Test Report - OLAF / Lens Rentals tests the 16-35 f/2.8L III

[ahsanford]

Unreserved praise for the 16-35 f/2.8L III:
https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2016/10/canon-16-35mm-f2-8l-mark-iii-optical-bench-tests/

- A

 

[IglooEater]

Canon has been releasing nothing but stellar lenses lately, so this is no surprise really. But still it's still nice to see confirmation of what we know.

 

[ahsanford]

Canon has been releasing nothing but stellar lenses lately, so this is no surprise really. But still it's still nice to see confirmation of what we know.

In fairness, this is just a thumbs up on resolution, and yes, it's super encouraging.

4+ stops of vignetting at 16mm f/2.8, however, is not. TDP just published that recently. Doesn't affect what I shoot, but video / astro folks will probably not be fond of that, esp. considering the Tamron 15-30 f/2.8 VR has both VR and better control of vignetting for those two groups.

But yes: the f/2.8L III is sharp as s---. Impressive.

- A

 

[East Wind Photography]

Canon has been releasing nothing but stellar lenses lately, so this is no surprise really. But still it's still nice to see confirmation of what we know.

In fairness, this is just a thumbs up on resolution, and yes, it's super encouraging.

4+ stops of vignetting at 16mm f/2.8, however, is not. TDP just published that recently. Doesn't affect what I shoot, but video / astro folks will probably not be fond of that, esp. considering the Tamron 15-30 f/2.8 VR has both VR and better control of vignetting for those two groups.

But yes: the f/2.8L III is sharp as s---. Impressive.

- A

You cant control the tamron vignetting in camera but you can with the canon lens for both stills and video. If you shoot raw all the time, you can still correct it in post with nearly any pp software. Further with the newer cameras you can also correct for diffraction in camera. Something that you abolutely need with the tamron at smaller apertures...higher f-stop.

The nonsense about vignetting being an issue is no reason to not purchase this lens. Price and weight are bigger issues and once you can get over that, you will discover that it will pay for itself with higher quality photographs for which you can charge your clients more for.

 

[ahsanford]

You cant control the tamron vignetting in camera but you can with the canon lens for both stills and video. If you shoot raw all the time, you can still correct it in post with nearly any pp software. Further with the newer cameras you can also correct for diffraction in camera. Something that you abolutely need with the tamron at smaller apertures...higher f-stop.

The nonsense about vignetting being an issue is no reason to not purchase this lens. Price and weight are bigger issues and once you can get over that, you will discover that it will pay for itself with higher quality photographs for which you can charge your clients more for.

It doesn't affect what I shoot (I don't shoot astro or video), but it may discourage some shooters.

Doesn't correcting lens vignetting -- either in-camera or in ACR / Lightroom -- effectively boost the signal and generate noise? Astro people probably don't want to boost anything by 4 stops, do they?

Please educate me here -- this is not something that's keeping me up at night and I've not done much reading on it.

- A

 

[East Wind Photography]

You cant control the tamron vignetting in camera but you can with the canon lens for both stills and video. If you shoot raw all the time, you can still correct it in post with nearly any pp software. Further with the newer cameras you can also correct for diffraction in camera. Something that you abolutely need with the tamron at smaller apertures...higher f-stop.

The nonsense about vignetting being an issue is no reason to not purchase this lens. Price and weight are bigger issues and once you can get over that, you will discover that it will pay for itself with higher quality photographs for which you can charge your clients more for.

If you are one of the landscape astro kinds of guys, the in camera correction wont bother you. If you are a serious astro enthusiast, you are going to take many shots, dark frames and flat frames and do the noise reduction with stacking software anyway. Yes, even with wide angle shots.

The other take from this is that with most lenses, the stars at the periphery are junk anyway and most will use wider than needed and crop to the center 2/3. With this lens you can use it all..at least at 16mm..so the benfits far outweigh any extra work one might need to do process the noise. In camera does an exceptional job at both but you end up with a jpg in the end and not able to do much with it after the fact.

With a non canon lens, you have to do everything in post.


It doesn't affect what I shoot (I don't shoot astro or video), but it may discourage some shooters.

Doesn't correcting lens vignetting -- either in-camera or in ACR / Lightroom -- effectively boost the signal and generate noise? Astro people probably don't want to boost anything by 4 stops, do they?

Please educate me here -- this is not something that's keeping me up at night and I've not done much reading on it.

- A

 

[East Wind Photography]

You cant control the tamron vignetting in camera but you can with the canon lens for both stills and video. If you shoot raw all the time, you can still correct it in post with nearly any pp software. Further with the newer cameras you can also correct for diffraction in camera. Something that you abolutely need with the tamron at smaller apertures...higher f-stop.

The nonsense about vignetting being an issue is no reason to not purchase this lens. Price and weight are bigger issues and once you can get over that, you will discover that it will pay for itself with higher quality photographs for which you can charge your clients more for.

If you are one of the landscape astro kinds of guys, the in camera correction wont bother you. If you are a serious astro enthusiast, you are going to take many shots, dark frames and flat frames and do the noise reduction with stacking software anyway. Yes, even with wide angle shots.

The other take from this is that with most lenses, the stars at the periphery are junk anyway and most will use wider than needed and crop to the center 2/3. With this lens you can use it all..at least at 16mm..so the benfits far outweigh any extra work one might need to do process the noise. In camera does an exceptional job at both but you end up with a jpg in the end and not able to do much with it after the fact.

With a non canon lens, you have to do everything in post.


It doesn't affect what I shoot (I don't shoot astro or video), but it may discourage some shooters.

Doesn't correcting lens vignetting -- either in-camera or in ACR / Lightroom -- effectively boost the signal and generate noise? Astro people probably don't want to boost anything by 4 stops, do they?

Please educate me here -- this is not something that's keeping me up at night and I've not done much reading on it.

- A

Sorry quoting got messed up. My reponse is in there....