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Jared Polin, froknowsphoto.com and this is a Real World Review of the Canon 11-24F4 lens.
Now we’re out here at the Independence Mall because we have Independence Hall behind us,
we have the Liberty Bell over there and this is a great place to run this lens through
its paces.
How’s it going to be at 11?
How’s it going to be at 24?
Who is it for?
What is it for?
Is it worth it?
We’re going to find out right now.
Who is this lens for?
Well first off, it’s expensive, it’s heavy, but it’s worth it if you need something
to get those ultra-wide angles.
We haven’t seen anything that shoots 11 millimeters like this.
To have a range of 11-24, this is unbelievable.
It’s going to be great for those low angle shots; it’s going to be great for photojournalist
stuff.
But you have to remember, with ultra-wide angle, you have to fill the frame.
You also have to be careful with your angles because if your angles are off slightly, it’s
going to throw off the entire image.
Now another thing you have to keep in mind with this lens is it has the built-in lens
hood, but you can’t really put an ND filter on the end of it as of right now; maybe companies
in the future will make something that does that.
So if you're a landscape shooter, you have to keep that in mind.
So first little test that I have is, I want to go inside to the Liberty Bell pavilion
to shoot the Liberty Bell.
I want to get those wide shots.
I want to see how it looks at 11, I want to see how it looks at 24.
But one of the keys is, how is it at 11 with something at the edges?
Will the Bell stretch out even further if it’s at the edge?
What is it going to look like when everything is symmetrical?
So I just have to keep my eyes open to see the angles because it’s going to be interesting
using this lens.
So when I was inside shooting the Liberty Bell with the 11-24, 11 is so wide.
Even when I got super close to the line that you don’t cross or you get punched, it was
still too wide.
So the 24 is very nice at 24 but here’s the key to the 11; get down low.
I love having that angle.
You just have to look through the camera, see the angle and you get these awesome, just
really large, really cool-looking shots.
Now when I was in front of the window shooting outside of the Liberty pavilion, there was
this kid there, and I’m still taking these wide shots- and it looks great, but I finally
got him to get out of the way, and it gave me a clear shot of outside and it looked fantastic.
So one of the other things was laying down on the ground; it gave me the ability to shoot
underneath the Bell and get a huge wide angle of the group, just standing in there, looking
at the Bell.
So I was pretty happy with the images from inside the Liberty Bell.
I love the ultra-wide angles, that tell the entire story.
Where I’m laying on the ground, you have the Bell in front of me, you have the people
behind it, I’m shooting down low, really great angle to get that shot.
But one of my favorite shots inside is when that kid got out of the way and I shot out
of the Liberty pavilion and I shot Independence Hall behind me.
So the next thing we're going to do is head over to Independence Hall behind me.
I want to get the ultra-wide at 11 to show you what that looks like.
Get the 24 but also see if I can get some group shots because there is a ton of groups
around here and maybe somebody will be nice enough to let me jump in there and take some
pictures.
All right, so this is what I’m thinking, 11-24 ultra-wide angle; I have to contend
with the people walking by, so I’m going to try and get as few people in the pictures
as possible, but I also have these pillars, these pylons.
I want to do some wide shots here, just for the tests so you could see what ultra 11 looks
like.
How the edges look, because that’s what I’m looking for.
How is the sharpness?
How are the edges, the edge of the frame at 11?
And what does it look like at 24?
So you can see this is 11, this is 24.
So now I’m just going to start doing it.
Traditionally, you hear that it is not easy to blow out the background and get awesome
boca with an 11 millimeter lens also at F4.
But as you see with the pylons, I was able to get really close, close focus to it and
I could blow out the background at F4.
And then at 24 millimeters, I was able to do it even more.
So don’t forget you can still blow out the background.
Just get closer to your subject and bam, blow it out.
Wait until that car goes.
This is so wide, so cool.
That’s 11.
That is nice.
One of the things to remember with ultra-wide lenses, is that you have to be very level.
You want to make sure your lines are straight because everything gets thrown off when you
are shooting something so wide at 11.
You want to make sure that the ground, or whatever your horizon is, is level.
If you are this way or this way or this way or this way, it may throw off your shot.
So being very level and finding the straight lines is important.
I don’t like using the built-in horizon finders, the levelers.
I just think by eye you should be able to feel it out much easier than relying on the
camera to do it, because you can just look through the camera and see it yourself.
This is what bad lines would look like.
If you’re not parallel towards your shooting and you are just on this angle, it just doesn’t
work for keeping it even and to keeping the lines straight.
Whereas if you do this, I am pretty darn straight; that’s what it is all about.
Shooting the building at 11 was pretty cool.
You get everything in there.
The only issue I run into was because of the time of day, the lens hood didn’t exactly
block all of the sun.
So, it’s getting a little bit of flare at the top.
But the range of 11-24 is going to give you such ability to shoot almost anything that
you want.
But when you can add dimension to your frame by having other subjects in it and getting
close to them, it creates a much better image.
For example, the horses going by; you just, you get the whole carriage and all the horse
in there and it creates some dimension and play in the images.
So just because you can shoot ultra-wide doesn’t mean you should do it; but when you do do
it, make sure you have interest in your frame.
The 11-24 is extremely wide, as we know.
It’s going to be pretty cool for group shots so what I’m going to do is wait for a big
group to come by and hopefully get some photos of them, either knowingly or not knowingly.
But that’s one of those things you can ask for permission but again you’re in a public
space.
But depending on where you are in the world, will depend on if you can take photos of just
anybody, anywhere.
So that’s something you have to pay attention to.
I wanted to walk over here; one, the light is better back here but two, I just wanted
to show you what 11 looks like and what 24 looks like.
It’s wide.
So I wanted to find that group shot, and luckily enough we had some students in from Beijing,
China, and I asked permission.
“Can I take a couple of photos to test out this lens?" and they said, “Sure."
And so I did.
It gave me the ability to get those wide shots I wanted to try to get.
Because what I’m noticing with this lens is just shooting wide with no interest in
the image, isn’t going to be that good.
But when you have the two people, the chaperones, standing here and I’ve got the group in
the background, and I have Independence Hall in the background, it adds dimension.
Like I said, when you are shooting ultra-wide, fill that frame, it’s going to create a
lot of dimensions.
So it was great and then at the very end, one of the students came up and asked if I
could send them the photo.
Absolutely!
Send me an email and I’ll send you the photo, because thank you for letting me do that.
If somebody asks you for help because it looks like you know what you’re doing, give them
help.
It doesn’t hurt.
You know what you're doing, you can pass on some knowledge, help them get better pictures
and that’s what it’s all about.
You can’t forget that this lens isn't just for stills, you have the ability to throw
it on there and capture some video.
11 millimeter video looks awfully interesting as you are panning.
Look at how everything just, it just widens.
It’s pretty insane, but you have the 11, you have the 24, you can get those ultra-wide
pieces of video.
It’s nice to have in the bag if you can afford it.
One of the things you have to be careful about when you're shooting video and also stills,
is that you don’t have the ability to put a filter on the front of it right now to cut
back on light.
So that’s just something to keep in mind.
So I really enjoyed using this Canon 11-24 F4.
I think, if you can afford it, this is the lens that should be in your bag.
It’s going to be great for all of the things that we talked about.
But if you want a pixel peep and check out the files, go over to the website, click on
the download button and I will give you some DNGs to play with so that you can see if the
quality fits what you are looking for.
So that is going to be it form Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.
That’s another Real World Review of the Canon 11-24 F4.
Jared Polin, froknowsphoto.com.
See you.
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