Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM

Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM: Performance

In the centre portion of the frame, this lens puts in an impressive performance from maximum aperture, as the sharpness here is already excellent. The clarity towards the edges lags behind a little, being fair but the quality here increases as the lens is stopped down, even a little. By f/2 the quality towards the edges is good and it exceeds excellent levels by f/2.8. Peak quality across the frame is achieved between f/4 and f/5.6 where the resolution is outstanding across the frame.

Resolution at 24mm		How to read our graphs The blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges. Averaging them out gives the red weighted column. The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution. The taller the column, the better the lens performance. Simple. For this review, the lens was tested on an Canon EOS 5D Mark II using Imatest.

Chromatic aberrations are kept well within acceptable levels reaching 0.8 pixel widths towards the edges at f/1.4. This low level of fringing should pose few issues, even in very large prints, or harsh crops from the edge of the frame.

Chromatic Aberrations at 24mm		How to read our charts Chromatic aberration is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software. Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more. For this review, the lens was tested on an Canon EOS 5D Mark II using Imatest.

Falloff of illumination towards the corners is well controlled for a wide aperture lens with the corners being 2.1 stops darker than the image centre at f/1.4. Visually uniform illumination is achieved when the lens is stopped down to or beyond f/4.

For a fixed focal lens, there is slightly more barrel distortion than you may normally expect. Imatest detected 1.94% barrelling, which may become apparent with straight lines towards the edges of the frame. The distortion pattern is uniform though, so this should be relatively easy to correct in image editing software afterwards if straight lines are paramount.

This lens seems very resistant to flare and loss of contrast, even when shooting with strong point sources of light in the frame, such as the sun. Occasionally a slight loss of contrast can be seen, especially when shooting into the light at bright apertures, but the difference is only slight. A petal shaped hood, which attaches to the lens via a bayonet fitting comes supplied with the lens and it does an excellent job of shielding the lens from extraneous light that may cause unwanted flare.

Excellent sharpness at wide apertures in the centre - ISO100, 1/40. f/2.8, 24mm		Sharpness is outstanding across the frame when stopped down - ISO100, 1/320. f/8, 24mm
The minimum focus distance of 25cm is very useful - ISO100, 1/800. f/4, 24mm		The bright maximum aperture is great for low-light shooting - ISO3200, 1/160. f/2.2, 24mm
ISO100, 1/320. f/8, 24mm		ISO100, 1/125. f/11, 24mm
ISO100, 1/80. f/11, 24mm		ISO100, 1/250. f/8, 24mm

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