Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM lens

      Photo Review 8.9
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      In summary

       Interestingly, we found there wasn’t a huge difference in the imaging performance between the f/4 USM lens and the f/3.5-5.6 STM lens, although the build quality of the former is superior and it has the advantage of the constant f/4 maximum aperture. If you’re on a tight budget, the cheaper lens is a viable alternative and may be preferable if you shoot a lot of video since its AF system is slightly quieter.

      The original EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens has been almost permanently attached to our EOS 5D II body from the time we purchased it and we’ve found it to be an excellent, general-purpose lens for both travelling and everyday use. We expect the Mark II lens to be just as useful for the same situations and better matched to the more recent EOS bodies.

      Buyers of this lens should be happy with the improvements to the AF and stabilisation systems, both of which should make it easier to obtain sharp, correctly-focused shots in a wide variety of situations. The 125 gram increase in weight shouldn’t make much difference when you have the lens on a pro or pro-sumer level camera, although you may not want to add more than one or two extra lenses to your camera back if you’re planning a long hike.

      Full review

      This review follows the review of the EF 24-105mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM lens, which we published in early November 2016. While that lens was pitched at hobbyists, the EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM lens is a fully professional product with superior optics, a constant f/4 maximum aperture, a more solid body and dust- and moisture-proof sealing. It replaces a previous EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM model that was one of Canon’s most popular general-purpose lenses and which we reviewed in January 2007.  

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      Angled view of the new EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM lens. (Source: Canon.)

      The optical design has evolved since the original lens was developed, with a reduction of one in the number of lens elements and element groups. Among the lens elements are three glass-moulded (GMo) aspherical lenses plus a large-diameter double-sided GMo aspherical lens that together provide excellent overall resolving power plus increased peripheral brightness for better edge-to-edge results with reduced distortions.
       

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       The diagram above shows the positions of the exotic glass elements in the lens. (Source: Canon.)

      Air Sphere Coatings minimise flare, ghosting and internal reflections by placing   an ultra-low refractive layer on the lens elements. Additional non-stick fluorine coatings on the front and rear surfaces prevent dust, water, oil and other surface residue like fingerprints from sticking to the lens and make it easy to keep clean.

      The 10-bladed iris diaphragm closes to produce a circular aperture. This enables the lens to produce smooth and soft out-of-focus backgrounds throughout its zoom range and delivers a high level of control over background blurring.

      Dust-   and moisture-resistant sealing is installed on the switch panel, the zoom and focus rings, and on the lens mount. A new zoom lock switch allows the lens to be locked at 24mm for storage and prevents zoom creep when the lens is carried facing downwards.

      Improvements to the built-in stabiliser boosts shake-resistance capabilities from 2.5 f-stops in the original lens to four f-stops in the new lens, based upon CIPA (Camera & Imaging Products Association) testing standards. A new   high-performance control CPU that drives the inner focusing with ring USM is programmed with optimised AF algorithms that help achieve fast, accurate focus and maintain it consistently.

      This lens is supplied with the E-77II front cap, Lens Dust Cap E rear cap, EW-83M lens hood and LP1219 lens pouch. It accepts 77 mm diameter filters.

      Who’s it For?
       Like its predecessor, the Mark II lens is offered as a ‘kit’ lens, usually with Canon’s ‘prosumer’ level EOS 5D DSLR cameras. It’s currently bundled with the EOS 5D Mark IV, which is the camera we used for our tests.

      As with the cheaper 24-105mm STM lens, we can’t see much point in buying this lens for a cropped sensor camera, where it covers a focal length range equivalent to 38-168mm. This isn’t quite wide enough for landscape photography nor long enough for capturing sports and wildlife.  

      On a ‘full frame’ camera, 24-105mm covers a very useful focal length range that is wide enough for shooting landscapes and group portraits and covers the ‘classic’ 85mm and 105mm focal lengths for portraiture. In between, it makes a great ‘walkaround’ lens for travellers and many photographers would see the 24-105mm range as ideal if they only wanted to carry one lens.

      The four-stop stabiliser in the lens combines with the Dual Pixel CMOS  AF systems in the high-end cameras to make hand-holding possible in low light levels and support stable video recording at 4K resolution. Price-wise, it’s   a premium product  but a great partner for a high-end camera.

      Build and Ergonomics
       Superficially, the new EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM lens is a lot like its predecessor. Although it’s 11 mm longer and 125 grams heavier, the maximum diameters of both lenses are the same, which means the new lens should fit into the same place in a camera bag as the original lens. It should also be almost as easy to carry around.

      Like the original EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens, the new lens is solidly built and made mostly from high-quality polycarbonate plastic. It has a solid metal mounting plate and weather-proofing and it’s been designed to be shock- and shake-resistant.

      The main control surfaces are in the same places as they were on the original EF 24-105mm f/4L lens, which most potential purchasers would agree is a ‘good thing’.

      The focusing ring is approximately 30 mm wide and located roughly 12 mm behind the front of the outer barrel. It carries a 25 mm wide ridged, rubberised grip band and turns freely when the lens is in AF mode and if power is switched off. With the camera powered-up and the lens in MF mode, this ring can be rotated through roughly 180 degrees between ‘soft’ stops at either end of the focusing range.

      Separating the focusing and zoom rings is a fixed section of the outer barrel that is just over 20 mm wide and contains the main lens controls. These include sliders for swapping between AF and MF and switching between the Normal IS mode and the Panning IS mode. Full-time manual focus over-ride is supported when AF is selected.

      Around the right hand side of the barrel is a Lock switch for preventing zoom creep when the lens is carried pointing downwards. This is a new feature and likely to be welcomed since the original EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens became increasingly prone to zoom creep over time.

      The zoom ring is about 30 mm wide and conveniently located close to the camera body. Most of its length is covered by a thickly-ridged grip band, which is wider than its equivalent on the original lens and more comfortable to operate.

      The trailing couple of millimetres on this ring are stamped with focal length settings for 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 70mm, 85mm and 105mm; the same as on the original lens. These marks line up against a white line on the fixed section of the lens barrel.

      The inner barrel extends by roughly 40 mm when the lens is zoomed in from 24mm to 105mm. Thanks to internal focusing, the front element doesn’t rotate when zooming (or focusing) so angle-critical filters can be used without re-adjustments.

      The lens is supplied with a petal shaped lens hood (EW-83M), which attaches via a bayonet mounting. A release button must be pressed before the hood can be removed.  A soft carrying case is also provided with the lens.

      Performance
       We tested the review lens on the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV body, which has a 30.1-megapixel sensor. Matching such high resolution is a big ask for any lens, particularly with JPEG files.

      Like its predecessor, this lens gives its best performance a stop or two down from maximum aperture and roughly mid-way through the zoom range. Imatest analysis of JPEG files showed the review lens came very close to meeting expectations for this high-resolution sensor. The CR2.RAW files we analysed exceeded expectations by a small margin. The best results were achieved at f/5.0 with the 35mm and 50mm focal lengths.

      Some edge softening was found at all focal length settings, although it became largely unnoticeable from about f/8 onwards. Diffraction began to take effect very gradually from this point, with a sharp drop happening between f/10 and f/22. The graph below shows the results of our Imatest tests on JPEG files.

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       In-camera corrections are available for JPEG files to remove chromatic aberration, distortion and vignetting so we had to check raw files to determine their extent. We found a representative sample of raw files showed lateral chromatic aberration to hover between ‘negligible’ and ‘low’ values (indicated by the red line on the graph below), although the graph below, taken from JPEG files, puts it squarely in the ‘negligible’ band, which suggests some correction may be applied even when the in-camera function is switched off.

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      When used on ‘full frame’ cameras, most zoom lenses will show some vignetting (edge and corner darkening) at wide aperture settings and the EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM lens is no exception. Once again, we had to turn off in-camera corrections to reveal its full extent and found obvious darkening at f/4 across the focal length range.

      There was little difference in the vignetting at f/4 between 24mm, 50mm and 105mm but stopping down to f/5 reduced it perceptibly, although traces of darkening remained at f/6.3 with the 24mm focal length. Fortunately, no vignetting was evident at f/6.3 with focal lengths longer than 70mm and it was difficult to discern any darkening at f/5.6 with the 105mm setting.

      Turning off in-camera corrections for distortion showed the lens produced significant barrel distortion with the 24mm focal length setting. This was reduced as the focal length was increased and between about 40mm and 60mm, very slight pincushion distortion became evident. By 105mm, the pincushion distortion had become more noticeable, although it wasn’t severe.

      The latest Canon ‘full frame’ cameras include corrections for vignetting, distortion, chromatic aberration and diffraction, which can be applied to JPEG files as they are captured. Raw files are easily corrected with conversion software when turning them into editable TIFF or JPEG   files. Essentially, these aberrations aren’t a major issue with modern cameras.

      The minimum focusing distance of 45 cm means this lens has limited use for close-ups. At wider angles of view, it encompasses viewing angles of up to 74 degrees, which takes in a lot of background. However, with the 105mm focal length it is usable for close-ups of larger subjects, such as flowers or animals and the f/4 maximum aperture produces a nice separation between the sharp subject and blurred background.

      Bokeh was generally smooth and attractive, an expected result from the change to having 10 diaphragm blades. Very slight outlining could be seen in some close-ups taken at f/4 with the 105mm setting, although this only happened when there were reflected highlights on a dark background.

      The stabilisation system was very effective, permitting exposures between 1/5 and 1/10 second with the 105mm focal length with a success rate close to 100%  and providing a stable view of scenes while shooting movies (for which the monitor must be used). Image stabilisation also ensured the viewfinder image remained steady, which was helpful for composing shots.

      At 24mm the shutter speed could be reduced to half a second with a similar ‘keeper’ rate and one second with two thirds of shots acceptably sharp. Regardless of the focal length used, we found the keeper rate drop-off was gradual as shutter speeds lengthened. Overall, we estimate the average compensation to be between four and five f-stops, depending on the photographer’s ability to keep the camera steady.

      We encountered few problems with autofocusing, thanks in part to the effectiveness of the EOS 5D Mark IV’s AF system. The AF mechanism in the EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM lens interfaced seamlessly with the camera to deliver sharp shots in a wide variety of shooting conditions.

      The lens also locked onto subjects almost instantly, even in low light levels and with relatively low contrast subjects and manual focus over-ride was accessible instantly in the rare event that the AF system hesitated. Focusing was generally very quiet, although not as quiet as the EF 24-105mm STM lens.

      However, since the lens is not parfocal, you have to refocus after changing focal lengths. We found a small amount of hunting often occurred as the zoom ring was rotated. This was more evident in recorded movie clips than when changing focal length while shooting stills, where you’d usually ignore it.

      Another issue movie shooters should consider is the small changes in the sizes of subjects within frames during focus pulls. This problem can also affect sequences of shots captured for focus stacking to maximise overall image sharpness since any changes in subject size may introduce blurring that won’t be detected by stacking software.

      Conclusion
       Interestingly, we found there wasn’t a huge difference in the imaging performance between the f/4 USM lens and the f/3.5-5.6 STM lens, although the build quality of the former is superior and it has the advantage of the constant f/4 maximum aperture. If you’re on a tight budget, the cheaper lens is a viable alternative and may be preferable if you shoot a lot of video since its AF system is slightly quieter.

      The original EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens has been almost permanently attached to our EOS 5D II body from the time we purchased it and we’ve found it to be an excellent, general-purpose lens for both travelling and everyday use. We expect the Mark II lens to be just as useful for the same situations and better matched to the more recent EOS bodies.

      Buyers of this lens should be happy with the improvements to the AF and stabilisation systems, both of which should make it easier to obtain sharp, correctly-focused shots in a wide variety of situations. The 125 gram increase in weight shouldn’t make much difference when you have the lens on a pro or pro-sumer level camera, although you may not want to add more than one or two extra lenses to your camera back if you’re planning a long hike.

      The EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM lens is scheduled to go on sale at the end of November or in early December so discounting has still to get underway.   Canon lists this lens in its online store at an RRP of AU$1979, which is relatively pricey.

      Interestingly, the major off-shore resellers have it listed at the same price as the Canon USA online store: US$1099. This worked out at around AU$1495 using the B&H store’s online currency converter when we checked it out while compiling this review.

      Depending on which shipping method you choose, you’ll need to add between AU$55  and AU$135 to get the lens in your hands. Delivery will take between three and seven business days, once the lens starts shipping .

      You can match the US price at a couple of local online photo specialists and could better it if you shop in person, particularly if you’re not in a hurry to buy. It would be reasonable to expect pricing to become more competitive during the post-Christmas period.  

       

      SPECS

       Picture angle: 74 degrees to 19 degrees 20 minutes
       Minimum aperture: f/22
       Lens construction: 17 elements in 12 groups (including 4 glass-moulded (GMo) aspherical elements)
       Lens mounts: Canon EF
       Diaphragm Blades: 10 (circular aperture)
       Focus drive: Ring ultrasonic motor (USM)
       Stabilisation: Yes, 4 stops of correction
       Environmental sealing: Dust/moisture resistant
       Minimum focus: 45 cm
       Maximum magnification: 0.24x (at 105mm)
       Filter size:   77 mm
       Dimensions (Diameter x L): 83.5 x 118 mm
       Weight:  795 grams
       Standard Accessories: E-77II front cap, Lens Dust Cap E rear cap, EW-83M lens hood, LP1219 lens pouch

       Distributor: Canon Australia; 1800 021 167; www.canon.com.au.

       

      TESTS

       Based on JPEG files taken with the EOS 5D Mark II camera.

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      (The CA graph from the equivalent raw file converted into TIFF format, showing uncorrected lateral chromatic aberration.)

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      SAMPLES  

       

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       Vignetting at 24mm f/4.
       

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       Vignetting at 50mm f/4.
       

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       Vignetting at 105mm f/4.
       

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       Rectilinear distortion at 24mm.
       

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       Rectilinear distortion at 50mm.
       

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       Rectilinear distortion at 105mm.
       

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      24mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/400 second at f/13.
       

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      105mm focal length, ISO 1001/400 second at f/8.
       

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      24mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/320 second at f/13.
       

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      105mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/640 second at f/10.
       

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      Strong backlighting; 24mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/100 second at f/8.
       

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      Backlighting; 105mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/200 second at f/5.6.
       

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      Backlighting; 24mm focal length, ISO 100 1/50 second at f/14.
       

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      Close-up at 24mm; ISO 100, 1/5000 second at f/4.
       

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      Close-up at 105mm; ISO 200, 1/6400 second at f/4.
       

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      55mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/40 second at f/4.
       

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      Stabilisation test; 46mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/8 second at f/4.
       

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      Stabilisation test; 105mm focal length, ISO 400, 1/10 second at f/4.
       

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      105mm focal length, ISO 320, 1/5 second at f/7.1.
       

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      24mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/500 second at f/10.
       

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      93mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/125 second at f/5.6.
       

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      24mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/250 second at f/11.
       

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      35mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/320 second at f/11.
       

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       Crop from the above image showing negligible coloured fringing;
       

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      105mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/160 second at f/5.
       

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      24mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/80 second at f/6.3.
       

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      80mm focal length, ISO 200, 1/8 second at f/14.
       

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      35mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/640 second at f/5.6.
       

      Rating

      RRP: AU$1979; US$1099

      • Build: 8.9
      • Handling: 9.0
      • Image quality: 8.9
      • Versatility: 9.0

      Buy