Canon 24-105 F4L IS USM and Manfrotto 7302YB Tripod

Posted by Boy on Feb 22nd, 2010 | 1 comment home title

I just bought two gears for my financial-black-hole hobby. Those are a Canon EF Lens 24-105 F4 L and Manfrotto 7302YB Tripod.

Canon 24-105 F4L

Canon 24-105L (courtesy JPC Kemang)

I used to own a Canon 28-135mm and was satisfied with the result. It met my requirements. But few weeks ago my friend let me to use his Canon 24-70 F2.8L for an extended time and I immediately fell in love with L series due to its image and build quality. However, I was not satisfied with other attributes of Canon 24-70L; its weight, size, focal length and price.

I like portrait and travel photography, so I want a light, versatile, and longer focal length lens. 24-70 is a damn fine lens, but it is heavy (carrying it all day long is a nightmare) and the maximum focal range is 70mm, which does not fit my requirement. For portrait, I’d prefer to shoot around 50-100mm on crop camera and I also find that 50-100mm usually fits my travel photography needs.

24-70 is better in creating bokeh and it performs better under low light than 24-105 due to its wider aperture (F2.8) but I can create almost equal bokeh performance using 24-105 at 70-105mm focal range, so bokeh is not big concern for me.

Low light? Yes, 24-70 is better than 24-105 (F2.8 brings two times light than F4), but I’d prefer fixed lens for low light condition. And in my case, I rarely shoot motions in low light condition so I’d prefer to have IS rather than wide aperture.

Image quality? Both lenses arguably deliver same image quality. I don’t see any material differences from both lenses.

Build quality? Both lenses bear the mark of L grade lens; excellent build and weather sealed.

Price? 24-105 is about 15% cheaper than 24-70.

The diameter is 77mm, so it makes filter sharing among Canon’s top lenses are easy (24-70; 17-40; 24-105; and 70-200)

So in overall, 24-105 is a sensible choice for me. Now I’ve been using this lens for around a month and I am completely happy with my decision. I think this lens really worth the investment.

Manfrotto 7302YB

Courtesy of JPC Kemang

I thought a Tripod would be a good addition to me. It would help in low light photography, getting tack sharp photo, landscape, and photos which include myself .

These were my key considerations:

Weight. I am not looking for stable but heavy tripod. What’s the point of having a heavy tripod but often left at home? I am looking for a compact and considerable light tripod.
Build quality. I believe tripod is almost like a one time purchase so I am looking for a good build quality tripod.
Budget. My budget was USD 300. I am not willing to spend a fortune just for a tripod because in my opinion, the key hardware contributor to good images is good glass, not good tripod. And afterall, I won’t carry tripod everywhere I go.

A Gitzo will perfectly fit my first and second requirement but it is way off my budget. So I was looking to Manfrotto, Slik, or Velbon. I didn’t find any other brands which fit my requirement.

Slik was considerably cheap and it has good build quality. But unfortunately most of its models are bulky and heavy (its carbon fibre models are off my budget). Velbon was a tempting option before I stumbled upon a Manfrotto 7302YB. It seemed that this Manfrotto meet all my requirements and it is far below my budget .

Later I bought this Manfrotto and now I am completely happy with that. It is not heavy (only 1.4kg), compact, has build-in ballhead (yeah, a ballhead! not a pan-head), and it can carry upto 3.5kg.

It is made from Aluminium, so I am not worried if it falls (I heard Carbon Fibre is easy to break). Its build-in ballhead is irreplaceable but I am completely okay because it can carry up to 3.5kg and yet offers so much movement flexibility. My current setup (EOS 500D and 24-105L) is about 1.5kg and it works perfectly on the tripod. I also read that a setup of Canon 5D2 and 70-200L would work on the tripod although it would need babysitting. Anyway, if I can afford 5D2 plus 70-200, I will upgrade to a Gitzo tripod .

Its ballhead works fine and the tripod design offers flexibility. I am 175cm and the height of tripod is fine. The height is around 165-170 cm when the center column raised (if I’m not mistaken) but I will less likely to raise center column due to stability reason.

But the best of all, I can get it with USD 170. Nothing beat this at this price!

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