Review by Klaus Schroiff, published September 2012

Introduction

The Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 USM L II is certainly one of the more mainstream professional grade lenses in the Canon line up and it surely continues the sales success story of its predecessor. On full format DSLRs it's a fast standard zoom lens covering everything from moderate ultra-wide angles up to short tele settings. Unfortunately Canon felt the need to increase the price substantially with a current street price beyond 2100EUR. As such it is the most expensive standard zoom lens among the conventional DSLR manufacturers.

The build quality of this lens is exceptional thanks to a tightly assembled combination of metal and - mostly - high quality plastic parts. Both zoom and focus ring operate smoothly. The lens is designed to survive in harsh conditions due to sealings against dust and moisture. The weight has been substantially reduced from 950g to now 805g and it's also 10mm shorter than its predecessor.
The zoom mechanism has also been changed. It has no longer a "reverse" characteristic so the lens is shortest at 24mm and extends towards 70mm. While I prefer this approach from a handling perspective, the petal-shaped lens hood is now much smaller thus less efficient. The front element does not rotate, of course.

The lens has an internal focusing system driven by a ring-type USM drive offering extremely fast and near-silent AF operations. Typical for modern ring-type USM lenses, full-time manual focusing remains possible in one-shot AF mode.

Here’s how its specs compare against its direct predecessor and its more serious rival - the Tamron AF SP 24-70mm f/2.8 Di USD VC.