C300: Canon 16-35mm f/4L IS USM - Video Test

J

Jon Roemer

Well-known member
A quick test I did yesterday evening with the new Canon 16-35mm f/4L IS USM lens on a Canon C300.


All handheld via Wooden Camera handle on the camera. All @ 23.97, 180 deg. shutter, 16mm, and with IS on.

Lens looks to live up to the MTF charts, very sharp. IS is very smooth, not jerky at all. Only seemed to make a slight sound when turned on or turned off.

Blog post with a bit more info.
 
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thank u! but would be great to see a better lighted scene and maybe with faces ..... and with out music, would be great to hear the kind of sounds it produces with AF and IS...

Regards!
 
I just got one today. Observations:

It is parfocal.
You can hear the IS startup. Once it is started, you can hear a very high pitched whine if it is silent and you put your ear to the lens. The onboard camera mic would pick it up on a DSLR. Any other shotgun or handle based microphone will not pick it up.
The IS is brilliant. It makes a DSLR hand-holdable.
No slop in the focus or zoom rings. Easy to manual focus though it the range is only about 100 degrees.
AF sound and speed is about standard for a an L USM lens.
It maintains a constant f/4 when wide open. Stop it down and you lose a lot of light while zooming in. It's actually worse than the 24-105 considering the zoom range.
 
anatusa said:
thank u! but would be great to see a better lighted scene and maybe with faces ..... and with out music, would be great to hear the kind of sounds it produces with AF and IS...
Click to expand...

Anatusa - it was just a quick test. I haven't had a chance to dive in further yet.

Like CPreston, I think it is parfocal - or at least very close to it. I have not noticed a very high pitched whine when IS is running. I usually notice that kind of thing immediately. There's a slight sound when the IS is turned on or off but other than that it's so quiet it's hard to tell it's running.
 
By very high pitched whine, I mean a very low level whine. The type of whine you get for hearing tests. It can only be heard with your ear basically pressed against the lens. Since DSLR camera mics are basically pressed against the lens, they will pick it up in a very quiet environment. Otherwise, it's not an issue.
 
cpreston said:
By very high pitched whine, I mean a very low level whine. The type of whine you get for hearing tests. It can only be heard with your ear basically pressed against the lens. Since DSLR camera mics are basically pressed against the lens, they will pick it up in a very quiet environment. Otherwise, it's not an issue.
Click to expand...

I just checked with the lens on a 1D X. I can't hear a thing even with my ear pressed up against the lens. Slight noise for a fraction of a second turning on IS or turning it off, an electronic "cha" sound. But that's it.

I also did a quick test on the 1D X looking at exposure consistency when the lens is zoomed from 16mm to 35mm at three different apertures; f/4, f/8, and f/16. In-camera meter readings for each pair (e.g. f/16 @ 16mm vs f/16 # 35mm) didn't change more than ⅓ of a stop. Histograms of the raw files only show minor differences.

I don't remember how much darker a 24-105mm gets at 105mm vs. 24mm, it might be ~1 stop. The 16-35 f/4L IS USM is nothing like that. I'd say the lens is far more consistent through the zoom range exposure wise than the 24-105mm. ⅓ of a stop difference at the most but it may not even be that much.

Looking at the images, there is an exposure difference at f/4 vs. the other aperture settings and I'd attribute that to the vignetting occurring because the lens is wide open.
 
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Very Interesting. I can definitely hear my lens and I get a good stop of light loss through the zoom range at f/8.
 
Does this lens have the hybrid IS like the 24-70 f/4? I know that lens is amazing hand held with the IS on. It's noticeably better than the regular IS. It would be great if Canon put their hybrid IS into the 24-70 f2.8.
 
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