Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Canon 24-70/2.8 has been my primary lens for the past two years. It has served me well and was hands down my favorite lens for this focal length, until I tried the 24/1.4 II from Canon. This lens has very fast and accurate focus, and the images are incredibly sharp, even wide-open. I've decided that I can live without the 25-70mm focal length of the 24-70 for this lens.

The minimum focus is 0.8ft, which allows you to get incredibly close to your subject, and the 24mm gives you a very wide view to capture your entire subject.

The 1.4 aperture is incredibly fast. Combine that with fast focus and incredible sharpness and you now have a lens you can use indoors without flash (Note: 1.4 aperture comes with a thin depth-of-field. Focusing on the eye will leave you with a blurry nose and forehead, very smooth bokeh).

I've used the following Canon lenses and this one tops the list and is now on my 5D II 70% of the time (have to leave time for the 70-200).

Canon 16-35/2.8 II: Fantastic lens if this is the focal length you're looking for. This lens has the fish-eye effect at 16mm with full-frame sensors

Canon 50/1.4: Great focal length and speed, but overdue for a refresh. This is a great lens if you're looking for the soft feel of photos.

Canon 85/1.2: Excellent lens, if your subject isn't moving. Very slow focus combined with very narrow depth of field equals out-of-focus photo.

Canon 135/2: Very sharp. Perhaps one of the sharpest lenses Canon makes. The 24/1.4 II is as good if not better.

Canon 70-200/2.8 IS: Hands down the best lens in this focal length (ok, you could argue the 135/2 is better if that's the length you're looking for).

Canon 300/4 IS: Very sharp lens with quick and accurate focus. It's also about 25% of the price of the 300/2.8 IS.

If this is the focal length you're looking for, this lens will prove to be an incredible choice. This lens is not on the cheap end, with respect to price. But I feel the 24/1.4 II is worth every penny. If you're on the edge of purchasing the lens, rent it and you'll be back here hitting the "Add to Shopping Cart" button.

I've a lot of L grade Canon zooms and primes.
I particularly appreciate the colors and the sharpness of these lenses.
Even zooms lenses are unbeatable for speed and practicality, primes are the best in terms of image quality and creativity possibilities.
I finally decided to purchase this lens as my 35L is not wide enough and, frankly, the quality of my 16-35-II at wide aperture is unsufficient. Well, the 24L-II matched perfectly the good characteristics of my 35L. It is not a perfect lens: wide open is quite soft but when stopped-down to 2 -2.8 it become sharp as a razor. In conclusion it is a great lens!

I have a trusted FD 24mm 1.4 from the film days I am now using on NEX (=36mm) and Micro 4/3 (=48mm) with adapters. This is an excellent lens which gave me the best photos I've made with it's low light abilities.
I recently purchased the EF 24mm 1.4 Mkii from amazon to replace it on Canon Digital Full Frame (5d Mkii) and Crop Sensor (60D) and worry myself sick after having read here and elsewhere about back/front/inconsistent focus, and softness at 1.4.
I am no lens tester, just Joe (long time )user but here are my findings:
My copy does not have focus problems, although operator error is frequent at this 1.4 aperture.
Compared directly to the old FD at 1.4 (on the same Panny G1 body)the EF have more details and contrast . Even on the 3" screen, photos are snappier.
Compared to the Canon 50mm 1.4 EF at 1.4, the 24mm have more definition. The 50mm has that halo-dreamy look at 1.4. None of this with the 24mm.
Compared to the Sigma 24-60mm/2.8 (another VG lens in my kit and an absolute bargain) at 2.8 and 24mm, the Canon wins hand down.
Compared to the Tokina 16-28mm 2.8 (newly released but reputed the best in its class?) at 2.8 and 24mm, the Canon is slightly better in the center but corners are softer.
Construction, focus speed, focus noise are superior to the other lenses. It is large and heavy though, even when compared to the gigantic 16-28mm. I guess a battery holder will help balance it at least on the 60D. Manual focus, I like the old FD better but of course the old FD does not AF.
I am happy and am going to keep it, as there is no real alternative in this FL and aperture on EF mount. I have considered the Sigmas 20mm/1.8 and 24mm/1.8 but AF is noisier and the manual/AF feature not convenient to me although I can certainly use the difference in price ($1200!). I also suspect that at 1.8 the Sigmas might not be as good as the Canon L in the center at 1.4 but I have no way to tell. I have also considered the Zeiss 18mm and 21mm in the same price range but one opens at 3.5 and the other at 2.8. I'll go with the Zeiss 21mm if I can do with 2.8. The Nikon 24mm/1.4 G might be adapted to Canon EF but it is even pricier and certainly will not AF.
There is the concern of corners softness and vignetting which at the 1.4 aperture very real. In my case, It will actually help me spend less time darkening and blurring the corners in PS :-D
For landscapes (which I have not verified for myself), my guess is this lens at 8.0 is as good as any.
Hope this helps you in your decision. It was a difficult one ($1700) for me!

Bought this about 1 month ago and have used it for two weddings. Color and contrast are perfect and it focuses fast and sharp in all light. We have a very nice copy of Canon's 17-55 f/2.8 for our 7D, but it falls down a bit in very low light (typically during the reception during first dance). It just can't grab focus in low light....even with the 580EX II attached. We put this baby on and it's dead to right every time. Of course, we have to zoom in and out with our legs, but at least we can get the shot. And that's what it's all about.

9-8-11 update.

Since the first review we added a 5D Mark II and that's even better in low light. The 24 mm is a bit wide and there is some distortion on the edges, but a slight crop, or Photoshop fix, takes care of that so it's not an issue. I still prefer to use it on the 7D, which makes it a 38MM with the 1.6 crop factor. We use the 24-70 f2.8L on the 5D most of the time, except when doing group portrait shots. Then we put this one on because it's cleaner than the 24-70.

I'm on my 3rd Canon 24mm f1.4 L version II, all have had focus issues. The 1st was crazy inconsistent. The 2nd had a huge front focus and was still somewhat inconsistent. The 3rd that I just received is also inconsistent. I've tested the lenses on many different camera bodies and in many different situations. I've even had a Canon engineer confirm the inconsistency issues on the 2nd lens (he recommended I return it for a replacement). I'm beginning to believe that there is some kind of design or manufacturing defect with some of these lenses. Unbelievable. If you get one, make sure you check it out well while still within the return window. Take 3-4 pictures on something static and see if the focus is consistent for each one or if it jumps between the 3-4 shots. Otherwise, it's a fantastic lens and I really wish I could get one that focuses well because I think it would be a wonderful lens.

Good luck!

This is the lens that has truly shown me the difference between an L and non-L lens. In engagement and portrait shoots, I frequently swap out the 50mm 1.4 and 24mm 1.4L. I was recently reviewing the images from a shoot and was shocked by the image quality difference. I had two images that were taken less than 30 seconds apart; identical settings and locations, yet the L lens image was far sharper with beautiful color saturation and depth.

The build on this is amazing. It feel incredibly sturdy. Very fast focus and good feel on my 7D.

For anyone who loves primes, this is a must-have lens!

This lens is fantastic if it works well with your body. It's a nightmare otherwise.

I tested this lens closely with my 5D and 7D. With 5D, it works perfectly as if nothing happened, and it is wonderful. But with 7D, the focusing error is H-U-G-E. It's well beyond what I could compensate with the body setting. When I manually focused, the image was good, but I didn't pay money to do that. (I'd get TS-E 24mm II if that was the objective!)

The focusing error with 7D is very consistent. The actual focusing distance is always considerably nearer than the target at the AF sensor being chosen. I doubted something might've gone wrong in the recent firmware update, so I factory reseted the camera, flashed again, immediately followed by another reset of the camera, etc. No luck. It's not my operator error. I've been doing photography for 16 years, with most of my time shooting medium format cameras. Although I'm not a Navy SEAL or anything, but I can manual focus when I'm exhausted, sleep deprived and drunk at the same time. But this EF24mm f/1.4L II can't autofocus on fresh firmware, new battery, clean EF mount contacts, and all I could give. Again, it worked fine with 5D, but I just didn't want to get stuck with a lens that only works with some bodies and not others, so I had to return it.

Now the problem is, I don't have any other lens I want to replace it with. Sigma 30mm f/1.4? No way.

Well I really wanted to love this lens. I can not get it to focus consistently with the focus sensor on my T2i. It does however focus perfectly with live View but I do not use this mode. I have read many reviews about this lens and either it is perfect with some moderate sharpness loss at wide open. The problem is the 20% of the people like me who have this focus problem. Just go to the Canon web site and read for yourself.

I do not know if my camera is defective or both lenses are but I do not want to keep a $1600 lens while I send my camera in to be checked. I have 6 other lenses that do not have this problem but I do not have another f/1:4 either. I am having my friend bring his camera tomorrow to test the lens so I will update the review if this changes my opinion.

I have spent hours testing this lens with Canon tech support with the final verdict being send it back.

UPDATE

I have now tried it on a 5D mark II and it works perfectly. I have also tried it on 2 other T2i's and one is as bad as mine and one is closer but not perfect.

the decision is to send it back. Canon offered to calibrate the camera with the lens but then I am stuck with the lens if I am not happy.

Robert

This is really a great lens. It's sharp, renders beautifully, and has amazing hand holdability in low light situations. You can literally take pictures at night with this lens without using a flash. If it's bright enough to see with the human eye, odds are you can get proper exposure with this lens without a flash.

So as an available light lens for capturing candid moments indiscreetly, it is absolutely unparallelled. I mention this first because one might be confused as to how to properly utilize a 24mm F1.4 lens. It's generally too short for portraits and won't generate a ton of background blur without getting uncomfortably close to your subject. It generally won't be as useful to nearly as many people as a good 50/1.4 or 85/1.4 (or any classic portrait lens).

However, as a photojournalistic tool it is an absolute gem. I use it for weddings and the flexibility of this lens over the 16-35/2.8 II is pretty staggering. The 16-35/2.8 zooms, but the 24/1.4 can take in FOUR TIMES as much light. It's really hard to understate how valuable that can be.

Technically the lens is very good. Sharpness is very good over most of the frame at large apertures. At small apertures, it's excellent across the frame on a full frame sensor. Focusing is very picky. The combination of wide angle with fast aperture is difficult for most 5 series or lesser camera bodies to get right. I have to be more careful with this lens than I do my 50/1.2 or 85/1.4 - even though the latter technically have less DOF. Build quality of this lens is superb - fitting of it's price tag.

This is an expensive lens, but for what it is, this lens is the best of it's kind.

Don't let its weight deter you (though it could). All that glass means awesome, wide aperature shots and beautiful bokeh.
My lens hood seems to turn a little more easily than than my other L lenses. This means a little nudge can rotate the hood a, which leads to some vignetting in subsequent shots if you're not paying attention and fix it.