Pushing the limits of Canon Zoom(24-70mm)

[Sulekh Suman]

A short clip from an upcoming music video. Shot on Scarlet with Canon AL mount in 2K. Wish we had some more lights to stop it down to 4. I have found 24-70 to be most problematic of Canon L series zooms. I have pre-ordered the new Canon 24-70mm 2.8 USM II. Hopefully that will help.

Scarlet w Canon Al mount
Canon 24-70mm 2.8
2048x1080
8:1
ISO 800
59.94fps
F2.8
effective focal length 108mm

Zero corrections in RCX(Redcolor 2, Redgamma2)

 

[Les C.]

A short clip from an upcoming music video. Shot on Scarlet with Canon AL mount in 2K. Wish we had some more lights to stop it down to 4. I have found 24-70 to be most problematic of Canon L series zooms. I have pre-ordered the new Canon 24-70mm 2.8 USM II. Hopefully that will help.

Scarlet w Canon Al mount
Canon 24-70mm 2.8
2048x1080
8:1
ISO 800
59.94fps
F2.8
effective focal length 108mm

Zero corrections in RCX(Redcolor 2, Redgamma2)

I'm close to ordering the 'old' 24-70 as the only lens for my forthcoming Scarlet.

How have you found it to be problematic?

 

[Sulekh Suman]

Sharpness has been my biggest gripe with 24-70. I finally had to take the lens back to Canon for service in LA.
While it has helped, it still isn't quite how I would want it.

The reason for posting the video was to show that you could get away shooting wide open and will only get better with optimal shooting conditions
(read outdoor). I would stick with SLR primes indoors/ lit up scenarios. I am looking forward to owning Canon Cine Primes this summer.

I have my entire set of EF lenses for sale(Tokina 11-16mm 2.8, Canon 16-35mm 2.8, Canon 24-70mm 2.8 and Canon 70-200mm 2.8). Duclos has outfitted the lenses with focusing gear and 77-80mm filter rings with a box.

The shot below was taken on Canon5D using 70-200mm lens. Even though it's one of the best zooms in the L series, it can
fail you sometimes(aberrations).

My word: If you must buy Canon 24-70, then invest in the new lens which should get delivery anytime now.

 

[Brian Iannone]

I've always thought the 24-70mm was lacking sharpness. In fact, I've seen a few non-L series Canon lenses that produced sharper-looking images than the 24-70mm.

 

[Arnold F.]

What does that video reveal about the 24-70? Would the subject's movement and that it's shot at 2K not contribute to a lack of sharpness?

 

[Scott Crawley]

I've shot my fair share of tack sharp images with the 24-70L... It's not perfect through the entire range, but there is plenty good to be had. If you learn it's idiosyncrasies and handle it properly it can be a workhorse.

 

[Southworth]

I'll just add my two cents. In my experience the Canon 24-70 is absurdly soft in lowlight, to the point of looking worse to me than some similar lenses half its cost — we'd noticed this a while ago with 5D video. I'll be curious to see the new one when it comes out, but to me it doesn't even hold up on DSLRs and I almost always just use the ZE primes or even a Tamron if I need a zoom, so I can't imagine you'd feel okay on Scarlet unless you've got enough light.

 

[Arnold F.]

I think there will always be some disagreement about every lens. I think my question here is what this video shows us about that lens. I respect every opinion about the lens but I'm not sure this video represents a definitive resolution test of the Canon L-series 24-70mm f2.8 lens, although I appreciate that the OP has posted it for us to see. The model is moving, it was shot at 2K and, as far as I know the focus could have been racking throughout.

With regard to the new version, I see it costs almost twice what the current version does. Is it reported to be almost twice as sharp? Moreover, will there be disagreement about it's quality when it comes out?