Canon EF 24-70mm f/4.0L is USM Standard Zoom Lens - 6313B002

I enjoy landscape, travel and macro photography and felt the 24-70 4L IS USM would be a good fit for me. Here's what I thought about it after several months of use.BUILD is excellent: quality plastics, weather seals, attractive semi-matte finish and sturdy metal mount. Electrical switches are beefy and nearly impossible to inadvertently change. The ribbed rubber zoom and focus rings are large and grippy, and positioned similarly to my 17- 40L and 70-200 4L IS. Appearance is similar to the 24-105L but slightly shorter and lighter. It feels solid and balanced on my 6D.FOCUS is internal so the barrel doesn't rotate or change in length. AF is blazing fast and accurate on my 6D. Manual focus is always active (no switch flip required), smooth and finely pitched, allowing precise adjustments.ZOOMING is accomplished via a single nested barrel. Zoom action is smooth but slightly stiff between 50 and 70. There is no zoom drift when pointed up or down so the barrel lock at 24mm seems superfluous. However, zooms tend to loosen with use so maybe I'll appreciate the lock a few years from now.OPTICAL PERFORMANCE at F4 is sharp edge to edge. Center frame is similar to my 24-105 4L but corners are vastly improved. The best overall performance is at 24mm and 70mm, with slight deterioration at 50mm. This lens required +5 Microadjustment (MA) at 24mm for optimal sharpness (was front focusing). The long end was tack sharp at default (0). In contrast, my 24-105 4L is sharp at defaults (0) and required no MA on my 6D or 5D MKII.There is a small amount of light falloff or corner darkening at 24mm and F4 but noticeably better in this regard than the 24-105 4L. Light falloff at 70mm is about the same as the 24-105L. Stopping down to F5.6 renders light falloff inconsequential. I don't notice light falloff unless testing on a white wall.The most noticeable improvement over the 24-105L is the near absence of barrel distortion at 24mm. My ocean horizons are true! Chromatic Aberration (CA) is also reduced: a tiny amount of color fringing is visible via pixel peeking in corners at 24mm, but almost nothing at longer settings. It certainly bests my 24-105 4L in this regard.Sunsets, spotlights and other bright light sources exhibit little to no flare. Flare resistant is markedly better than the 24-105L, making blazing Hawaiian sunsets a snap! However, use of the included EW-82L hood is recommended for protection from stray light, raindrops and doggie noses. This hood sports rayon flocking, matte black paint matched to the lens and petal cutouts. It has a lock release button but is a little loose and will come off with a light whack or firm rub on a beer gut. I prefer the snug fit of the EW-82H, the OEM hood for the 24-105 4L IS USM. And, yes, the EW-82H fits the 24-70 4L perfectly albeit slightly deeper. There is absolutely no vignette so it's staying on my 24-70 4L.Macro results are impressive at .7x, making it ideal for flowers, small products and artwork. Press and hold the macro switch while turning the zoom past 70mm to engage macro range. Combined with Hybrid Image Stabilization I got sharp free standing flower shots I normally need a tripod for. I still prefer a tripod for such shots but being able to get a sharp impromptu macro is a wonderful feature for travelers.IMAGE STABILIZATION (IS) gave me three additional stops of hand holdable range at 70mm, sometimes four on a good day (no coffee and 8 hours sleep!). The big deal is Hybrid Image Stabilization compensating for both up-and-down and swaying forward and back movements. The swaying back and forth movement often foiled my attempts at shooting museum artwork where tripods weren't allowed, so a welcome feature along with auto panning mode.In a quiet room, I can't hear the IS mechanism while using the camera. IS is only audible if I place my ear directly on the lens. So quieter than the IS unit in the 24-105 4L USM (audible as soft grinding in quiet rooms).LAST BLURB: I had to calibrate (MA) this lens for optimal sharpness. Once dialed in, images were satisfyingly sharp, contrasty and vivid from edge to edge. The game changer--and the main reason to pick this lens over the 24-105L--is the macro and Hybrid IS features. It's basically two lenses in one--normal zoom and macro--and lets me leave my macro lens at home when traveling light. Finally, the most frequent criticism of this lens is the high selling price ($1499). As of August 31, 2014, Canon reduced MAP to $999, making this a darn sweet deal.

Let me first state that I am a very inexperienced photographer, so everything I say has to be taken with a grain of salt. I got the 24-70 lens as a present and this is my first lens attached to my first DSLR. I was and still is very eager to learn photography, but I was quite discouraged with my results from the very beginning -- I made not a single sharp photo.Few months later, after extensive reading on the subject and after thousands photos shot, my image quality did not improve. This is when I read other reviewers on Amazon, saying that this particular lens occasionaly comes with a factory defect, which causes blurred images. I called Canon and a very polite representative suggested that the lens may require a recalibration and that I should send it for a warranty check-up and reparir.It cost me more than $40 of postage and insurance to send the lens to the repair center in Irivne, CA. In 5 business days I had the lens delivered back to my front door with a letter, stating that some of the internal parts were misaligned, and that caused blurred images. The letter also claimed that the problem was taken care of.After a few more months of unsuccessful shooting, I concluded that I am not capable of holding a camera still even during the shortest exposure times, and I purchased a tripod and a remote. Well, that did not help either... I wrote a letter to Canon describing the problem and asking to replace the defective lens. A prompt reply from the representative said, and I quote "I'm sorry to hear that your lens is not producing clear images for you. Regrettably, since Canon does not sell lenses directly to the public we are unable to offer any type of refund or exchange for your lens, nor are we able to reimburse you for shipping charges. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. However, if the lens is not operating as it should you can send it to our Factory Service Center for repair."Along with that email came a UPS shipping label, so at least I did not have to pay for shipping again. 5 business days after I mailed the lens to Irvine, CA, I received the lens back with a loose focus ring and the accompanying letter said "Your product has been examined and it was found that the internal component was broken and therefore the image was blurred. The collars were replaced and product functions were confirmed." This immediately made me wonder as to why the broken parts were not discovered the first time Canon serviced, and why did the focus ring become loose. I sure did not drop my camera since then...Well, I mounted the lens that was serviced by Canon for the second time, and, surprise-surprise -- same blurred image. The experiment was clean enough -- a very sturdy tripod, locked mirror, a remote, no earthquakes in the neighborhood and a good light.Maybe this is about the time to send my Rebel XSi for a service check-up as well, or maybe I should give up on photography all together -- I don't know... But I do know for sure that in 8 months my lens was serviced twice, and each time a factory defect was discovered (and supposedly fixed.) I am sure that 24-70 is a great lens, but I was given no chance to recognize it, since the particular one that I have is not worth the money I spent mailing it to the service center, let alone $1300.Buy it at your own risk.