Where to buy a 2.8L 24-70?

TheCheesehead

Hi,

I have decided to buy the 2.8L 24-70, and I would like your recommendation on where to purchase it. I'm planning on getting it through Amazon, but B & H is pretty much the same price. What are your thoughts on Amazon? I can get one used for $150 less, but I think for that price I'm better off getting one with a warranty. It's going on a Rebel XSi (hopefully upgrading to a 7D next year). Thanks Homies!

ziggy53

Alphabetically, I would recommend Adorama, B&H, Calumet and Tallyn's before Amazon. Amazon is not specific to photography and service after sale is not as good at Amazon.

Numbers Guy

Personally, I would choose B&H Photo. I have had consistently good experiences with them and heard the same from many others. The couple of times I've purchased something that didn't meet my needs, they gave me absolutely no hassles on the returns. By the way, the "didn't meet needs" was the fault of the product and not the store. As a bonus, their shipping prices are very reasonable, and they tend to ship more quickly than Amazon.

DsrtVW

I have bought from both Adorama and B&H both are great. I probably use Adorama more. If you have a local dealer it is good to. Give them a chance to at least match the price that you would pay with shipping. I bought my camera locally and they give me free cleanings and they are great people that know their stuff.

HelenOster

Message from Helen at Adorama Camera

TheCheesehead wrote:

Hi,

I have decided to buy the 2.8L 24-70, and I would like your recommendation on where to purchase it.

The best advice I would give is: wherever you decide to purchase, to check the customer feedback at www.resellerratings.com, BEFORE you part with your cc details!

GadgetRick

Adorama and B and H are both fantastic to deal with. I've also bought from Abes of Maine (sometimes have better prices) and they good. Sometimes you can even haggle for better pricing.

TheCheesehead

Thanks
Thanks for the help! B & H wins!

GadgetRick

Nice. I'm going to check out a 28-70mm f2.8 L lens tomorrow. As long as all is well with it, I'll pick it up. Found it on Craig's List.

TheCheesehead

test
Hey, got it yesterday from B & H, $1250 shipped, pretty good price I thought. Anyway, does anyone have any advice as far as testing it's sharpness? It seems sometimes people get "very sharp copies", and sometimes not. Thanks!!

ziggy53

TheCheesehead wrote:

Hey, got it yesterday from B & H, $1250 shipped, pretty good price I thought. Anyway, does anyone have any advice as far as testing it's sharpness? It seems sometimes people get "very sharp copies", and sometimes not. Thanks!!

Congratulations on the new lens.

If you want to perform critical focus tests, the chart and procedure i recommend are:

http://regex.info/blog/photo-tech/focus-chart

While some other charts have confusing elements for an AF sensor, this chart presents a relatively clear single target for the AF to hit.

I do recommend testing at no closer than twice MFD (Minimum Focus Distance). Most lenses, and zooms lenses in particular, do not do their best at MFD. I have an EF 135mm, f2L USM that is arguably one of Canon's best lenses. AT MFD and wide open it tests very soft for me. At twice MFD is is very nice indeed, even wide open.

You may also want to do a "newspaper" test of the lens. Tape a full newspapaer sheet on the wall, put the camera and lens on a tripod and square the camera to the wall/newsprint. Make sure again you provide sufficient distance to the newsprint. Take a series of shots at varying apertures and manually defocus to make the camera find the focus. Check the results for both focus accuracy and for center and edge sharpness in the resulting images.

Ultimately, you will also want to test the lens under the same shooting conditions and distances for which you intend to use the lens. How it performs under "normal" conditions should be the critical and determining test.

ReeRay

Take a look at this product http://www.lensalign.com/

It's not cheap but it's brilliant. I've just evaluated my complete lens range using this product and what a difference. Of the 12 lenses (mainly Canon L) I tested 7 needed tweaking! And one of them was the 24-70 L.

EarthDog

ReeRay wrote:

Take a look at this product http://www.lensalign.com/

It's not cheap but it's brilliant. I've just evaluated my complete lens range using this product and what a difference. Of the 12 lenses (mainly Canon L) I tested 7 needed tweaking! And one of them was the 24-70 L.

How does one tweak a lens?

ziggy53

EarthDog wrote:

How does one tweak a lens?

If you have a camera with "micro-focus" adjustments, you would make the adjustments in that mode. If not, you would send the camera and lens to a service facility and ask that the lens be calibrated to the camera.