Product Description

The Canon EF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens offers more than 3x zoom capability. Designed to fit a Canon SLR camera body. The zoom parameters stretch over very popular photographic conditions - from ultra-wide-angle to normal to portrait.

Product Details

• Brand: Canon
• Model: CANON EF 24-85MM F3.5-4.5 USM
• Dimensions: 4.30" h x 4.60" w x 5.20" l, 2.00 pounds

Features

• EF mount; standard zoom lens
• Internal focusing; full-time manual focus; aspherical lens
• 24-85mm focal length
• f/3.5-4.5 maximum aperture
• Micro UltraSonic Motor (USM)

Amazon.com Product Description
The Canon EF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens has multiple moving lens groups that enhance image quality and make the whole system more compact and lightweight. This lens uses an ultrasonic focusing motor (USM) that gives you silent, high-speed autofocusing. Canon eliminated all the mechanical couplings in this lens and added a custom-designed autofocus motor as well as a microprocessor.

Built into the system is a replica aspherical lens element that minimizes optical distortions to give you sharp images. The flare-cutting diaphragm helps the lens produce a high-contrast image, even in tough lighting. Its high zoom ratio of 3.5x allows you to take tighter shots of your subjects. It's fully compatible with all EOS cameras.

From the Manufacturer
An excellent all-around zoom lens that covers the range from ultra-wide-angle to true portrait-length telephoto. Its solid construction, fast USM autofocus and smooth operation are matched by its excellent optical quality. This compact lens is an ideal choice for shooters who want wider coverage than provided by most standard zooms. The extra-wide coverage also makes it a great standard zoom for digital SLRs.

All-Around, Practical Lenses
Very likely, your first EF lens will be (or was) one of these lenses. After all, they feature the most popular focal lengths. From wide-angle to telephoto, you get the best of both worlds. The smaller the maximum aperture, the smaller and lighter the lens.

Customer Reviews

Bread and butter
This is a good-value lens that was designed back in the days of 35mm film cameras, although Canon still sells it as of 2008, and it works fine on Canon's digital models. It is a standard EF lens that will fit all of Canon's digital cameras. It is not one of those EF-S lenses that is restricted to the e.g. 400D / 40D range.

I believe it is one of the least glamorous lenses that Canon sells, in the sense that it has a moderate zoom range that is neither particularly wide nor particularly zoomy; it is not the cheapest, or the most expensive EF lens; it is not the most or the least fully-featured; it is neither flimsy nor rock-solid. It uses USM focus, which is silent and generally accurate. It doesn't have image stabilisation. It doesn't have a constant aperture. The zoom range is roughly 40-135mm on a x1.6 cropped sensor body, such as a Canon 400D / 40D. The zooming mechanism on my example doesn't creep. The closest focus distance seems relatively far, something like a foot and a bit. The manual focus ring feels a bit cheap, but then again the autofocus is fast and quiet, so it balances out. It has a 67mm filter thread, which is an odd size.

I have had a chance to take a few shots on a tripod at different apertures. At f3.5 it has a nice tight field of view, and it is decently sharp; it seems to jump up in sharpness between f5.6 and f8, and doesn't get much sharper beyond that. On my 35mm Canon 600, with an uncropped field of view, there is noticeable distortion at both the wide and the tele ends. This is less noticeable on a cropped 350D, although it is still noticeable. Otherwise the image quality has no obvious glaring deficiencies. The background blur is pleasant. I found that I had to underexpose by a stop to get the exposure just right, but that might be me, or the camera.

It's attractive as a useful, well-priced walkabout lens for digital cameras, for people who don't mind the relatively tight field of view (40mm is just slightly wideangle). The only problem I can see is that the zoom bellows seems to suck up dust. My example had quite a few specks, although apparently this has an almost unnoticeable effect on image quality. It's a shame that Canon doesn't include a lens hood.

Make that 3.5 stars
Here's another case where it all depends on how you use it and what you expect. Personally, I like really sharp images. This means, I can photograph something that has a lot of detail and examine the corners of the image at 100 - 200% and "read" what's there. If this sounds like you, then this isn't what you're looking for (unfortunately, neither is the 24-70 L but its much closer).

If you just enjoy taking pictures and want a good, "walk around" lens that's not ridiculously heavy, you'll love this lens--and believe me, I envy you.

Sharpness. Its reasonably sharp at all apertures except wide open. No big deal since few lenses are great, wide open. Nothing is blurry (at least on an SLR with 1.6 crop factor) but nothing will make you break into a smile at the devastating crispness, either. Best f-stop was between 5.6 and 8, just where it should be.

Chromatic aberration. Not great, but there is something about digital cameras that makes even the most well corrected lenses show some "CA". If you can live with good-not-great sharpness, the CA shouldn't be a concern.

Barrel distortion. Gracious. The test at photozone_de should have prepared me for this, but at the 24mm end this lens is almost in semi-fisheye territory. So....flowers, people and landscapes, fine. Walls, windows and anything flat or square, not fine. Correctable in Photoshop but tedious to get just right.

Construction. Space age Polycarbonate (plastic). Seems fine to me. From the comments on "build quality" you'd think every doctor on vacation in Tahiti was embedded in Afghanistan. Its a precision item, made out of plastic but it looks to me like it will be fine, unless dropped. I did notice that dust gets inside but since lenses do not take pictures of themselves this shouldn't affect image quality. Dust sure hasn't hurt my ancient view camera lenses.

Focusing. The ultrasonic motor works flawlessly. Fast and silent.

So that's it. For me, the sharpness and barreling were an issue. But its a perfectly usable lens; just not a great one. Reasonably priced, too. While I wait for a spectacular L wide angle zoom, I'm going to get the 50 macro and probably the 35/2 as well. Not very convenient, I admit, but along with the Tokina 12-24 and my 70-200 L, I should be in good shape.

very good lens - underrated
I had been using the 24-85 for years on a series of Canon DSLRs starting with the original d30 and culminating with the 5d. Finally decided to spring for the 24-105L. I was immediately surprised that pix from the new lens didn't look so great as 3-4X higher price would suggest. Detailed comparisons showed the 24-85 was just as good in many instances. One edge (not the other) of the 24-105L was a bit better, but center sharpness was no better, even wide open. Contrast seemed equally good. I returned the 24-105L to the dealer and kept the 24-85. While it's true the zoom range is less, I also like the much lighter weight and more compact form of the 24-85.