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My 24-70 II spanks my 24 TS-E ?!?!

turtle

New member
Hi, I've just bought a new 24 TS-E to give me movement for architectural and landscape work. I gave it a good check and noticed right off that it was not especially sharp on centre wide open, but even with stopping down there is no aperture at which it is as good as my 24-70 II anywhere in the image field. Now this surprises me. I have a very sharp 24-70 II, but I did at least expect the 24 TS-E to hold its own. At F5.6, the zoom is noticeably better on the edges, but even by f8 when the TS-E has caught up somewhat, the zoom retains more bite.

Looking at the photozone.de site (and others), the TS-E should be tach sharp on centre, but my 24-70 is sharper at 2.8 on centre than the TS-E is at F4.5 and surely that should not be the case. The TS-E does not begin to close with the zoom until f5.6. Once diffraction kicks in at f11 they are about the same.

Is this to be expected? I have a feeling the TS-E I have is not a good example, because at F4, the zoom is a whole heap better in the outer field than the TS-E.

It has been frustrating purchase and I am not all that pleased with canon. The 40mm pancake is like good from f4 onwards and amazing after f5.6... except the lower left which is absolute mush until F8/9.5 when it becomes passable. By contrast, the 16-28 Tokina, which I know has variable quality control, is perfectly centered as far as I can see. Between about 18 and 22mm its stunning.

Any thoughts? All lenses focused with live view and many, many shots taken so I am sure of the above comments.
 
I own the 24 TSE and it is one of the sharpest Canon lenses I own. Something is either wrong with the lens you bought, or, the lens focus needs to be calibrated on the camera - if that is an option with the camera you use. I would contact the dealer and explain the situation, and, if they are not helpful I would definitely contact Canon directly. That lens should be at least as sharp, and probably sharper, than the zoom you mention.
 

turtle

New member
Hi Mark, I'm using live view as the lens is manual focus only, so no calibration should affect this unless I misunderstand.

I think I'm going to return it. There should not be soft edges at f5.6 on a £1700 lens. I've also noticed that there is an area (half way up the frame on the left hand side that never gets particularly sharp -a whole zone in the frame. All this points towards deceentering somewhere messing things up.
 
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