Hand on tested Canon EF 24-105mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM on a 7D mark II & 6D AF lock

[KevinBainSir]

i've been looking for quick hand mid zoom sine moving from a eos 3 to T4i to 70D to 6D.

The 24-70mm f2.8 Tamron i got at the same time as the 6D is pretty but for a burlesque, band or belly dancer shows it's zoom ring too tight too slow. Canon EF-s 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM was nice but it's a EF-s

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM = better but spongy and so thin and far back to the body

Canon EF 24-70mm f/4L IS USM = better but even more so with being too thin and far back to the body

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 USM II = even at $1800+ well

Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM = looked nice but i herd AF lock was slow so i put some hope into the Canon EF 24-105mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM .

last 3 years Canon DXO marks stats seem nice other than the EF-S-STM lenses and all Canon lenses ive had on anything as new as T4i to 70D AF lock in the dark for me has been good

so it was crazy to find a Canon EF 24-105mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM at the locale shop to play with last week.


i Found Canon EF 24-105mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM over the f4 L lens's on a 6D is 2X - 3X faster (on the 7D mark II 4X -5X) to lock on to a target with AF and 40% or more to times able hit it right in focus with changing target to target and zooming in and out back and forth (on the 7D mark II too good to say). zoom ring is very good for smooth but fast finding targets And shots.

i feel if it's better than the Canon EF-s 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM with the image IQ and dose not suck dust in as it zooms this will a good close action lens leaving my Tamron for non-flash-low-light and posed shooting.

some reason there's no real tests or reviews on the Canon EF 24-105mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM and it being the 2nd FF STM lens and the 6D a STM body and find it having the fastest AF i've ever seen AND that i could buy it in store over a week and a half ago odd

i'll take it if

Sharpness 12P-Mpix or more
Transmission 4.3TStop or lower
Distortion 0.4% or lower
Vignetting -1.6EV or lower
Chr. aberration 10µm or lower. all.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

The stm seems to have good IQ for a low cost consumer lens, but STM motors are focus by wire, which makes them slower. AF speed depends very much on light levels, content of the image, and even colors. The 40mm lens had a firmware update to fix some issues.

I'd say that the reason you are seeing fast autofocus is that you have a tamron lens which is not going to be super fast autofocus.

The small aperture of the new 24-105 makes it pretty weak for low light event work. Its a good walk-around outdoor lens.

 

[D.]

The-digital-picture.com just posted image quality results for the EF 24-105mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM. It does not look as good as the 24-105L lens to my eyes, except at 24mm.

 

[Deleted member 7828]

Interesting.

This does tell me one thing - the STM version is very much overpriced at this point in time. At $250-$300 it would be worth a look and find a place I think...but as of now you can get white-box Ls for about the same or a little more than one of these new. (For a used one in good condition, even less!)


ETA: Also interesting to compare it to the 24-70 F4 IS:

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/ISO-12233-Sample-Crops.aspx?Lens=961&Camera=453&Sample=0&FLI=0&API=1&LensComp=823&CameraComp=453&SampleComp=0&FLIComp=0&APIComp=0

The 24-70 is better except at 50mm where they are pretty close.

 

[Fleetie]

The non-L 24-105 beats the L version in 3 aspects of its spec:

Minimum aperture: f/3.5 vs. f/4
Macro magnification: 0.31 vs. 0.2(?)
Better IS (4 stops vs. 3, IIRC)

On the other hand, it's NOT weather-sealed, and its motor is STM.

I am lucky: My 24-105L is absolutely pin-sharp. I gather some people's aren't.

 

[KevinBainSir]

I've seen some of the schematics of the different engines and canons lenses but I'm telling you guy I tested this lens both on 6D and the 7D Mark II under fluorescent light with a little added sunlight from the front of the store and the STM lens beat all the ultrasonic lenses in speed and accuracy of focus lock in its ZOOM range other than the 24 mm to 70 mm F2 .8 mark II which they did not have at the time and on those two cameras the speed was considerably faster of course those two cameras are built for the STM engine and are the two top-of-the-line cameras in their ranges that are STM capable I can't say if any of the rebels will be as proficient with this lens.

And I also can't say I know anything about if the STM lens is crippled under low light situations more than any of the older ultrasonic lenses or the less sensitive cameras my experience with the Tamrom 24 mm to 70 mm F2 .8 vibration control is that it is just as fast as anything ultrasonic that Canon has put out before the past 12 to 8 years range it is not as accurate though as even some of the older Canon lenses when you crop images down to around 100% or maybe even 80%, and the zoom ring is hard to use when you have a target you want to frame that is moving pretty fast and you want to decide later whether to make it a full body shot or a portrait framed shot.

I also owned the new Sigma art 35mm F1 .4 arts lessons and although I didn't have the chance to use it on my 6D my 70 D even with its dual pixel autofocus had trouble locking on with the all-too-familiar searching back and forth for about 3 seconds.

and I can even consider putting my experiences with the old film EOS 3 autofocus lock with my old 75 mm to 300 mm IS with that metal plaque on it although I hear and read that people compare it to the autofocus system on the 5D Mark II I have to imagine that film focusing and digital focusing have some extreme differences.

sorry about the word mixing i was using Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.0 and am a private driver at strip clubs and with Uber so i'm always on the go.