Recommendations for a 24 - 70 (Canon)

Admiral Huddy

Admiral Huddy

Admiral Huddy

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The canon Mark II is definitely the best but it is a lot of money, for my money it would be a toss up between a second hand canon mkI or the tamron 24-70mm VC, the sigma lens is an old and somewhat crappy version that I keep expecting to be replaced with a decent art version with OS. If money is really tight bang for buck you won't beat the old tamron 28-75mm which is very good for the money!
 
Not sure if you have access but there's a Tamron 24-70 VC on TP's classifieds.

I have the Canon mk1 and a Tamron 28-75 f2.8 (bought this 3 days before an offer appeared on the Canon) and I'm more than happy with the quality of the Tamron compared to the Canon when using it on a crop body, biggest downside is it suffers from vignette issues on full frame. If on a budget it is possible to pick up a second hand 28-75 for around £200 depending on the condition.
 
What lenses do you currently use?

The focal length of a lens doesn't change, so a 24-70 lens will be 24-70 if it is used on a full frame camera or on a crop (APS-C), the difference is the APS-C sensors only capture the central part of the lens (the rest "cropped" out) so the image appears zoomed in compared to using the same lens on full frame, for APS-C this magnification is 1.6x which is why sometimes an equivalent focal length is mentioned as that would been the focal length needed on a full frame camera to shoot a similar frame.

Lenses for APS-C sensors (EF-S lenses) still list the same focal length as their full frame equivalents, but are designed in a way they will not fit on a full frame camera as the optics are designed to only fill the sensor on an APS-C camera. (If the EF-S lens fits on full frame like the sigma 10-20mm does, you get a circular image from the lens with the rest black.)

So if you currently shoot at 50mm (EF prime lens) and want more reach, buying an 18-55 (EF-S) lens won't give you that on the same body because both lenses are affected by the 1.6x crop, but is 24mm wide enough for what you want to shoot if you went for the 24-70?
 
Steeps said:
Lenses for APS-C sensors (EF-S lenses) still list the same focal length as their full frame equivalents, but are designed in a way they will not fit on a full frame camera as the optics are designed to only fill the sensor on an APS-C camera. (If the EF-S lens fits on full frame like the sigma 10-20mm does, you get a circular image from the lens with the rest black.)
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Not strictly true. Many 'designed for APS-C' lenses (mainly for Nikon, Pentax, Sony/Minolta systems and third party lens in Canon-land) actually cover the image circle of larger sensors with no problems, hence why some EF-S lenses work well on the A7. The specific reason EF-S lenses do not physically fit EF-mount cameras is the shorter distance from the rear element to the sensor.

Steeps said:
So if you currently shoot at 50mm (EF prime lens) and want more reach, buying an 18-55 (EF-S) lens won't give you that on the same body because both lenses are affected by the 1.6x crop, but is 24mm wide enough for what you want to shoot if you went for the 24-70?
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Also, I don't understand this. It will give more reach, albeit it only 8mm. :p
 
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Many lenses don't cover the FF image circle though, or will give very heavy vignetting and soft corners.
 
D.P. said:
Many lenses don't cover the FF image circle though, or will give very heavy vignetting and soft corners.
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Hence why I said many do without those problems. My point was that just because a lens is designated for APS-C that doesn't mean it's not compatible with FF, and in the case of the EF-S mount, Canon designed it to be physically incompatible but not because of their optical designs.
 
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If you're set on a 24-70 then I'd recommend picking up a used Canon Mk1 as they're going for around the £500 mark.

That said I wouldn't use a 24-70 on a crop sensor unless you have something wider to go with it. 24mm on a crop isn't very wide at all.
 
MichaelAwkward said:
Yeah, but many do without those problems. I replied because it was disingenuous to state that all lenses 'designed for APS-C' won't fit on full frame due to their optical design.
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Ok some will physically fit, but if you're expecting an 18mm image from an EF-S lens or Sigma DC lens on full frame you won't get one because it has been designed for a crop sensor, DPreview even shows at 250 there's still heavy vignetting and black corners. The difference is Nikon cameras will select crop mode automatically.

That's going off topic anyway, I made those comments because from your posts it sounded like the 1.6x crop factor only applied to EF lenses and not to EF-S lenses, if the OP already has a 50mm lens, saying the 24-70 is effectively 38-112 and they'd be better with an 18-55 without explaining that is also effectively 29-88, just like their current 50mm is effectively 80mm due to the 1.6 crop factor of the sensor is not very clear. Keep it all to the same scale if using the same sensor and it's easier to work out what focal length is really wanted.
 
Steeps said:
Ok some will physically fit, but if you're expecting an 18mm image from an EF-S lens or Sigma DC lens on full frame you won't get one because it has been designed for a crop sensor, DPreview even shows at 250 there's still heavy vignetting and black corners. The difference is Nikon cameras will select crop mode automatically.
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You might get one (e.g. the Sony 10-18 E-mount on the A7 works okay from 13mm or 19.5mm EFL) , and you can get heavy vignetting and black corners with lenses designed for full frame/film. It depends entirely on the lens. Nikon FX cameras only select crop mode automatically with their own lenses, also.

That's going off topic anyway, I made those comments because from your posts it sounded like the 1.6x crop factor only applied to EF lenses and not to EF-S lenses, if the OP already has a 50mm lens, saying the 24-70 is effectively 38-112 and they'd be better with an 18-55 without explaining that is also effectively 29-88, just like their current 50mm is effectively 80mm due to the 1.6 crop factor of the sensor is not very clear. Keep it all to the same scale if using the same sensor and it's easier to work out what focal length is really wanted.
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What? :confused: I assumed that the OP understood the effect of the crop factor from the fact that he asked whether a 24-70 lens would be equiv. to 38-112. I'm sure he was capable of working out that a 17-55 lens would also be subject to that crop factor. You're complicating things for no reason. It wouldn't even make sense for me to suggest a 17-55 lens if I had meant equiv. focal length since such a lens (10-35) doesn't exist (Tokina do an 11-28 I think but not F2.8). No part of my post suggests that the crop only applies to EF lenses.
 
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This doesn't need to be a debate over crop factors. There's a million other threads for that.

24mm on crop may be restrictive, Canon EF-S 17-55 is the way to go. I use it on my 70D.
 
If you're staying with the 70D for a long while, definitely get the Canon 17‑55mm f2.8 EF‑S instead. The extra stop of light will really help you keep out of the higher ISOs when the light drops off or if you're using it inside.

There's a reason why it's the go to standard zoom lens for crop cameras.
 
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