses available for Canon APS-C cameras ..."

Actually, on paper anyway, the EF 24-105mm f4 is considerably sharper than the EF-S 15-85mm.

This could make a big difference for a person wanting to shoot landscape, (barns and such). Especially if she wants to crop, or enlarge a print or do HDR.