Testing Canon EF 24-70mm F2.8L II USM

Recently I bought the new Canon EF 24-70mm f2.8l II USM Lens. What's it like? Is it as good as Canon claims, and, is it worth over two grand? Find out.....

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Closed Caption:

yeah
hi and welcome to my video tutorial on
my review for the new canon EF 24 to 70
mil if 2.8 mac to usm lens
sounds like a real mouthful doesn't but
it actually isn't the other day I bought
this lens and I was really unsure about
the price tag
I've read a lot of reviews about it and
heard a lot of great things about it
I'd actually heard some amazing things
about it but being a skeptical kind of
person I'm never quite sure until I try
it myself
the two thousand three hundred dollar
price tag was my main concern was it
worth it wasn't worth the money
I've never spent that much our lens
before i knew it would be a great lens
but i was still having some doubts
I've been a photographer for about 10
years now but that doesn't stop me from
questioning the price of camera gear
so basically when i got home i place the
lens carefully on my desk and I looked
at it for a minute
almost as if i was learning this huge
purchase sink in
I open the box carefully and pulled out
the lens
you see it's nothing amazing to look at
it's just a lens but ok I'll admit I
have the familiar red ring favor
this is an affectionate way of
describing and cannons shoot his
dedication to using nothing else but
lens at l series lenses i should say and
it describes me perfectly
but you can't blame me really because
they're amazing quality
so what's so special about this length
that I have to do reviews and write ups
and videos about it
well firstly the optical quality is
nothing like I've ever seen before
it is absolutely incredible
this lens is absolutely exciting me
it is amazing if you want sharpness and
low light performance and beautiful
images then this is your lens and if you
want to lens where it takes the fight we
don't have to do much editing to it
this is definitely lends to i found the
apertures around about the f11 f13 mark
offer quite a lot more clarity and
sharpness than other lenses do at this
mark
you see this particular lens will pick
up the finer details of a subject in
very low light and i put it to the test
and i'll show you in a moment
one of the great benefits to working
with this type of lens it's a fast lens
fast lenses work better in low light
than slow lenders they do so because of
the wide aperture
but the problem is why temperatures and
not as sharp as smaller apertures right
that's right
so what do we do about focusing in low
light
how do we still use an aperture of f 2.8
and still get the sharpness of the image
the good news is that this lens retains
the sharpness of the image at f 2.8 it's
the most clearest lens i've ever used to
show you how sharp these lenses in low
light
I thought I'd take a couple of Interior
and I like shots just to show you
I've also included some wider scenes to
show you what the quality looks like at
varying focal length
it's always important to shoot at many
different focal lengths and lighting
conditions before you can confidently
talk about a lens so let's look at my
first shot to demonstrate how this lens
respond in my life I took a photo of our
garden shed keys
no big deal and this photograph is quite
underexposed but that's not why I'm
taking it that's not why I took it and
that's not what I'm worried about this
moment
normally I would go into lightroom and
retouch the photo quite a bit but as you
can see i wanted to show you the detail
in a light even when the photo is
underexposed and you can clearly see
that we still have the sharpness and the
clarity
so let's look at the next one or he's
out cat Daisy lounging around on the
kitchen floor as she does when it's warm
you see the problem with our kitchen he
said that has very little light like a
lot of people's kitchens even to the
naked eye
in this photograph I've used no flesh
and I haven't even turned the light on
at all
you see what you're seeing is ambient
window light and there's only one light
in the kitchen window light has been
reflected from the tiles onto her chin
and face and you can clearly see how at
even f 2.8 sharpness is still maintained
on her face and nose even from about two
meters away with other lenses I've used
I just haven't been able to capture the
sharpness in such low light like this
I realized that these photos are under
expose and i can easily repair that in
Lightroom what I wanted to show you how
sharp this was you can see why I'm
extremely impressed
and by the way can and paying me to say
any of this
this is completely may wanting to share
this with you because i'm so excited
about this lens
not only does the low-light sharpness
performance impress me but so does the
responsiveness of the lens
it's very quick I found that when I
focused on an area of a subject it
locked on and held sharp and it didn't
let go
I didn't have to keep focusing all the
time you see some lines as I've used in
the past in lisle I can't focus there's
no me in and out and in and out and they
try to get the focal point but they
can't quite do it
that's why it's very hard to shoot
things like astrophotography or city
photography city at night I mean that
sort of photography or anything in very
low light some lenses just can't see
this particular lens held the focus
quite sharply all the way to the edges
admittedly i did use a small aperture to
maintain the focus in the entire seen
such as f 11 but it's the speed and
accuracy of how the lens handle this
dark subject that impressed me the most
now I haven't shaded i haven't used to
tripod and i haven't used anything to
steady the camera whatsoever but I used
40th of a second
in this same and I never ever use 40th
of a second
in a dark scene like this without a
tripod i consider myself having a steady
hand but i just don't like to take the
chance
the next photo is that we see very dark
times against more dark times
this can prove to be a problem as far as
how the camera interprets the line
I could have used f 2.8 to get more
lighting but i wanted a long depth of
field
so again I chose f 11 beautifully the
lens didn't take long to find the focal
point is focused on the lock of the door
it was a super fast time to find the
focal point and it just stayed there
it didn't have to keep zooming in and
out it knew exactly what I wanted
and this is what's called an intuitive
lens I've been talking about focusing
and sharpness in my life but what about
responsiveness and other performance
issues all the power from being quick to
focus
I'm impressed by the lack of lens flare
and no distortion at the edges in some
lenses you find that really annoying
distortion at the start or at the end of
the focal length scale for example some
24 millimeter lens like what I've used
in the past can make the very edges of
the image look like they were shot
through a piece of glass or underwater
or something like that
that's because when the light hits the
land at bens and creates this warping
effect but not with this beautiful lens
i have not noticed any distortion or
anything of that effect whatsoever
another thing about this lens is I seem
to notice a change in the color
it seemed to pick up the colors so much
more accurately than any other lens I've
ever used
so far all my color adjustments that
I've made in my photos have been very
very minor and also i haven't had to
sharpen my photos either
this is wonderful because it means you
don't have to spend ages and ages
editing your photos it just seems to
pick up more accurate color than any
other lenses that I've ever used
I've edited this in Lightroom but only
by slot amount
the only thing i did was really deep in
the blue and proving that around it
that's it
I only Chris the colors very very
slightly to about three to five percent
the building had a very naturally rustic
and yet colorful look a lot of tell the
texture and the color seem to work
together well
the colors you see here are the way I
saw them in real life and this is the
beautiful thing about this lens it sees
everything so clearly and when you make
the changes their only minor in fact
there are only really tweaks rather than
edits when you have a lens that does not
respond quickly or sharply you find that
you spend more time editing your photos
I absolutely love this lens
it is the best lens i have ever used in
my whole life and that's not an
exaggeration responsiveness sharpness
and a color capture optical quality
optimum performance in my life are all
the things i love about this lens it's a
little bit heavy but all the l series
lens as ours and I'm used to that by now
if you're a cannon user like I am I hope
that you're able to add this lens to
your collection
it will not disappoint thank you so much
for joining me today it's been great to
have you I look forward to seeing you
next time bye for now