Jan Brittenson
Senior Subscriber Member
I just took a look at my 14-24 since I had never noticed a focus shift. I have it AF tuned for f/5.6, and it has always behaved very predictably to me. It does seem to shift ever so slightly at f/2.8 from 14-16mm. But the lens also softens slightly, so it's hard to tell what's what. At 18-24 I see no focus shift at all. I also can't tell f/2.8, f/4, and f/5.6 apart at center - they look identical to me, at 100% with my glasses on, critically pixel peeping. At 16mm I can tell a difference when flipping between f/2.8 and f/4 test shots, but it's a very very slight difference. It's a lot more obvious at 14mm. At 14mm I can also tell the focal plane shifts between f/2.8 and f/4, ever so slightly.
This was shooting with a LensAlign Mk2 at a close enough distance to fill the center spot indicator in the viewfinder, about 5-10 feet. I think it's reasonably representative for how I use it as well. I very rarely shoot wider than 18-20 and then only on even rarer occasions wider than 16. For non-people shots it's exclusively used stopped down to f/5.6 or further as DoF mandates. I never use live view with this lens, but for static subjects will make a best guess and make adjustments from there. Sometimes for long exposures that makes this prohibitive I'll crank up the ISO for shorter test exposure for DoF and focal adjustments, then make the long exposure at ISO 100.
Basically, within my uses it just works... I never have to consider focus shifts. Not a problem for me at all.
This was shooting with a LensAlign Mk2 at a close enough distance to fill the center spot indicator in the viewfinder, about 5-10 feet. I think it's reasonably representative for how I use it as well. I very rarely shoot wider than 18-20 and then only on even rarer occasions wider than 16. For non-people shots it's exclusively used stopped down to f/5.6 or further as DoF mandates. I never use live view with this lens, but for static subjects will make a best guess and make adjustments from there. Sometimes for long exposures that makes this prohibitive I'll crank up the ISO for shorter test exposure for DoF and focal adjustments, then make the long exposure at ISO 100.
Basically, within my uses it just works... I never have to consider focus shifts. Not a problem for me at all.