Customer Reviews

Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L USM Wide Angle Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Let me start off by saying that photography is my hobby and it is not what I do to make a living. I have a canon 30d and use this lens all the time.

I have several lenses in my bag now and this is one of my favorites! The first lens I purchased was EF 24-105 f/4 L IS. This is a great lens if you are outdoors in good lighting and want to have zoom capabilities. I tried to use it in the evening at an outside restaurant and the f/4 was too much; so to compensate, I purchased this lens.

I love this wide angle and 24mm lens. I have taken great evening and night shots with this lens! It is fast, gives great bokeh and the colors are very rich. I'm mainly using this lens in the evenings and at night and use it with and without 430 speedlite. When using the flash, I typically rotate the speedlite head so that the flash is bouncing off a ceiling or a wall instead of right on the subject. This lens works great for this!

You can walk down the street in The Grove in LA and take awesome, crisp pictures with no flash. If I need to zoom, I zoom with my feet... but I have the ability to take a wide angle photo with this lens that I wouldn't be able to do with the 50mm or the 85mm.

The bottom line is this: If you want to take great pictures in the evening or at night, this lens has to be in your bag.

Best of luck!

This is a great lens if you need to shoot wide angle in very low light siuations. If you don't need a lens for this exact purpose, you'd be better off spending a few extra dollars on either the 16-35L or 24-70L. These two zoom lenses cover 24mm (and more) at a very reasonable f2.8 with good results. They won't bag a shot in the shadows, but they will handle any decently lit scenario with ease.

If you just have to own an f1.4 prime lens, the 35mm f1.4 is a much more universally well-regarded L lens than the 24mm f1.4. The 50mm f1.4 is 1/3 the price of either and just as amazing in my opinion so long as you don't need the wide angle.

The only reason I give the 24mm f1.4 a 4 instead of a 5 is the price.

This is a specialty lens that would be hard to justify unless you are a dedicated wide-angle shooter.

Have you been hanging out almost exclusively at the wide side of your zoom lens? Have you found that there is just something indescribably perfect about how the 24mm setting (on a full-frame camera) takes in the world? Have you never owned a true professional lens? Are you ready for the real thing? This is it.

I've been shooting with a 24mm lens (or zoom equivalent) since 1976, when I was a teenager seeking to differentiate my photo style from the dominant preference for telephoto. I am so glad I did. A wide-angle lens forces me to get in close to the action, bringing an intimacy with my subjects and a liveliness to my images that "fly-on-the-wall" telephoto detachment simply misses. But if you've gotten this far, you already know the unique image qualities of wide-angle lenses.

The reason for getting this lens -- a dedicated focal-length, rather than a great zoom that includes 24 -- is because it handles its job so much better than your zoom on 24. Everybody will state how much sharper and richer the image quality is, how the "L" optics are truly amazing, etc. Yes, yes, yes; it's great. But, frankly, I haven't yet (2000 shots) noticed the image difference between my "amazing" 20-35 EF and my "truly amazing" 24 L. For me, it is all about the manual focus ring.

Zoom lenses have terrible manual focus rings. They are always given secondary attention by manufacturers to the zoom ring (Canon included). (Why? Zooming isn't so minutely critical, or something that you need in a split second!) And if you don't use your manual focus ring, stop reading. Go away. Buy a point-and-shoot. You aren't my friend.

Still here? Good. This lens has the smoothest, most precise, most ergonomic, most oh-so-fabulous focus ring I've EVER twisted. (And it focuses down to a phenomenal 9 inches!) You'll need that precision when you open it wide to its amazing 1.4 aperture. Oh, gosh ... Ever seen such shimmer? (My own personal experience with wide-angle lenses has always emphasized their incredible depth-of-field at f.22, allowing quick, sloppy focusing without worry; now I am experiencing a whole new wonder at the other end of the aperture.)

So, if you've been like me, and long found your zoom lens set to 24, you want to recapture or discover for the first time the sublime self-limitation of a fixed-focal length lens, and you can afford it (but how can you afford not to?), get this lens today, put it on a full-frame Canon 5D, and start producing a body of work that has a distinctive style in which all your subjects will have smiles -- in response to the smile that'll be permanently plastered to your face as you use this "best lens in its category."

This is one of the first lens I bought after I got my XTI. At first it was a little hard focusing with the shallow DOF. But, once you get it down, this thing gives you beautiful images. The bokeh is like butter and the the colors and rich and deep. This is a lens that's worth every penny. If you are either working with a crop sensor or full frame, this is one of your best choices.

I had researched Canon lenses. Have a 50 mm f 1.18 and love it, but needed more wide angle. Bought a 28mm f2.8 and it was ok. Lots of Glamor Shots type of pictures, not very sharp and it struggled in low light.

I was leaning toard the 24-70 L zoom, but wanted the most crisp, sharp, low-light wide angle I could find, so I took a chance on 24 mm L 1.4.

I thought I'd made a mistake at first,lots of muddy photos, but an occassional good one made me keep trying. Once I had a little experience with the f-stops, ISO, dioptic adjustments and manual focus, I am now taking more of the "WOW" pictures. Super crisp and sharp. Local newspaper has published several (and they are even better than the local newspaper photog's shots with their zoom lens cameras).

This is on a Canon XTi digital rebel.

I like to take most of my pics close up (20 feet or less) and this lens is THE ONE! Get the hood when you buy it and save youself some time. You will need it as the glass is right up to the edge of the rim.

Got it through Calumet and received fast delivery with no games or sales calls.

The 24mm f1.4 is a must have lens for your camera bag. Whether you are a landscape, commercial, or wedding photographer you'll find your self going back to "old faithful" more and more. It is extremely well built and performs excellent in low light, and is extremely fast focusing.

This lens is my personal favorite. For general photography, I'll walk out with this lens mounted and a 100mm in the bag for occasional long shots. I find little use for my zoom (17-40mm) when I've got the two lenses. The 24mm is very heavy, but the small dimensions make for good maneuverability.

The main point of this review, is that this lens can shoot f1.4 at 24mm, which is a unique class. At f1.4: Center sharpness is good, soft at the edges. There is noticeable edge distortion and fringing. A compromise for such a fast lens. I like the dreamlike, shallow depth of field with a wide field of view. The bokeh is very pleasing. Handheld shots benefit from being 2 stops faster than f2.8. When stopped down to f2.8, the traditional measures of lens performance is good. Another huge plus is a close focus distance.

It's a lens that can make an ordinary scene, pop.

I'm a professional photographer and for Christmas my husband bought me this. I was in love the moment I saw it. Be aware that it's not made by "Canon" --- rather "Cannan" or something along those lines. Far away it doesn't matter, and to be honest - I'm not too picky because it still looks the part.

Now - I don't drink coffee or hot beverages every day but on my first or second use - the writing printed on the lid started to come off... I hand wash it and am extra gentle but still, it's starting to rub off and I'm not too happy about it. Not so much so that I send it back - but just be aware that this happens.

All the L lenses that I have tested are awesome, except this one. The lens has severe front focus (about 1.5-2.5 inches depending on the copy) at around f1.8. Some people call it soft focus but it is really a front focus issue if you know how to test for it. I bought and returned four of these trying to get a good one, only to find that it is a design flaw. It exists in the majority of the series II, but often even the pros don't notice it because it only shows up at specific f stops. I wish Canon would do something about it, check out the canon reviews on the canon site for more detail.

This, in my very humble opinion, is the most useful, the sharpest, and just about anything else good you can think of say, best wide angle lense ever produced by anybody, anytime, anywhere. Lightning fast and that's what you want when the light is low.

My gal pal Sara and I have often wandered the Caribbean islands in the dawn's early light, as she is into shooting old homes. She particularly likes the gingerbread homes in Marigot, on the French side of St. Martin. I swear she must have them all on her hard drive. It's like an obsession with her and this lens aids her passion, feeds into her manic desire to try and control the light.

She just loves it and since I love her, I gotta love it too. Seriously though, I've used the lense quite a bit myself and it's a keeper if ever there was one. You just go wrong with a Canon "L" lense, no siree.