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Flabbergasted (in a negative way) after testing Canon 24-70L on Scarlet

Martin Beek

Martin Beek

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After reading many great reports and studying the impressive resolution/sharpness figures of the Canon 24-70L zoom lens, i decided to spent the last of my savings on this "brick" of glass. What a deception is this... I bought this lens second hand, did a few tests with the seller to detect any defects, but after shooting one day, all scenes appeared very creamy and soft. I swapped the 24-70 with an old Canon EFS17-55 consumer lens -> it was so much sharper as the 24-70! Studied the images in RedCineX at 100% and zoomed in, but there is no sharp point to be found in the image. The cheap 17-55 is crisp sharp, the brick is soft. No pixel peeping, difference already visible on the Red LCD monitor. Meanwhile, also compared with other much cheaper still lenses- they beat the brick every time.

So, what is wrong here? Is this lens inferior from the consumer 17-55? Is this lens not ideal for the Scarlet @4K, or is it defective in some way?

What are your experiences with this?


Thanks,
Martin Beek.
 
Two things are going on here; firstly, the 17-55 has excellent optics - the equal of many L series lenses. Secondly, it sounds like you have a dodgy 24-70mm. Mine, is pin sharp above f2.8, though, like most zooms in this range, it does suffer barrel distortion.
 
all my experience with the 24-70 seams to lead me in the direction that the lens you have is defective in some way. I have used the 24-70 (never on a scarlet, but on still cameras) many times at very high resolutions and i was always extremely happy with the results. I would try to contact the seller and see if he will take back the lens and then try and get another one. I'm sure you will not be disappointed.
 
Maybe it's just your copy? Still lenses are mass produced, and there are known deviations in quality. I know Duclos hand picks their Tokina 11-16 for this very reason. And Mark Toia and Ketch Rossi always mention ordering 3x copies of a still lens, and keeping the best.

Just a thought...
 
Buying online is a craps shoot at best and for this lens used, the odds are particularly against you I'm afraid. Knowing that there is so much production quality variation in this lens it seems reasonable to expect that an unusually high percentage of 24-70L's on the used market will be less than perfect.

On the other hand I'm not entirely certain that production variation is to blame. I'm inclined to believe that the telescoping design and multiple elements make it particularly vulnerable to mistreatment and accidents.

If you are serious about sharpness then the only way to be certain is to get into a showroom and hand pick your copy, and that means placing a few on a body and taking the one you like best.
 
Last edited:
Scott Crawley said:
If you are serious about sharpness then the only way to be certain is to get into a showroom and hand pick your copy, and that means placing a few on a body and taking the one you like best.
Click to expand...

Bingo.

I sold a lens a few months ago and the buyer told me I sold him a dud.. 4 days before I sent it to him I shot a 700k job on it. All my pictures looked great. Sometimes people look at shots as 800% blowups... That's when you see if lens is pin or not.

I have 3 lenses out of 25 that are not sharp and I love them.
But if your looking for Pin... Make sure you do in store testing, it's the only way I buy these days. Especially with stills glass.
 
Mark Toia said:
Bingo.

I sold a lens a few months ago and the buyer told me I sold him a dud.. 4 days before I sent it to him I shot a 700k job on it. All my pictures looked great. Sometimes people look at shots as 800% blowups... That's when you see if lens is pin or not.

I have 3 lenses out of 25 that are not sharp and I love them.
But if your looking for Pin... Make sure you do in store testing, it's the only way I buy these days. Especially with stills glass.
Click to expand...

YUP!
 
I have a client that owns this lens. If going to it from using professional cine lenses, it is appallingly bad. It's bad in every way a lens can be bad. It may resolve a lot of lines, but it is low contrast, distorty, and hyper veiling flare prone. It's a giant pain in the ass to shoot with.

Nick
 
I Like the veiling sometimes - but thats really the only good thing I have to say about his lens.

Anyone try the new Tamron 24-70 yet? I'm thinking a test drive is in order.
 
EF-S lenses have smaller image circles than EF lenses and are known to be all-around great performers, especially compared to the faulty, kind-of-old, 24-70 zoom. EF-S lenses are generally newer designs, and are pretty darn good (I'm speaking mostly of the primes, I don't use zooms).

The 17-55 is not a "consumer" lens, or at least I wouldn't call it that.

A consumer lens would be the horrible "kit" lenses, like the 18-55 or 18-200 or something.

However, I'm not a big fan of any zoom lens, I think Nikon might have the edge there.
 
You probably just got a bad copy. Some 24-70's are sharper than others, but in general, its a pretty solid lens and is fairly widely used across all kinds of productions.
 
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