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- Les
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Bought a nice clean s/h Mk1 24mm F1.4L earlier this week, and apart from checking everything worked (it did) and a sharp copy (it was), today was the first day I've given it a proper run out.
Nice afternoon, sunshine and fluffy crowds, not proper landscape weather, but good enough for a test drive.
First off, I'd heard that the CA in the MK1 was a lot worse than the MKII, so my first check was check this. If a lens tends to show, it's usually along contrast lines, particularly at the corners.
Tree branches are often a good way of generating CA, so the first shot was a test of this.
At normal viewing, there is no CA obvious, a corner section blown up to 200% CA can be seen, but probably manageable in PS or DPP.
The lens it loads better than my 24-105/17-35/17-40 in this respect, how it compares to a MKII 24mm I don't know.
top left corner section @ 200%
Although unlikely to use the lens very much at f1.4, interested to see how it performs.
At f1.4, there is noticeable vignetting, and is not as sharp as stopped down, but has a pleasant bokeh.
at f2 the image is a lot more usable, and improves as you stop down.
The other area I was interested in was the effect of ND grads, could I use them without any vignetting, so tried a Lee holder with two grads stacked-no vignetting, this was with a 77mm w/a adapter on top of a UV filter.
So I'm pleased with the results, the lens is sharp and sweet across most apertures, and performs superbly at the apertures I'll be shooting at most of the time (f16-f22), it's as sharp as my 50mm f1.4, but perhaps not as sweet as my 85mm f1.2, better than any wide zoom I've had (24-105L/17-40L and 17-35 f2.8Land a few siggys)
In addition, focussing is fast and accurate , and having such a fast max aperture, the viewfinder view is very bright.
I noticed on a number of shots that included blue sky, how even the colour was across the frame, occasionally with wide zooms you can get quite patchy blue skies, going darker towards the edges.
There is consistent sharpness across the frame from f2.8 down.
Therefore a good buy, a bit anxious about the purchase regarding possible CA, but looks to be negligible. So at roughly half the price of a new MKII, I've a lens that I'm more than happy with.
I'd definitely recommend this lens, but only if you can manage without the flexibility of a zoom. I'd realised a while ago that my comfort zone while shooting landscapes with a wide zoom was around 20-25mm (on a FF body), so purchasing a 24mm prime was a natural progression. I still use my 12-24mm for when I want to go ridiculously wide, a 50mm to back the 24mm up, and hope to acquire a 35mm f1.4 sometime in the future.
Nice afternoon, sunshine and fluffy crowds, not proper landscape weather, but good enough for a test drive.
First off, I'd heard that the CA in the MK1 was a lot worse than the MKII, so my first check was check this. If a lens tends to show, it's usually along contrast lines, particularly at the corners.
Tree branches are often a good way of generating CA, so the first shot was a test of this.
At normal viewing, there is no CA obvious, a corner section blown up to 200% CA can be seen, but probably manageable in PS or DPP.
The lens it loads better than my 24-105/17-35/17-40 in this respect, how it compares to a MKII 24mm I don't know.
top left corner section @ 200%
Although unlikely to use the lens very much at f1.4, interested to see how it performs.
At f1.4, there is noticeable vignetting, and is not as sharp as stopped down, but has a pleasant bokeh.
at f2 the image is a lot more usable, and improves as you stop down.
The other area I was interested in was the effect of ND grads, could I use them without any vignetting, so tried a Lee holder with two grads stacked-no vignetting, this was with a 77mm w/a adapter on top of a UV filter.
So I'm pleased with the results, the lens is sharp and sweet across most apertures, and performs superbly at the apertures I'll be shooting at most of the time (f16-f22), it's as sharp as my 50mm f1.4, but perhaps not as sweet as my 85mm f1.2, better than any wide zoom I've had (24-105L/17-40L and 17-35 f2.8Land a few siggys)
In addition, focussing is fast and accurate , and having such a fast max aperture, the viewfinder view is very bright.
I noticed on a number of shots that included blue sky, how even the colour was across the frame, occasionally with wide zooms you can get quite patchy blue skies, going darker towards the edges.
There is consistent sharpness across the frame from f2.8 down.
Therefore a good buy, a bit anxious about the purchase regarding possible CA, but looks to be negligible. So at roughly half the price of a new MKII, I've a lens that I'm more than happy with.
I'd definitely recommend this lens, but only if you can manage without the flexibility of a zoom. I'd realised a while ago that my comfort zone while shooting landscapes with a wide zoom was around 20-25mm (on a FF body), so purchasing a 24mm prime was a natural progression. I still use my 12-24mm for when I want to go ridiculously wide, a 50mm to back the 24mm up, and hope to acquire a 35mm f1.4 sometime in the future.
