Canon Lens EF-S 24mm 1: 2.8 STM. Radozhiva Reader Review

Canon Lens EF-S 24mm 1: 2.8 STM review specially for Radozhiva prepared Rodion Eshmakov.

Canon Lens EF-S 24mm 1: 2.8 STM

Canon Lens EF-S 24mm 1: 2.8 STM

Released in 2014, the Canon EF-S 24 / 2.8 STM is positioned by the manufacturer as a (literally) “compact and affordable lens with a fixed focal length and f / 2.8 aperture” for the APS-C frame. Apparently, this lens is a manifestation of the company's concern for crop DSLR owners, who find it extremely difficult to find an inexpensive wide-angle fixed lens. And if you add here also the “compact”, then it was completely impossible due to the use of bulky retro-focus schemes. Until the “pancake” 24 / 2.8 STM appeared.

Technical specifications

Optical design - 6 lenses in 5 groups, aspheric rear element. A distant descendant of ordinary double gauss. scheme.
Frame format - APS-C;
Focal length - 24 mm, equivalent for APS-C - 38 mm;
Angle of the field of view (horizontal, vertical, diagonal) - 59 ° 10 ′, 50 ° 35 ′, 34 ° 55 ′;
Aperture - 7 rounded blades, volatile drive, F / 2.8-F22;
The minimum focusing distance is 0.16 m;
Focusing drive - STM gear stepper motor;
Thread diameter for filters - 52 mm;
Weight - 125 g;
Cost: $ 170-190, current prices are available see here;

Construction and assembly

Canon EF-S 24 / 2.8 STM is a pancake lens that is a crop analog of a full-frame Canon EF 40 / 2.8 STM... The body is made of matte black plastic typical of this manufacturer's lenses. The white point indicates the orientation of the lens required for docking with the camera. The controls include an autofocus switch and a focusing ring on the nose of the lens. Aperture control is carried out through the camera menu.

canon-24mm-ef-s-2-8-lens-review-2

Unlike most EF-S lenses, this one is not compatible with full-frame cameras not only “mechanically” due to the artificially added plastic part catching the mirror. The rear focal segment of the lens really does not allow achieving focus at infinity when trying to mount it on a camera with an EF mount.

View of the rear lens protruding beyond the bayonet plane

View of the rear lens protruding beyond the bayonet plane

On the back of the Canon EF-S 24 / 2.8 STM, you can see the words “Made in Malaysia” next to the mount contacts.

The inscription indicating the country of manufacture on the back of the lens

The inscription indicating the country of manufacture on the back of the lens

The lens focuses with the movement of the entire lens block. At the same time, its front part remains motionless and does not play. The drive is a gear stepper motor (STM), the main advantage of which is a fast, silent and smooth focusing when shooting movies, as the manufacturer claims. In reality, it requires a camera that supports the charms and autofocus chips with STM lenses (Canon 650D, 100D, 250D - for example): mine Canon 600D it doesn’t work with them and in the video it focuses in auto mode very badly. On the other hand, the focus is really not noisy - a noticeable buzzing appears only with a quick full run of lenses. Occasionally, you can hear soft jerky sounds when the motor produces an accurate fine-tuning of focus.

Infinity Focus Lens

Infinity Focus Lens

Lens view when focusing on MDF

Lens view when focusing on MDF

In the photo mode, autofocus works very quickly and tenaciously even on my camera, the time for a lens to completely run from MDF to infinity is less than a second. At medium distances, focusing from infinity is almost instantaneous - the lens allows you to shoot live dynamic scenes and is very convenient for shooting, for example, indoor events. The maneuverability of the bundle of a rather small crop camera with the tiny Canon EF-S 24 / 2.8 STM helps in this.
Unfortunately, focusing is only available when the camera is on - even if you use the manual focus mode. In other words, there is no direct connection between the ring and the focusing mechanism: this is due to the characteristic manner of manual focusing of the lens, which requires habit after old lenses. And thanks to this, the ring does not rotate during automatic focusing and is always available for manual correction.

The aperture of the lens consists of 7 petals, and the shape of the hole is always very close to round. A trifle, and so nice! Point light sources will give a bun of 14 rays with a closed aperture.

View of the lens diaphragm through the rear lens

View of the lens diaphragm through the rear lens

Canon EF-S 24 / 2.8 STM almost perfect round aperture.

Canon EF-S 24 / 2.8 STM almost perfect round aperture.

Canon EF-S 24 / 2.8 STM almost perfect round aperture.

Canon EF-S 24 / 2.8 STM almost perfect round aperture.

To take a photo of the lens with a covered aperture, I needed to attach it to the camera, select the aperture value and press the button next to the mount, closing the aperture to the selected value. Holding this button, I disconnected the lens. When I did this in Live View, the camera went a little crazy and had to reboot it with a battery. Do not do so.

Half a century of difference: Helios-44 and Canon EF-S 24 / 2.8 STM.

Half a century of difference: Helios-44 and Canon EF-S 24 / 2.8 STM.

The Canon EF-S 24 / 2.8 STM turned out to be a well-built and very easy-to-use lens. I could not find any obvious flaws in the design or operation of the automation. If you find fault, then a drawback can be called a feature of the STM-drive associated with the inability to focus the lens on the camera off.

Optical properties

On Canon crop cameras, the EF-S 24 / 2.8 STM is a moderate wide or, rather, a universal staffer, with EGF 38 mm. Unlike full-frame 24mm lenses, the Canon EF-S 24/2.8 STM has a much less asymmetric optical design, which reduces field aberrations. In addition, the correction of optical distortion provides an aspherical rear element.

The picture on the lens is very sharp with an open aperture. Only in the corners of the frame can you notice a small (in comparison with any ancient wide-angle manuals so precisely) coma. There is a noticeable vignetting (up to 50%), its indirect sign is the twisting of the lens bokeh on the open aperture. When changing the aperture to F / 4.5, the lens becomes very sharp, aberrations disappear. Further closing of the diaphragm leads to an increase in the depth of the sharply depicted space.

Changing the picture when aperture:

Canon EF-S 24 / 2.8 STM.

Canon EF-S 24 / 2.8 STM.

Canon EF-S 24 / 2.8 STM.

Canon EF-S 24 / 2.8 STM.

Canon EF-S 24 / 2.8 STM.

Canon EF-S 24 / 2.8 STM.

Canon EF-S 24 / 2.8 STM copes very well with backlight: only bright sunshine directly in the forehead can make the frame fill with hares.

Lens behavior in hard backlight.

Lens behavior in hard backlight

The lens has very good color reproduction, excellent image contrast. For correction of residual aberrations (mainly vignetting and slight barrel distortion), a profile is available in Canon DPP.

At apertures close to F / 2.8 and small focusing distances, the Canon EF-S 24 / 2.8 STM shows a pleasant blurring of the background. At portrait distances, the object is weakly separated from the background.

The short focusing distance (only 16 cm) allows you to shoot close-up objects, while interesting promising distortions become quite noticeable.
It is quite difficult to pronounce such a phrase, but it seems to me that this lens has no drawbacks related to the optical part: the open aperture is fully operational, to achieve maximum resolution it is enough to cover the aperture with a stop and a half.

Sample photos on the Canon EF-S 24 / 2.8 STM and Canon 600D (development from RAW to Canon DPP, correction profile applied selectively) are shown below.

Conclusions

Canon EF-S 24 / 2.8 STM is a very, very successful lens for APS-C format SLR cameras. Compact, fast, high quality and affordable. There are no significant flaws. Holy Grail for crop camera owners.

Thank you for your attention, Eshmakov Rodion.

You will find more reviews from readers of Radozhiva here.

Add a comment: Novel

 

 

Comments: 155, on the topic: Canon Lens EF-S 24mm 1: 2.8 STM. Radozhiva Reader Review

  • Alexey

    For some reason, they don't say anywhere, but there is one caveat, it is impossible to precisely focus on the stars. When zooming in, there will be no full sharpness.

    • Rodion

      Field curvature or what? Explain what it is about. I did not have any problems with focusing (of course, manual - in the case of working at night) on point infinitely distant objects.

  • Andrei

    Good afternoon.
    Tell me, for subject photography at home, it will do. Or advise another option?
    I want to buy 85 for full-length photos and portraits. It turns out two fixes for all cases.

    • Rodion

      Suitable if the lighting is all right. Canon has 35 more macro-objects for cropping, there is a convenient one for these purposes. Also, instead of 85 mm for a crop, it is better to take 50 / 1.4.

  • Alain

    Hello! It turns out that even through an adapter this lens cannot be connected to a full-frame camera? For example, by 6d

    • Arkady Shapoval

      through which adapter?

    • Rodion

      Really, what adapter?)
      There is no adapter there - it is the same mount. But the lens will not be able to work with full-frame cameras, since its rear lens will cling to the mirror in any way.
      Some Canon crop lenses adapt for full frame - just remove the plastic to do the back. But many really cannot work with ff SLRs because of the optical design.

  • Michael

    The stm chip will work on canon 550d

    • Rodion

      This camera does not have Dual Pixel CMOS sensors, i.e. AF sensors on the matrix. Therefore, AF will work very well when focusing through a mirror, but when shooting in Live View, as well as when shooting video, autofocus will not work well.

      • Olga

        Hello, but at 60 d, how will you behave?

        • B. R. P.

          Should be doing great. This is Rodion b. camera)

          • Rodion

            No, I had 600d, not 60d)
            60d is also without DualPixel, so everything will be fine through JVI, but not so great through LV)

            • B, R, P.

              +

  • Angelina

    Bought this lens the other day. The sharpness is excellent, the picture is good. But it buzzes when focusing !!! Horror!!! This shortcoming is pointed out in the review. But in the reviews of the online store, everyone writes that it is silent. Shouldn't I be worried?! Moreover, this is my second copy, the first one was changed due to back focus, and it also buzzed.

    • Rodion

      He has a sound, not to say that it is very strong.

      • Angelina

        Thank you!

    • Novel

      Pancakes of 24 and 40 mm and fifty dollars sound louder than most Canon USM lenses, so I don’t know what advantages someone claimed for video shooting of STM lenses - they are heard so well on the recording. Unless the smoothness of focusing is higher, but also in question.

      Makrik EF-S 35, telephoto 55-250 and the latest 18-55 are very quiet. Perhaps because only small groups of lenses move, and not the entire lens block, like the first three.

      • Angelina

        Thank you! I have more for a photo)). But most importantly, now I will not worry that it will suddenly fall apart !!!

  • Paul

    Good afternoon.
    I bought an ef-s 24mm f / 2.8 lens and decided to check and compare sharpness with a whale 18-55 III, canon 100d camera. I printed out a test sheet of A4 format, set up a tripod, chose the distance to fill the frame to the maximum, about 20-25 centimeters from the sheet to the lens turned out. I shot at different apertures, but the same focal length. And then, when compared with surprise, I found that the whale gives sharpness throughout the frame, and after 14 it starts to soap, but evenly throughout the frame. And the pancake of the edge lathers and bends to horror, and on almost all apertures, there is no sharpness for the entire frame on any of them. I can’t understand, or is such a technique not applicable for checking for sharpness, or did you get a defective pancake? Can you advise how to check

    • Rodion

      After 14 you saw the diffraction limitation - so you got a uniform soap. In general, it is useless to test lenses at such a distance - they are designed for infinity, and not for their MDF. The blockage of the edges in this case is a normal phenomenon. Test at infinity.

      • Paul

        Thanks, I'll try. But the blur is at 24mm at any aperture.
        I was surprised that the whale 18-55 III at aperture 4 is sharp all over the field, and 24mm at aperture 4 is only in the center a spot with a diameter of about 40% of the frame height, clear, and closer to the edges blood is flowing from the eyes what horror. It was not the distortions that struck, but the defocusing was unrealistic. With equal focal length and aperture, the depth of field should be the same.

        • Miroslav

          IPIG…. The closer the filmed plane to the lens, the greater the relative difference in length to the center of the frame and to the edge of the frame, and even more to the corner of the frame - on the one hand, and on the other hand, the smaller the focusing distance, the smaller the depth of field at a constant aperture.
          Therefore, for example, when shooting the pages of a book with a short-focus lens, the aperture must be covered not only to increase the sharpness of the lens at the edges and corners of the frame, but also to ensure that the entire plane falls into the depth of field.

  • Dmitriy

    Hello.
    Tell me the examples of photos indicated in your review (article), which ones go without processing and what kind of processing was used?
    I have a canon 600d on hand, I consider this pancake as one of the options for buying, but I don’t want to deal with constant processing (and, in general, it’s far from that). I mainly shoot nature and street photography, the photos presented by you of nature (and not only) are quite a worthy result for me, if it is without processing.
    I read reviews on the network and opinions differ, someone writes that it is not so sharp and with a weak (faded) color rendition, someone, on the contrary, praises, they also often indicate that it is not without HA.
    I’m not fond of portraits (considering the above), as I said, bokeh is so occasional, what could you say about landscapes and street photography?
    By the way, I’m shooting now on a regular 18-55mm f3.5-5.6, did you use this lens on a canon 600d (and if so), what can you say in comparison with the described pancake (24mm 1: 2.8 STM), which of them will be better?

    • Rodion

      Hello, shooting in RAW, from processing - bb correction and pulling up the dynamic range + lens profile in Lightroom. 18-55 practically did not use. Asking about 18-55 and 24 lenses “which is better” is like asking “which is better - excavator or salmon?”

  • Dima

    They would do it for a full mirror frame with such a focal length, even if it’s not 2.8. Eh.

    • Arkady Shapoval

      Pentax 21 / 3.2

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