1DsMII and 24-70L

[Steve_Kinsey]

Good Day,

I'm a recent convert from Nikon/Kodak and loving my new camera. After I read about the possiblity of focusing errors, I did as suggested and shot the newspaper. The camera seems to be working as it should, which was a giant relief.

During those tests, I noticed that my 24-70 was a little less than perfect, well I'll say quite a bit less than perfect, but thought that my less than scientific methods could have something to do with the results.

This morning I shot an evenly lit gray textured wall at a distance of about 5'. I shot exposures from f/2.8 - f/16 at 24mm, 28mm, 35mm, 50mm and 70mm. Reviewed the results in PSCS ACR. Sharpness slider at 100%, Luminosity 0, color noise at 25% and vignette adjusted before looking at the corners and edges for sharpness. This is a summary of what I found.

The lens vignettes at all apertures up to 50mm f/5.6, none at f/8 (50mm)
At 70mm vignettes up to f/4
At 50mm lens is sharp edge to edge at f/4, but there is vignette visible, but none at f/5.6
At 35mm 28mm and 24mm not sharp edge to edge until f/16
At those same focal lengths the f/2.8 vignette is not repairable with the PS ACR slider without damaging the image.
At those same focal lengths the center sharpness seems to fall off some past f/8, but can't verify that at this point.

The vignette in almost all cases is not centered on the frame.

Sharpness is the main issue here. Is the response from this lens normal on the 1DsM2? The vignetting can be taken care of but what a pain in the ... What do you think ... should I send it back to Canon? Return it to the dealer and get something else? (if so what in that focal length range) Anyone tried the less expensive 28-105 on a 1DsM2?

Focus issues... After my newspaper test... the camera is, I believe, focusing as it should. I do run into some problems when I'm trying to pull something small into focus with AF. My intended point is not always in focus. The camera will read the focus area and will focus on the point with more contrast within the focus point. ie focuses on the most contrast within the point selected. This seems like a normal thing? Perhaps I need to set closest object or something in the c.fn's I'm still learning.

Thanks for any input and sorry for the length of this post,
Steve

PS The 70-200L IS is a wonderful piece of glass and the 16-35 is showing some promise, but complete testing has not been done.

[Lester_Ng]

I also was a long time Nikon/Kodak user. But I think not all lenses are created equal. My first 24-70, I drop with my 1Ds, nothing happen with the camera, but the lens was all out of wack. Since I needed another 24-70, I bought another one and send the drop one to Canon, after shooting the new one,for while, I notice that it is much sharper then my older 24-70. The older one went to Canon, and everything got replace, except for the glass, when I got it back, it is still not as sharp as the new one. I do shoot everything at f/8-f/11. When I say sharp, it is now my sharpest lens, even sharper then my Canon 50mm f/1.4 on a 1Ds MkII

I also have the 16-35L, but the Nikon 17-35ED is much sharper at the corners. using the same body, Nikon lens with a lens converter to Canon. But I might have a bad 16-35L

[DavidHarpe]

I have not had the same problems with the 24-70 that you are seeing. I shoot with it on a daily basis and find it an excellent lens. You might want to send yours to Canon for realignment.

I found the 16-35 to be a poor performer. Although I lose a couple of stops, I much prefer the 17-40 L.

Dave

[LorinBacke]

Steve, It's just a fact of manufacturing, no 2 lenses will be equal. I seem to have a fairly good copy of the old 28-70, pretty sharp edge to edge at f8, tack sharp at F11, which is good for product shots for which I use it. It has replaced a schnieder lens on a Sinar 4x5 camera I used for the same client for years. They are thrilled with the results. Wide open it shows too much softness at the edges for me. I also recently did the newspaper test with my 70-200 2.8 and as far as focus was concerned, found it spot on. I have noticed barrel distortion at 70mm though and hardly any at 200mm. Zoom lenses are just pulling a lot out of the optic possibilities bag. I recently found a great site put up by Canon regarding their manufacturing techniques concerning lenses. Really worth a view. http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/t...t/f_index.html this is part of Canon Camera Museum, also a great site to browse http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/index.html . Lots of insight to the companys philosophy and technique. The lens building process is pretty intense. Lorin

[E_J_Peiker]

In my experience, the 16-25 and 24-70 are definitely pushed beyond their capabilities with the 1Ds2. They were barely acceptable with the 1Ds and the 1Ds2 pushes them past the limit. Specifically, light fall-off in the corners and red/green linear chromatic aberration. Both of these are fixed by DxO Optics but at a very high expense and an unwieldy insertion of this correction step in the workflow.

[CharlieGast]

I have to agree with E_J
I find the 24 TS-E to be a much better performer than the 24-70L. Unshifted of course. The 1Ds2 is most unforgiving of the glass before it. I use primes 95% of the time with this camera. If all I want is very basic snapshots then a zoom can suffice. If I use a zoom the 24-70 gives me the autofocus and metering. Most of the time I want all this camera has to offer in pixel count and image quality.

Charlie

[Eric_Chan]

[ QUOTE ]
In my experience, the 16-25 and 24-70 are definitely pushed beyond their capabilities with the 1Ds2. They were barely acceptable with the 1Ds and the 1Ds2 pushes them past the limit. Specifically, light fall-off in the corners and red/green linear chromatic aberration. Both of these are fixed by DxO Optics but at a very high expense and an unwieldy insertion of this correction step in the workflow.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hopefully the correction process will be just as effective (and more convenient) with Photoshop CS 2.

Eric

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