OVERVIEW

Much of PebblePlace.com is dedicated to Leica and Contax lenses. For most people zoom lenses do not fit the profile - certainly not Canon zoom lenses. As nice as the German lenses are, there are times when a modern auto-focus zoom is better. The Canon 24-105mm L may not set any records in terms of sharpness, contrast, etc., but Canon packs an amazing amount of utility into the 24-105L. Features like image stabilization (IS), fast auto-focus and weather sealing. Canon even has lens specific corrections in their DPP software. Rather than faulting a 5X zoom, this review focuses on what the 24-105L does well and why so many of pictures in the photo galleries were taken with the Canon 24-105L.

HANDLING

Handling and utility are where the Canon 24-105mm L really shines. The above image of the Canadian Rockies (see the Banff gallery for more pictures) was taken at 32mm, F16, 1/30 - HANDHELD with a circular polarizer. It was about a mile hike in 85 F temperatures with full sun. The weather was comfortable, but dragging a bag full of gear would have been a killjoy. We headed to the lookout with the 1Ds2, the 24-105L and a couple lens filters stuffed into my pocket. To be honest, at the upper altitudes we were feeling a bit winded!

When we arrived at the look-out point there were 30-40 other people there. Setting up a tripod was out of the question - and I did not bring one anyway. The image stabilization (IS) on the 24-105L is equal to 3 to 4 stops in shutter speed, so a tripod was not really needed anyway. Without image stabilization the picture would have been:  1) blurred, 2) or taken at a faster aperture, 3) possibly lacked depth of field if a faster aperture had been selected, or 4) taken without a polarizer. In my opinion IS made the image possible and and made the hike more enjoyable since we were able to travel light.

The year before Banff we took a cruise to Alaska (pictures here). For that trip I packed the Canon 1Ds and various Leica and Contax lenses. The high winds, rain, mist, dust and so forth made lens changes next to impossible. One day about 200 images were lost because a large piece of lint settled on the sensor and obscured the center of the pictures. I knew it was risky to change lenses, but I did not want to shoot the entire location with a Leica 21-35mm Vario-Elmarit-R ASPH zoom. I gambled on a lens change - and lost. Today the outcome may have been different since sensor cleaning systems are commonplace. Though, there are plenty of times when strong winds, dust, salt spray or other weather conditions make lens risky. Having a zoom such as the Canon 24-105mm L is perfect for those times.

During the ’05 Alaska trip there were many other lost images due to focus errors with the manual focus lenses (user error). And some pictures could have been better composed had a different focal length been used. We came back with some great pictures, but I knew many pictures were missed too. To avoid making the same mistakes on our next trip, I purchased a Canon 24-70mm L F2.8. Canon had not yet announced the 24-105L, so the 24-70L was the only option in the “L” line-up.

I stuck with the Canon 24-70L for about 6 months, but disliked the size and weight. Also the Canon 24-70L is not very good at 24mm. Overall the Canon 24-70L is a sharp lens, but the abrupt drop off in corner sharpness at 24mm draws attention to itself. Compared to the Canon 24-70L, the Canon 24-105L is has better corner sharpness at 24mm, and the 24-105L is ~25% lighter and ~20% shorter. The 24-105L’s hood is much smaller too. As a travel lens I feel the 24-105L offers more than the 24-70L.

The Canon 24-105L has been to San Francisco, Banff, Alaska (second trip), Hawaii, New England and Vancouver Canada. While the 24-105L’s F4 aperture may not be sexiest option available, time and time again the lens has been my most used lens and has captured 1000’s of pictures. Given its proven track record, it is very difficult to say anything bad about the lens.

PERFORMANCE

Fast forward back to 2006 - after returning from Banff in September, we went to San Francisco in late October for a weekend trip (pictures here). I did not set my hopes too high since it can be rainy in the fall and the days are short with sunsets ~6:00 PM. San Francisco is a windy city, so lens changes are risky (the Alaska mishap was still a very fresh memory). I decided to travel light and packed the 24-105L IS, 70-200/4 IS and 35L. We were very lucky and the light was perfect - great golden California sun. Of course I immediately regretted packing the zooms and wished some German primes were in the bag, but the Canon trio was all there was. Once again the 24-105L was used very often (see the pictures here). And once again the Canon 24-105mm L delivered good results.