Canon 24mm f/1.4L

I had the opportunity to borrow a Canon 24mm f/1.4L lens and also a Canon 1Ds Mark II body this past weekend for an out of town trip. Working with the body wasn't anything new. The 1Ds is identical to the 1D m2 that I own, except that that it has about double the mexapixels and a larger, "full frame" sensor.

Anyway, the 24mm lens was spectacular. It is an impressive chunk of glass, dense and heavy feeling when handled.



The lens performed nicely. The focus was quiet, fast, and locked on flawlessly. I even used it in extremely dim light, and with the aid of the AF assist beam off my 580ex flash, the lens had absolutely no problems locking AF onto the subject (or rather, locking onto the pattern projected by the flash). I was a bit skeptical at first, but after reviewing my photos back home on the computer, every single one of them was perfectly in focus - nuts on - spectacular!

The bokeh of this lens is creamy smooth and very pleasing. It helps to really accentuate the main subject which is razer sharp thanks to the good optics and AF system locking on right. Close-up photos of people, pets, etc. were very nice in quality.

I tried a bit of landscape photography with the lens at f/8. The jury is still out with regards to sharpness. The colors and contrast were super fine (the images had a bit more sting and pop than those from my 17-40mm f/4L lens). But I don't really see more resolution or sharpness than my 17-40mm (also used at f/8).

I'll have to work with the RAW files some more and make a few tests prints before I draw any final conclusions. The 24mm is a fine lens, no doubt. And I'm seriously contemplating picking one up for good. We'll see...