Overall I’d have to say that, although it’s lovely to use, performance from this lens has been disappointing. Maybe I’m being a bit over critical here. Actual results at reasonable apertures are fine - just not as good as I had hoped for. For now I think Canon’s 24-70 2.8L is definitely the best option - but at a price.

Canon 24-85 Test Images

Having used Minolta film cameras and their wonderful 24-105 I had hoped for similar performance from this beautifully made and fast focusing zoom from Canon. Unfortunately it’s performance doesn’t match it’s looks. Tested with a Canon EOS 20D - performance at 24mm was poor at the edges. Considering this is really a film camera lens and the smaller 20D sensor is only using the center of the field I was surprised at the amount of fall off. At 28-85 performance was better but nothing special. Strangely enough results with 5D body were better than with the 20D but still dropped a fair bit at the edges.