Canon 24mm f/1.4L

Canon’s top wide angle prime lens. The 24L is a rather large lens (almost as large as the Sigma 20mm) with excellent build quality, accurate autofocusing, and beautiful bokeh. It isn’t really sharp until stopped down to f2.0, but that’s still a wider aperture than the best wide angle zoom lenses. Compared to the “L” zooms, the 24 prime has a little less distortion and a little better corner sharpness.

Roger’s take: This is not quite as clear-cut a call as the ‘Holy Trinity’ primes (35 f1.4, 85 f1.2, and 135 f2.0). Unlike those, the 24 isn’t totally sharp on the edges and corners until f5.6 or so. Center sharpness though is excellent even at f1.4. Its superb for wider angle portraits, close up work, etc. where emphasis is on the middle 2/3 of the frame.

Landscape photographers often prefer the 16-35 Mark II and if you’re shooting at f5.6 or f8 the 24 L doesn’t have too many advantages. But at wide aperture its clearly better (and wider than f2.8 it is clearly waayyy better). The 24 f1.4 Mk II is clearly better on the edges and corners for a full frame camera, but on a crop frame the Mk I offers nearly the same quality (since you’re only using the central 2/3 of the lens) at a lower cost.