Last month in my blog Beauty & The Beast I wrote about putting up my mighty Canon 24-70mm F2.8 mk1 for sale & buying instead the Canon 24-105mm F4L.

As previously discussed, the decision between the two was one I’d never really cemented, both have pro’s and cons, discussed thousands of times on the forums. The F2.8 basically being it has 2.8, and looks the business, but is heavy, then the F4 that it has IS, more range, is lighter, and cheaper*. So much cheaper in fact, that even after eBay & paypal had raped me for £100 in fees on the £900 sale price, I had some change. On top of this, and the key to why I’d decided to make this decision, having paid £750 for the 24-105, Canon were also running a further £80 cashback promotion just to sweeten the deal. Oh and because both have 77mm filter threads, I also hung on to the protective filter off the 24-70 to use on the 24-105.

*Traditionally the 24-70 mk1 was about £200 more than the 24-105 (and still holding that & more used on eBay), the 24-70 mk2 is of course currently nearly £1300 more expensive than the 24-105, and so wouldn’t be subject to the same sort of comparisons.

On the downside, this must make the record for the soonest after I’d bought a Canon product a replacement was announced though, as the Canon 24-70 F4L IS was announced within the week. However I’m much happier with the choice of the 24-105.

First task out the bag, was a shoot for my day job, in a marquee by the Thames

Canon EOS 5D & Canon EF 24-105mm F4L @ 60mm F5. ISO 800 1/60th

with no time to test,  as I sold the 24-70 quicker than expected, so the 24-105 was called straight into duty. It helped confirm it’s sharp though, I can’t publish the text on the back of that pass, but I assure you it is readable at 1:1! (I’ll admit it is a little pixelated out of the mk1 5D though)

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