Product Description

CANON EF 24MM f/1.4 USM -- This professional wide-angle lens boasts an impressive maximum aperture of f/1.4. This is the first EF lens to employ both a replicated aspherical lens element to suppress distortion and spherical aberration, and a UD lens element to correct lateral chromatic aberration. Thanks to a floating construction, excellent corner-to-corner delineation is attained from 25 centimeters to infinity Max. diameter & length (mm) - 83.5 x 77.4 Weight - 550 grams

Product Details

• Brand: Canon
• Model: 0511A004
• Dimensions: 5.40" h x 5.40" w x 6.20" l, 1.75 pounds

Features

• EF mount; wide-angle lens
• Ultra-low Dispersion glass with Fluorite elements; inner focusing; floating system; full-time manual focus
• 24mm focal length
• f/1.4 maximum aperture
• Micro UltraSonic Motor (USM)

From the Manufacturer
Professional wide-angle lens with an ultra-large maximum aperture of f/1.4. This is the first EF lens to employ both a replicated Aspherical lens element to suppress distortion and spherical aberration, and a UD lens element to correct lateral chromatic aberration. Thanks to the floating construction, excellent corner-to-corner delineation is attained from 10 in. (25 cm) to infinity.

That f/1.4 is not a typo--this is the fastest ultra-wide-angle lens in the world. The first EF lens to combine Aspherical and UD Ultra-low Dispersion glass L-series optical technologies, the 24mm f/1.4L provides outstanding sharpness and contrast even wide open. It focuses down to 10 inches/0.25m, and the AF is what you'd expect from a professional Canon lens with USM—fast and silent, with smooth full-time manual focus available at any time.

Wide and Fast
If you need an ultra-wide angle and a large aperture, one of the following lenses will fit the bill. Ultra-wide-angle lenses can capture scenes beyond your natural field of vision. The EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye, the widest of them all, has a 180° angle of view. For more normal-looking wide-angle shots, there are longer wide-angle lenses up to 35mm with the maximum aperture you need.

Customer Reviews

A+ from Mark Gardner Photography
The 24mm f1.4 is a must have lens for your camera bag. Whether you are a landscape, commercial, or wedding photographer you'll find your self going back to "old faithful" more and more. It is extremely well built and performs excellent in low light, and is extremely fast focusing.

Amazing lens!!!
This is one of the first lens I bought after I got my XTI. At first it was a little hard focusing with the shallow DOF. But, once you get it down, this thing gives you beautiful images. The bokeh is like butter and the the colors and rich and deep. This is a lens that's worth every penny. If you are either working with a crop sensor or full frame, this is one of your best choices.

Shoot Wide-Angle? This is it.
This is a specialty lens that would be hard to justify unless you are a dedicated wide-angle shooter.

Have you been hanging out almost exclusively at the wide side of your zoom lens? Have you found that there is just something indescribably perfect about how the 24mm setting (on a full-frame camera) takes in the world? Have you never owned a true professional lens? Are you ready for the real thing? This is it.

I've been shooting with a 24mm lens (or zoom equivalent) since 1976, when I was a teenager seeking to differentiate my photo style from the dominant preference for telephoto. I am so glad I did. A wide-angle lens forces me to get in close to the action, bringing an intimacy with my subjects and a liveliness to my images that "fly-on-the-wall" telephoto detachment simply misses. But if you've gotten this far, you already know the unique image qualities of wide-angle lenses.

The reason for getting this lens -- a dedicated focal-length, rather than a great zoom that includes 24 -- is because it handles its job so much better than your zoom on 24. Everybody will state how much sharper and richer the image quality is, how the "L" optics are truly amazing, etc. Yes, yes, yes; it's great. But, frankly, I haven't yet (2000 shots) noticed the image difference between my "amazing" 20-35 EF and my "truly amazing" 24 L. For me, it is all about the manual focus ring.

Zoom lenses have terrible manual focus rings. They are always given secondary attention by manufacturers to the zoom ring (Canon included). (Why? Zooming isn't so minutely critical, or something that you need in a split second!) And if you don't use your manual focus ring, stop reading. Go away. Buy a point-and-shoot. You aren't my friend.

Still here? Good. This lens has the smoothest, most precise, most ergonomic, most oh-so-fabulous focus ring I've EVER twisted. (And it focuses down to a phenomenal 9 inches!) You'll need that precision when you open it wide to its amazing 1.4 aperture. Oh, gosh ... Ever seen such shimmer? (My own personal experience with wide-angle lenses has always emphasized their incredible depth-of-field at f.22, allowing quick, sloppy focusing without worry; now I am experiencing a whole new wonder at the other end of the aperture.)

So, if you've been like me, and long found your zoom lens set to 24, you want to recapture or discover for the first time the sublime self-limitation of a fixed-focal length lens, and you can afford it (but how can you afford not to?), get this lens today, put it on a full-frame Canon 5D, and start producing a body of work that has a distinctive style in which all your subjects will have smiles -- in response to the smile that'll be permanently plastered to your face as you use this "best lens in its category."