Canon EF 24mm f/2.8 Pro Reviews

Compared to modern equivalents, the 24mm ƒ/2.8 seems to be due for an update. We've had some interesting discussions about the nature of focus and field curvature in wide-angle lenses, and it could be that if you arranged your subjects to match the curvature of the lens, everything would be sharp. That doesn't regularly happen in real-life, though: people tend to compose along flat planes, and that's conveniently how our tests measure sharpness. In this regard, shot wide-open, the 24mm ƒ/2.8 shows high levels of corner softness (extremely high, on full-frame bodies), which may or may not be a desirable effect. CA performance is good, corner shading is good (except on full-frame, where it's objectionable) and distortion is about what you'd expect for a wide-angle lens.

At the optimal focus distances the EF 24mm f/2.8 is an excellent performer capable to deliver images as sharp as it gets on an 8MP APS-C DSLR. For most situations this is generally true but residual spherical aberration can be a problem at close-focus distances (as explained in the MTF chapter above). Other than that vignetting is a little on the high side at f/2.8 but no issue beyond and the slight barrel distortions are usually very acceptable as well.

Although f/2.8 is not fast considering the 24's fixed focal length (many zoom lens apertures open this wide), the Canon EF 24mm f/2.8 Lens is reasonably sharp wide open with increased sharpness showing when stopped down to f/5.6. Corners are relatively sharp even wide open on full frame body...