Canon RF 24-240mm f/4-6.3 IS USM sample gallery

Canon Rumors Guy

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Mar 25, 2011
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The first thing that caught my eye was how uncomfortable the out of focus areas were. They grabbed my attention more than the areas that were sharply in focus. This is a lens that requires you to be careful with compositions and not allow foreground or background out of focus objects to dominate.

I have, like many other R users been waiting to see exactly what the lens can do. A 10:1 zoom is definitely a compromise, I've had the two "L" 10:1 zooms and was generally pleased with the image quality including out of focus areas. Those lenses were huge and expensive, so I wondered what I'd get for a popularly priced lens.

Right now, my 24-70 L II has been on my camera almost permanently. It is very good, but seems to lack something compared to using it with my 5D MK IV.
 
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josephandrews222

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The first thing that caught my eye was how uncomfortable the out of focus areas were. They grabbed my attention more than the areas that were sharply in focus. This is a lens that requires you to be careful with compositions and not allow foreground or background out of focus objects to dominate.

I have, like many other R users been waiting to see exactly what the lens can do. A 10:1 zoom is definitely a compromise, I've had the two "L" 10:1 zooms and was generally pleased with the image quality including out of focus areas. Those lenses were huge and expensive, so I wondered what I'd get for a popularly priced lens.

Right now, my 24-70 L II has been on my camera almost permanently. It is very good, but seems to lack something compared to using it with my 5D MK IV.

no snark intended: Can you elaborate a bit on "Right now, my 24-70 L II has been on my camera almost permanently. It is very good, but seems to lack something compared to using it with my 5D MK IV."

Thanks.
 
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unfocused

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Perhaps the motivations of those showing the capabilities of the lens should be considered.
Your bias is showing. I wouldn't read too much into this. "We need to fill a sample gallery with a bunch of shots using this lens, let's hit the usual spots and subjects: musicians, street portraits, water, scenery, etc." Probably shot them all in an afternoon focusing on whatever caught their attention. Not great photography, but also representative of the types of subjects and skill set of the target audience.

Frankly, all these sample galleries tend to be useless.
 
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bitcars

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Apr 24, 2019
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I can see the lens being quite versatile, with useful telephoto/wide angle in a pinch. Paired with a RP, it could easily outperform IQ of anything at this price range.

Chromatic aberration seems pretty good overall from 40mm - 180mm. To me the pictures within 50mm - 150mm look the best. Very little color fringing, sharp from edge to edge, and a lot of details.

However, on both the widest (24-32mm) and narrowest (200-240mm) ends, CA becomes pretty noticeable, especially towards the edges of the lens. Sometimes the fringing green/magenta lines are wide enough to see without zoom in. I think this may be the biggest issue of this super zoom lens.

In-body processing seems to remove quite a bit of the color fringing (at least for some pictures at 24mm), though it is not perfect.

I know someone will complaint about the bokeh quality. Surely it isn't as buttery as a RF 80mm at 1.2, but most of these pictures are shot at F5 and higher anyway, at such aperture who would expect the background to melt away? With that said, subject separation looks very natural to me. e.g. The dragonfly picture (shot at 240mm) looks quite pleasant at a glance. The issue is when you zoom in, the color fringing is eating away the micro details.
 
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Don Haines

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Jun 4, 2012
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Perhaps the motivations of those showing the capabilities of the lens should be considered.
It looks like they only had the lens for a very short time and rushed around to get the pictures. Shooting action through a chain link fence says more about the photographer (and venue restrictions) than it does about the lens. You can take bad images with the finest equipment.
 
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I know someone will complaint about the bokeh quality. Surely it isn't as buttery as a RF 80mm at 1.2, but most of these pictures are shot at F5 and higher anyway, at such aperture who would expect the background to melt away?
The problem is that the bokeh balls have a noticeable unpleasant structure.

The dragonfly picture (shot at 240mm) looks quite pleasant at a glance.
One of the many pictures that look overexposed.
 
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SecureGSM

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Bokeh is unremarkable, but definitely not horrible or even worth mentioning, IMO.

Images appear less sharp and CA becomes overwhelming around 150mm or so.

Overall, this seems like a perfect kit lens.

for a $900.00 lens? uhm, I am going to catch some serious flames over this, but I am thoroughly unimpressed. this is a kit lens? Yes. A perfect one? Hell, no..
 
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Don Haines

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for a $900.00 lens? uhm, I am going to catch some serious flames over this, but I am thoroughly unimpressed. this is a kit lens? Yes. A perfect one? Hell, no..
I would not take this as a good example of the capabilities of the lens. It looks like things were rushed and processing may not have been optimal. Wait till the lens makes it out into the real world and you start seeing sample images on this (and other) forums. I have seen better images taken with crop cameras and the 18-200, a lens that nobody has described as stellar...… I can't imagine this combo not being better.
 
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navastronia

R6 x2 (work) + 5D Classic (fun)
Aug 31, 2018
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I would not take this as a good example of the capabilities of the lens. It looks like things were rushed and processing may not have been optimal. Wait till the lens makes it out into the real world and you start seeing sample images on this (and other) forums. I have seen better images taken with crop cameras and the 18-200, a lens that nobody has described as stellar...… I can't imagine this combo not being better.

Your bias is showing. I wouldn't read too much into this. "We need to fill a sample gallery with a bunch of shots using this lens, let's hit the usual spots and subjects: musicians, street portraits, water, scenery, etc." Probably shot them all in an afternoon focusing on whatever caught their attention. Not great photography, but also representative of the types of subjects and skill set of the target audience.

Frankly, all these sample galleries tend to be useless.

The whole point of DPReview's galleries is that they're amateurish; the photos are never great, and certainly show off the equipment more than any photographer's abilities. The majority of the time, an experienced shooter will make better images than those found on DPR ;)
 
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