Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Great If You Need f1.4 and Wide-Angle October 15, 2005
A. Johnston (San Francisco, CA USA)
48 out of 56 found this review helpful
This is a great lens if you need to shoot wide angle in very low light siuations. If you don't need a lens for this exact purpose, you'd be better off spending a few extra dollars on either the 16-35L or 24-70L. These two zoom lenses cover 24mm (and more) at a very reasonable f2.8 with good results. They won't bag a shot in the shadows, but they will handle any decently lit scenario with ease.
If you just have to own an f1.4 prime lens, the 35mm f1.4 is a much more universally well-regarded L lens than the 24mm f1.4. The 50mm f1.4 is 1/3 the price of either and just as amazing in my opinion so long as you don't need the wide angle.
The only reason I give the 24mm f1.4 a 4 instead of a 5 is the price.
 Shoot Wide-Angle? This is it. November 26, 2007
Terrance M. Carroll (Oakland, CA United States)
29 out of 37 found this review helpful
This is a specialty lens that would be hard to justify unless you are a dedicated wide-angle shooter.
Have you been hanging out almost exclusively at the wide side of your zoom lens? Have you found that there is just something indescribably perfect about how the 24mm setting (on a full-frame camera) takes in the world? Have you never owned a true professional lens? Are you ready for the real thing? This is it.
I've been shooting with a 24mm lens (or zoom equivalent) since 1976, when I was a teenager seeking to differentiate my photo style from the dominant preference for telephoto. I am so glad I did. A wide-angle lens forces me to get in close to the action, bringing an intimacy with my subjects and a liveliness to my images that "fly-on-the-wall" telephoto detachment simply misses. But if you've gotten this far, you already know the unique image qualities of wide-angle lenses.
The reason for getting this lens -- a dedicated focal-length, rather than a great zoom that includes 24 -- is because it handles its job so much better than your zoom on 24. Everybody will state how much sharper and richer the image quality is, how the "L" optics are truly amazing, etc. Yes, yes, yes; it's great. But, frankly, I haven't yet (2000 shots) noticed the image difference between my "amazing" 20-35 EF and my "truly amazing" 24 L. For me, it is all about the manual focus ring.
Zoom lenses have terrible manual focus rings. They are always given secondary attention by manufacturers to the zoom ring (Canon included). (Why? Zooming isn't so minutely critical, or something that you need in a split second!) And if you don't use your manual focus ring, stop reading. Go away. Buy a point-and-shoot. You aren't my friend.
Still here? Good. This lens has the smoothest, most precise, most ergonomic, most oh-so-fabulous focus ring I've EVER twisted. (And it focuses down to a phenomenal 9 inches!) You'll need that precision when you open it wide to its amazing 1.4 aperture. Oh, gosh ... Ever seen such shimmer? (My own personal experience with wide-angle lenses has always emphasized their incredible depth-of-field at f.22, allowing quick, sloppy focusing without worry; now I am experiencing a whole new wonder at the other end of the aperture.)
So, if you've been like me, and long found your zoom lens set to 24, you want to recapture or discover for the first time the sublime self-limitation of a fixed-focal length lens, and you can afford it (but how can you afford not to?), get this lens today, put it on a full-frame Canon 5D, and start producing a body of work that has a distinctive style in which all your subjects will have smiles -- in response to the smile that'll be permanently plastered to your face as you use this "best lens in its category."
Just Plain Old Super, Fantastic Glass April 9, 2005
Jack Priest (Reno, Nevada)
19 out of 45 found this review helpful
This, in my very humble opinion, is the most useful, the sharpest, and just about anything else good you can think of say, best wide angle lense ever produced by anybody, anytime, anywhere. Lightning fast and that's what you want when the light is low.
My gal pal Sara and I have often wandered the Caribbean islands in the dawn's early light, as she is into shooting old homes. She particularly likes the gingerbread homes in Marigot, on the French side of St. Martin. I swear she must have them all on her hard drive. It's like an obsession with her and this lens aids her passion, feeds into her manic desire to try and control the light.
She just loves it and since I love her, I gotta love it too. Seriously though, I've used the lense quite a bit myself and it's a keeper if ever there was one. You just go wrong with a Canon "L" lense, no siree.
Jack Priest, Sailor Home from the Sea
Great Lens September 17, 2007
John (San Antonio, TX)
18 out of 18 found this review helpful
Let me start off by saying that photography is my hobby and it is not what I do to make a living. I have a canon 30d and use this lens all the time.
I have several lenses in my bag now and this is one of my favorites! The first lens I purchased was EF 24-105 f/4 L IS. This is a great lens if you are outdoors in good lighting and want to have zoom capabilities. I tried to use it in the evening at an outside restaurant and the f/4 was too much; so to compensate, I purchased this lens.
I love this wide angle and 24mm lens. I have taken great evening and night shots with this lens! It is fast, gives great bokeh and the colors are very rich. I'm mainly using this lens in the evenings and at night and use it with and without 430 speedlite. When using the flash, I typically rotate the speedlite head so that the flash is bouncing off a ceiling or a wall instead of right on the subject. This lens works great for this!
You can walk down the street in The Grove in LA and take awesome, crisp pictures with no flash. If I need to zoom, I zoom with my feet... but I have the ability to take a wide angle photo with this lens that I wouldn't be able to do with the 50mm or the 85mm.
The bottom line is this: If you want to take great pictures in the evening or at night, this lens has to be in your bag.
Best of luck!
Another Quality Canon Product August 11, 2005
Timothy Gray (Seattle, WA USA)
13 out of 40 found this review helpful
You'll never regret buying the Canon L series. The fit and finish is perfect and image quality is excellent!
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