Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Was using the kit lens 18-55mm IS when I first started, then few months ago, move on to Tamaron 17-50 mm VC on 40D.

I tried the 24-105L to take photos for a wedding night and I like it, is it a good upgrade to 24-105L from the Tammy 17-50mm?


Consider that the difference is probably $450-500 if I pay for the upgrade.

Heck yes! If you're okay with f/4..

You really can't go wrong with L lenses, and the 24-105's resale price is quite suppressed since its included in a lot of camera/lens kits (5DmkII, etc). Its probably one of the best L zooms (dollar for dollar for a used lens) out there.

That's one thing I'm not sure. now my tammy is 2.8.....the 24-105L is 4....it wont be as clear and sharp when shooting close up, right?

I love these, I need an L lens but don't know what aperture is and how it affects image results
shooting at F2.8 means shallower depth of field than F4, in plain English it means the out of focus areas will be blurred more at 2.8 than at 4
You can try setting your Tammy at 50mm and use AV mode on camera, set the aperture (F number) at 2.8, focus on something really close and fire away. Then set the aperture at 4 and do the same, see how it affects the background blur. But make sure you focus on something far from background. This is going to be the main difference between 2.8 and 4
Other than that 2.8 will allow for faster shutter speeds at less light needed than 4
It has absolutely no effect on sharpness (unless you consider blurred being contrary to sharp)

Hope that helps

24-105L is an amazing focal length and the difference in f2.8 - f4 is not a big issue in real world shooting. Im sure you will seldom take that lens off of your camera!

Plus, if you ever start shooting weddings and get a Metz flash unit you will have the perfect focal length to mate with the flashes zooming capabilities.

+1 very sharp with good contrast and colour rendering, the image stabilization and lighter weight more then makes up for the 1 stop difference.

Are you going to keep the 17-50 still? I'm guessing not since you refer to an upgrade. In that case, keep in mind you're going to have less focal length available for use at the short end (while gaining a significant amount on the telephoto end). As long as the kind of shooting you're doing works with that, go for it.

I'm still trying to ultimately decide between a 24-105 and 24-70 *cry*

It's a very good lense. however 24-105 is designed for full frame camera. if you use it on a smaller sensor camera you will lost the wide angle side of thing.

That is a function of the camera. Not the lens in this respect. The lens is full frame ready. If you put it on a crop body you get crop. No matter what. But if you upgrade your camera to a 5d (for example) some time in the future no issues with this lens.

I would buy this lens.

Unfortunately, all L series lenses are for full frame. If you want a pro quality lens you just have to calculate crop for your APS-C or APS-H sensor. Its not that bad. Its impossible to use a cropped lens on a FF body.

Plus, if you factor in that virtually all lenses are sharper near the center... cropping isn't such a bad thing

Not always. There are a few people using the Tokina 11-16 on 5Ds to an interesting, but vignetted, effect. There may be other examples of EF-S on EF mounts but that's the only one I'm sure of. But yeah, in general it's not something one should plan in doing.

24-105L IS, is an excellent all around zoom, very versatile! At first I was not very keen on an f4 zoom (probably because I have a good selection of primes) but over time I have grown to really like it and find it covers a multitude of scenarios for me.

now I need someone to sell me one!

there's plenty on craigslist

get the 24-70mm 2.8 L and call it a day. with the crop-frame body and f4, your shots will be limited indoors unless you know what you're doing with off-camera lighting. the 17-50mm tamron is a great lens already. if you wanted to stick with the 40d, I'd go with something in the 10-20 range if you really wanted that wide angle and then a 24-70mm.

Do both, I did.

Rent them for a weekend that way you can find out for yourself.