Canon EF-S 24mm f / 2.8 STM Lens

I’ve been using this lens as my everyday lens for a month now, and love the deep bokeh possible at f/2.8. I bought this instead of the “nifty-fifty” EF lens as it is similar considering the crop factor, in both focal distance and especially aperture. The 50mm f/1.8 becomes an f/2.9 on an EF-S body. The 35mm macro would be a closer match but considerably more expensive. Of course with the 35mm you get image stabilization and the ability to do extreme closeups.

Picture quality is likely somewhat better than the kit lens, but when I use a RAW editor, I don’t notice a great difference; the benefits are in better low light functionality, less chromatic aberration, and deeper bokeh.

I recommend this lens to anyone looking to get a nice decently wide prime lens on a budget.

We exchanged our 50mm 1.8 lens for this 24mm one because it has a wider field of view.
The 50mm was also excellent but brought the subject a little too close for our use.
This 24mm is a great general use lens for low-light indoor pics as well as crisp outdoor pics. Much better than the 18-55mm kit zoom lens that came with the camera.
Very happy so far.

Great little lens for video and photography. It is very small and light weight so i makes a great walk around lens. Combine this lens (any STM) with any Canon DLSR that has movie AF servo (auto focusing) and lens is relatively quiet, it still makes noise that internal camera mic picks up. At f/2.8 the lens makes noise as it hunts. At f/5.6 and higher the lens makes less noise as it doesn’t hunt to focus as much. However, if you get an external mic like a Rode Video Micro it helps cut the lens noise. There are other STM lenses like the 50mm STM f/1.8 and the 40mm STM f/2.8. I like the 24mm f/2.8 the best of them all for video.

If you are a vlogger or need generous wide field of view then this lens is must have. For shooting a product videography and reviews nothing can beat this lens. It has got good lie light performance. STM preforms smooth and silently. Compared to 50 mm f1.8 this lens can well be your day to day shooter. If you are into street photography then too this lens is perfect. Sharpness is not as great as that of 50mm but all in all of you are stepping into some serious photography then this lens is must have. If your are into wildlife photography and you need closeups of course you can’t go to close to lion to film the king, in that case it’s not ment for you. Though for a day to day usage and every other kinds of photography and videography I recommend this lens.

UPDATE (to my review below): Everything said below is accurate (to me) but I have found one major downfall with this lens. The lens flare/ghosting is horribly unnatural and just ruins photos. My other lenses are not this dramatic. Taking photo’s into the sun or just off center produces unpredictable results. A huge issue for landscape photo’s. I have not removed ‘stars’ at this price point (more expensive lenses do this too) but do take note for your intended purpose (sun rise/set photo’s). I have attached pictures of what I am talking about.
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Let’s face it people, don’t fool yourselves, camera equipment and post processing has gotten Soooo good, the only reason someone cannot get great pictures is skill, vision, conditions, chance and a lot of luck. Stop blaming lenses or your camera body, this lens will not save you. Unless you are PRINTING pictures larger than 10”x6”, most 1080P computer monitors are only 2 megapixels, 4K is only 9MP. That’s right, your 25MP camera can only be reproduced at 2MP on a 1080P monitor. It does give you freedom to crop mind you.

In fact, if your pictures are 100% tack sharp, perfectly lit corner to corner, they are probably not very interesting anyway. Just search for “most expensive photographs ever”. You’ll see 99% of them are grainy, blurry and corners are dark.

You are not buying this lens for image quality, for which it is VERY good (most are), you are buying it for light weight, small size, low cost and portability. I will not review lens parameters as this is listed all over the web. The only thing this lens is missing is Image Stabilization, which could be had with the EF 24mm f/2.8 IS USM at four times the price, more weight and larger size. If this lens had IS, it would be a home run.

Case in point, I will post three VERY mundane pictures (F2.8 1/320sec, ISO-100) that I have taken hand held on an overcast sky. First is original, the next two VERY cropped. No post processing has been added (i.e. no sharpening, saturation, corner falloff correction at F2.8). This is taken on a Canon T1I (2009) in JPG (not RAW). You can see balls of water frozen in midair and the ribs in the rebar that are undetectable in the original full size. The cropped pictures are only 457KB & 116KB when I uploaded it and that is before Amazon messes with it. Last picture is not usable but am just pointing out the detail. Do these sharp “details” make this a good picture (no)? If you want/need 24mm @ F2.8 in a small, light, inexpensive package, just buy it already it’s great.

Great lens, very lightweight and compact but sturdy build quality. Takes great photos. A nice lens option when you are working in relatively close quarters and don’t want to be burdened down with equipment. I use it on my Canon 70D. I was able to pick it up for just over $200, which I think is a very reasonable price for this lens.

Canon 9522B002 EF-S f/2.8 STM Lens, 24mm

ItS focus on a subject is amazing, and the bokeh background turns out very good.
Con: you can’t zoom in or out.
Pro: handy, light weight, good picture quality