Canon EF 24-70mm f/4L USM Lens Review

Canon EF 24-70mm f/4L USM Handling and features

The design and build of this lens is typical of Canon's L series, with tough black plastics and metal used throughout. The lens is sealed against dust and moisture and designed to take the rigours of daily professional use. Even with the excellent build quality, thanks in part to the constant f/4 maximum aperture, this lens only weighs 600g, and it balances perfectly with the Canon EOS 6D used for testing.

An Ultrasonic motor powers autofocus and focusing is very fast as a result. Manual adjustments can be made quickly at any point by turning the focus ring. The focusing ring is smooth, precise and well damped, which makes fine manual adjustments easy to apply. A switch on the side of the lens engages a macro mode to allow closer focusing and the lens can focus even closer than the 38cm marked on the distance scale. This function can be incredibly useful for taking frame filling shots as the zoom range isn't limited.

As focusing is performed internally, the 77mm filter ring does not rotate, which makes the lens ideal for use with graduated and polarising filters.

The image stabilisation system fitted to this lens promises to allow sharp images to be taken at shutter speeds four stops slower than would be possible without the system enabled. Sharp images can be produced around half the time with shutters speeds as low as 1/10sec at 70mm, which is roughly three stops slower than the usual rule of thumb would dictate neccessary.

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