Or a quick blog on why I’ve suddenly got a 24-105mm F4L in my bag, and the 24-70mm F2.8L is now for sale sold.

Quite possibly one of the biggest debates full frame Canon shooters have. Either on forums, or within their head. I’ve been over this many times in my head. Pixel peepers will be disappointed here though, there’s non of that here. Just man logic.

“You’re selling the F2.8?!!” uttered my dad. Yes. “But, it’s the lens you always wanted”. Yes…

Well actually I’d never 100% made up my mind whether to buy the 24-105, or the 24-70, and in fact I decided to buy the 17-40mm F4L not being able to afford/justify either. But it always fell down to the usual arguments

Both sharp, just the 24-70 edges it to pixel peepers
24-105 expensive vs 24-70 even more bleeding expensive
F4 & IS vs F2.8
24-105 bigger range than the 24-70
24-105 30% lighter than the 24-70
24-105 stands out less then the 24-70 (particularly with the hood on) when you’re in tourist mode*
and of course F2.8, F2.8 & F2.8

*which I basically am 95% of the time.

But either way I’d not cemented in my head which to buy, and then a month after buying the 17-40mm a twitter friend offered me a nearly new 24-70 as he was selling it because it was ‘too heavy’…

Me on the other hand, I loved it, a brute of a lens at 1kg, but compared to my Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 before hand, lighting fast & razor sharp. Instead of junking shots because the lens hadn’t focussed or anything else. If I was junking shots they were my cock up.

However since then a blue van man has written my car & more importantly my back off. I’ve recently blogged about ‘getting back to basics‘ and using the 5D with the featherweight 50mm I’ve really enjoyed the lightness. So much I’ve come back & reassessed the weights of kit, and started thinking about that 24-105mm F4L again, which comparatively weights a svelte 761grams, then noticed some offers online, and £80 Canon cashback. Not able to really test locally, I tried the local Jessops and I could write a whole blog rant on the uselessness of them just on this one visit. So I compared the weight of the 17-40 & 15mm fisheye in one hand to the weight of the 24-70 in the other. I was sold. I’ve purchased the 24-105 F4L, and the 24-70 F2.8 is now for sale sold on eBay in order to fund it. Longer term I’m also thinking the 6D even with the few Canon crippled features, will likely be my next choice in full frame camera as it’s another 150g lighter. Of course expect a blog post in xx months saying ooo look a 5D mk2…

Before anyone mentions the lighter mk2 24-70mm F2.8, I’ll just mention the small factor of over £2000, so that was a non starter.

Further to back to basics post I’m still probably going to look at a cheap wide prime for the 5D too, but to that end the 30D I put up for sale last year & never actually sold, is back up for sale to fund that.

Due to various unforeseen circumstances for now the only shots I’ve taken with the 24-105 are of the cat, but I can already say the IS works very well.