The new Canon RF 24-105mm f/2.8 L IS USM Z lens is making waves in the photography community. This lens boasts the longest zoom range available at f/2.8, making it incredibly versatile for a variety of photography styles, from portraits to sports.
Coming to you from Christopher Frost, this detailed video highlights why this lens is a game-changer. Frost discusses the lens’ impressive zoom range, from a wide 24mm to a short telephoto 105mm, all at a constant f/2.8 aperture. This flexibility means you can use it for almost any type of photography, including events, landscapes, and even wedding photography. The lens also features unique attributes tailored for video work, adding to its versatility.
One standout feature is the image stabilization. Frost demonstrates its effectiveness, especially at 105mm, where stabilization makes handheld video work much smoother. The lens’ weight and size are considerable, but the heavy-duty tripod mount and weather-sealing make it a robust choice for demanding shoots. Despite its heft, the build quality and functionality offer significant advantages for both stills and video work.
Frost also discusses the lens’ optical performance. At 24mm and f/2.8, the lens delivers sharp and high-contrast images, even in the corners. When zoomed in to 105mm, the center remains sharp, though the corners are a bit softer. This performance is impressive for such a wide-ranging zoom lens, making it a solid choice for photographers who need versatility without sacrificing image quality.
The video doesn’t shy away from the lens’ drawbacks, such as its significant weight and high price. Frost also notes the noticeable barrel distortion at 24mm and pincushion distortion at 105mm. However, these issues can be corrected in post-processing, and they don't overshadow the overall performance. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Frost.
As nice as this lens may be, it's quite heavy and for an all purpose lens, the 24-105 F4 L is more than adequate and not a strain to carry it around for a walkaround shoot. What would have been a game changer would be to give this lens more reach, say to 240mm. That would be something to write about indeed.
“This lens boasts the longest zoom range available at f/2.8”
I think that honor belongs to Tamron’s and Samyang’s 35-150mm f2.0-2.8 zooms.
Yeah I agree, and I've found myself really enjoying the 35-150 zoom range. It's nice to see some of the normal zoom ranges being broken in favor of others that might be more useful for different types of photography.
I’m going to replace my 17-28/2.8 with a 20-40/2.8 as a nearly ideal dance floor lens that gets me from UWA to 60mm with Crop Mode. These two and my 24, 35 and 85 Samyang primes will cover 98% of my event work.
For an event photographer this lens is great , but not sure I'd like to lug it around all day as an all purpose lens . I'll stick with my F4
OMG, I just checked it out on CameraSize.com, and the 24-105/2.8 is HUGE! It absolutely dwarfs the 35-150/2.0-2.8, which I already consider too large and heavy for walkabout use.
Event shooters generally work with two bodies, and an f2.8 UWA zoom with the 35-150 makes way more sense than the 24-105 with...what?...an UWA that half overlaps the range, or a a ginormous 100-300? I can't imagine who the audience for the 24-105/2.8 is.
The form factor is a deal breaker.
Ultimate All-Purpose Lens?
It is Tamron 35-150mm f/2.8
All purpose , on the run, fast and ultimate time saver.
Which Canon do not wants to make by
third party for their camera body.
Only available for Sony and Nikon.
But Canon wants to sell one more extra lens and extra camera for second lens. Crooked mind.
Just spent a month in Europe and only brought three lenses. Canon RF 24-105mm f/2.8, the RF 100-500mm f4.5-7.1 and a little RF 50mm f1.8. I was able to fit all these and a Peak Design travel tripod internally in a Peak Design Everyday Pack for the flight along with batteries, laptop, and a flash. So it wasn’t too big for that. Other than a few shots taken with the 100-500, I never took the RF 24-105 f2.8. Yeah it’s big and a little heavy but I didn’t mind it. It’s comfortable to hold. I had it on my side or pack daily and left the other lenses in the car or hotel rooms. The f4 version of this lens is not too much smaller than the f2.8 version when extended out to 105mm but doesn’t zoom internally and therefore shouldn’t have the same weather sealing. For have a single lens for travel I was glad to have it. Typical travel shots don’t require much reach, but certainly more than 70mm. Having the ability to work well indoors without flash as well as outdoors with the f2.8 aperture was wonderful. Many indoor spaces such as historic locations and museums don’t allow flash photography or tripods either so having good image stabilization and fast aperture is great.