Canon RF 24-70mm 2.8 L IS USM

Canon introduced the 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS USM lens for the Canon RF mount used on its mirrorless cameras as part of a “trinity of essential pro lenses”. The other two lenses are a 15-35mm f/2.8 and a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens - the idea being that if you have all three in your kit bag, you’re set for any kind of shooting situation. Being a 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, this one in particularly is probably likely to be the most popular of the three and is ideal as a good walk around lens, especially for the larger Canon EOS R body.

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. Please note that this may not sound overly enthusiastic but in real-life scenarios, the lens behaves very well. Who cares about tack sharp corners at f/2.8 when doing shallow depth-of-field photography for instance? And, as mentioned, auto-correction will help for most of the other aspects anyway. Still, keep in mind that you should balance all this with the price of 2500EUR/$2200. There is nothing to complain with respect to the build quality of the Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 USM L IS. It targets professionals and you can feel it. The materials and assembly quality are top of the class. Weather-sealing is a natural feature at this price point anyway. Some may not like the extending zoom mechanism - but fact remains that this is just normal for pretty much all standard zoom lenses. The AF is extremely fast and noiseless - you won't really miss a DSLR lens in this respect anymore. Canon finally managed to incorporate an image stabilizer into the lens - a feature that has been requested by users for several years - and it is as reliable and efficient as in other modern Canon lenses. All in all a highly desirable workhorse lens for professional photographers although we also think that the pricing is over the top.