Canon® Canon 24mm F/1.4L II

The Canon 24mm f/1.4L II offers superb center sharpness, contrast, and color. Key features include:

• Vibrant contrast and color

• Excellent center sharpness

• Beautiful out-of-focus detail

• L-series build quality

The Canon 24mm f/1.4L II features two high-precision, large-diameter aspherical lenses for sharpness across the sensor, even in peripheral areas of full-frame sensors. Lens elements have an anti-reflective SWC (subwavelength coating) that minimizes ghosting and flaring across the lens surface, regardless of the angle through which light enters or exits.

It also features two UD (ultra low dispersion) lens elements to minimize chromatic aberrations and incorporates rear-focusing, ultrasonic, quiet and high-speed autofocus with full-time manual override. A circular aperture provides beautiful, out-of-focus detail and offers legendary dust-resistant and water-resistant L-series construction.

This is a superb 24mm f/1.4 lens — but at the price it should be. There is minimal barrel distortion (1.3%) and chromatic aberration. Center sharpness is superb, even wide open. The edges and corne…

This is a superb 24mm f/1.4 lens — but at the price it should be. There is minimal barrel distortion (1.3%) and chromatic aberration. Center sharpness is superb, even wide open. The edges and corners need to be stopped down to f/5.6 to be maximally sharp. The contrast and color throughout the range is best described as “vibrant”.

It is, however, a lens for rather specific purpose: excellent center sharpness in a wide-angle, wide-aperture lens. If you are doing architectural or landscape work then the lens might be a better choice. If you don’t need the wide aperture, then the lens gives image stabilization, similar sharpness, and a much lower price.

April, 2013