Canon EF 24-105/4L IS USM Lens Review

The EF 24-105/4L IS USM is a very nice lens indeed. On a full frame DSLR like the EOS 5D, it has an ideal focal length range for a single general purpose lens, with applications ranging from landscapes to portraits. It can be used wide open at f4 and still yield very sharp images and with the 3 stops of stabization which the IS system provides, it's useful for low light work as well. It can yield sharp images at 1/3s at 24mm and 1/12s at 105mm. What's somewhat less impressive is the noticeable vignetting and distortion, especially at 24mm. This can easily be corrected digitally of course, but it's always better not to have it there in the first place. If the lens had been designed to eliminate vignetting and distortion though, it would probably have ended up much larger, heavier and more expensive and some of the zoom range might have had to be lost. If that's the case, the compromise is worth it.

On an APS-C DSLR like the EOS 40D the focal length range is a bit less useful, being similar to a 38 to 168mm on a full frame camera, so you don't really have wideangle coverage. However image quality is very high since the edges and corners of the image are cropped out, and that's where aberrations are strongest. If instead of a single lens you're prepared to carry two, then the EF 24-105/4L IS paired with the EF-S 10-22/3.5-4.5 makes an excellent lens set, providing high quality coverage from 10-105mm (16-168mm full frame equivalent) with just two lenses.

During the current Spring 2008 Canon instant rebate program, the EF 24-105/4L IS is available with the EOS 5D as a "kit". The advantage of buying the kit is that the price is only $700 more than the EOS 5D alone, whereas the price of the lens if you buy it without an EOS 5D is around $1040. Even a refurbished 24-105/4L is $900 (and that only comes with a 90-day store warranty), so the kit provides a substantial saving - as long as you also need an EOS 5D!


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