Canon RF 24-70 F2.8L IS USM Review

OpticalLimits reviewed the Canon RF 24-70 F2.8L IS USM, Canon's newest standard zoom that is hugely popular among professionals.

Overall they consider the Canon RF 24-70mm F2.8L IS USM to be the "best standard zoom they have tested to date" which is something for a site with the legacy of OpticalLimits which was formerly photozone.de.

Their ratings are broken down as;

Optical Quality: 3.75 out of 5 stars
Mechanical Quality: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Price / Performance 3 out of 5 stars

The features of the Canon RF 24-70mm F2.8L include;

• Standard wide-angle to telephoto zoom lens is designed for use with full-frame Canon RF-mount mirrorless cameras.
• Bright f/2.8 constant maximum aperture maintains consistent illumination throughout the zoom range and suits working in low-light conditions as well as affords increased control over depth of field for working with selective focus techniques.
• Three UD (Ultra-Low Dispersion) elements help to minimize chromatic aberrations and color fringing in order to provide greater clarity and color accuracy.
• Three aspherical elements are used to correct spherical aberrations and distortion for improved sharpness and accurate rendering.
• An Air Sphere Coating (ASC) has been applied to lens elements to reduce backlit flaring and ghosting for maintained light transmission and high contrast in strong lighting conditions.
• An Optical Image Stabilizer helps to minimize the appearance of camera shake by five stops to better enable working in low-light conditions and with slower shutter speeds.
• Nano USM system utilizes both a ring type USM and an STM mechanism to realize quick and accurate focusing that is also smooth and nearly silent to suit both photography and video applications. This focusing system also affords full-time manual focus control when working in the one-shot AF mode.
• Configurable Control Ring can be used to adjust a variety of exposure settings, including aperture, ISO, and exposure compensation.
• Protective fluorine coating has been applied to the front and rear element to resist fingerprints and smudges and to make cleaning these elements significantly easier.
• As a member of the esteemed L-series, this lens has a weather-resistant design that protects against dust and moisture to enable its use in inclement conditions.
• Rounded nine-blade diaphragm contributes to a pleasing bokeh quality.

Their conclusion;

The Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 USM L IS is the best fast standard zoom lenses that we tested to date. However, this doesn't mean that it's flawless - standard zoom lenses never are. In terms of resolution, the broader center zone is superbly sharp at all relevant aperture settings. The border quality is also on a very high level. The corner quality varies a bit though. Except for the sweet spot at 50mm, the corners are a tad soft at f/2.8. However, they have recovered nicely at f/5.6 latest. These days you tend to correct the secondary characteristic via image auto-correction. However, when analyzing the raw qualities, the results reveal a couple of issues. The vignetting is rather extreme at 24mm f/2.8 for instance - and that's despite the very large front element. Complex image distortions are also quite obvious at 24mm and there are fairly visible pincushion distortions at 70mm. Lateral CAs are quite moderate albeit not zilch. The quality of the bokeh is very good as far as general rendition is concerned but not ideal with respect to out-of-focus highlights.

Read the entire review here

• OpticalLimits