Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS

Lakeland · 5 Apr 2015 at 16:47

Is there any competition for this lens? I've been doing some lens research and this one seems to fit the bill in terms of price (£469) and capability, although it is quite old technology. It's to fit on to a 550d.

I'm after a lens that can shoot in a wide range of scenarios - family/holiday/walkabout shots are the majority of what I shoot but also some motorsport/landscape. The 2.8 would be the best solution the price tag is a bit much for the amount of times I get the camera out.

I currently own the standard 18-55 kit lens, an efs 55-250 4-5.6 and an ef 50mm 1.8. All cheap lenses hence me wanting to get one decent lens that could replace most of them in one.

Budget is around 400 so I'm stretching it to go to 469.

Vertigo · 5 Apr 2015 at 18:56

The 24-105 is a very good lens but you may find 24mm a bit limiting at the wide end on a crop camera.

Have a look at the 17-55 and 15-85. Both offer a more "traditional" walkabout focal range on a crop sensor. They both have stabilisation and the former has a constant f/2.8 aperture whereas the latter has better range.

Neither has the build quality or weather sealing of the 24-105 though.

fowler002 · 6 Apr 2015 at 00:22

Vertigo1 said:
The 24-105 is a very good lens but you may find 24mm a bit limiting at the wide end on a crop camera.

Have a look at the 17-55 and 15-85. Both offer a more "traditional" walkabout focal range on a crop sensor. They both have stabilisation and the former has a constant f/2.8 aperture whereas the latter has better range.

Neither has the build quality or weather sealing of the 24-105 though.

For the weather sealing to be relavent don't you also need a body that also has weather sealing?

I've been looking at the 24-105 for several years now but never actually got around to buying it or a similar lens, have bought a 10-22 and 70-200 f4 non is(both preowned ~£400 each) but never got around to buying a walk around lens. Currently have the 300d but thinking about upgrading.

a1ex2001 · 6 Apr 2015 at 08:07

Sme people seem to really get on with the 24-105mm as a general Purpose lens on a crop but for me when I had my 30D is was never an option as I would have missed the wide end, the difference between 17mm and 24mm on a crop body is huge. Personally if I was still shooting a crop body my money would go on the 15-85mm fantastic range latest feb IS and more than sharp enough.

Jase · 6 Apr 2015 at 08:59

If you were set on a 24-105, the Sigma 24-105 art is better but costs a little bit more.

Vertigo · 6 Apr 2015 at 09:01

fowler002 said:
For the weather sealing to be relavent don't you also need a body that also has weather sealing?

Good point, well made

a1ex2001 said:
Sme people seem to really get on with the 24-105mm as a general Purpose lens on a crop but for me when I had my 30D is was never an option as I would have missed the wide end, the difference between 17mm and 24mm on a crop body is huge. Personally if I was still shooting a crop body my money would go on the 15-85mm fantastic range latest feb IS and more than sharp enough.

I swapped my 17-55 out for a 24-70 whilst using a crop but wouldn't have done so had I not had the 10-22 to cover the wide end.

fowler002 · 6 Apr 2015 at 10:48

Vertigo1 said:
Good point, well made

I swapped my 17-55 out for a 24-70 whilst using a crop but wouldn't have done so had I not had the 10-22 to cover the wide end.

Seeing as you brought up the 24-70, canon are currently doing £165 cash back on the f4 version(so ~£600 after cash back).
While I would like the f2.8 it's double the price of the f4(or more than double during the cash back period), as a general purpose walk about lens would that be better than the other options mentioned in previous comments(like you I have a 10-22)?

On the 24-105 front how does the new non-l version from canon compare?

Vertigo · 6 Apr 2015 at 12:18

I really don't see the point of the 24-70 f/4 - it's not really any better optically than the old 24-105 which has more range and is cheaper. The 24-70 f/4 is in no way an f/4 version of the f/2.8, it's a totally different lens with inferior image quality.

D.P. · 6 Apr 2015 at 13:58

I don't at all see the purpose of the 24-105mm on a crop camera. 24mm is no where near wide enough for general purpose photography and you are only at f/4.0 so not that fast, but you have have to carry around the weight of a FF lens and pay for all that extra glass.

The main options are:

Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8. Incredible image quality, f/1.8 fast, no need to carry any primes in that range, and in fact the only way to get X prime like lens < 35mm.
Canon 15-85mm f/5.6 IS. 15mm is wide, very nice and wide, it makes a dramatic difference to photography compared to other 17 or 18mm lenses, so much so that you can often leave behind the 10-20mm lens. 85mm is also a nice length to end at IMO.
Canon 17-55mm f/2.8. The midway between the above, a fast as the sigma, not the range of the 15-85, but faster than the latter and longs+wider than the former.

A 24-70mm f/2.8 can work on a corp body for specific task, namely event/portraiture, but it is by no means ideal at all and certainly doesn't work as a general photography lens as it is no where near wide enough.It works well in combination with a lens like the 15-85 but you are then paying a lot of money.

Personally for general photography nothing beats the 15-85. throw in a small fast prime to get a powerful combo. If you shoot lots of portraits then the sigma 18-35mm is the obvious lens.

Lakeland · 6 Apr 2015 at 14:19

I had been focusing in on lenses with more reach but after checking out reviews of all lenses mentioned the sigma 18-35 is looking hard to beat. I really enjoy using my 50mm 1.8 as it's much more flexible due to the wide aperture, so these would make a good combo, leaving space for a zoom lens in the future if I start shooting a bit more regularly.

Vertigo · 6 Apr 2015 at 14:23

D.P. said:
A 24-70mm f/2.8 can work on a corp body for specific task, namely event/portraiture, but it is by no means ideal at all and certainly doesn't work as a general photography lens as it is no where near wide enough.It works well in combination with a lens like the 15-85 but you are then paying a lot of money.

It can work if you have another lens to cover the wide end, such as a 10-22 but you will have the hassle of swapping lenses.

I swapped from the 17-55 to the 24-70 whilst still on crop primarily as I wanted the weather sealing.

D.P. · 6 Apr 2015 at 14:38

Swapping lenses constantly stops it being a general photography walkabout lens as the OP wanted.

As I said, a 24-70mm does work for some scenarios, I shot a wedding with where having a 35mm + 50mm + 85mm + 105mm f/2.8 prime-quality lenses is quite useful but fir general use it is really no appealing I owned the Nikon 24-70mm for 3 years on a crop body because at the time I was bidding on a D700 on ebay and saw a pricing error on the 24-70 so snapped it up. In those 3 years I barely touched the lens Works like a charm on my D800 though, because 24mm on FF is a wonderful focal lenght and equivalent to 15mm on 1.6x crop. I used my nikon 16-85 constantly (24mm with 1.5x crop) while the expensive 24-70mm sat collecting dust