Matthew is 6 part 2!

So we decided to let Matthew have a small birthday party with his friends at school. This being his last semester in kindergarten, we thought it'll be fun and something for him to remember.

I brought my new Canon 5DIII and a borrowed EF 24-70 f2.8L USM to try out. Its focal length seemed tailor-made for the classroom. Wide shots to close up portraits.

Canon EOS 5D Mk. III + Canon EF 24-70mm F2.8L USM | 1/60 sec, f/4, ISO 1250 | 1/40 sec, f/4, ISO 640

The cake's theme is Bernard, a Mr. Bean-like CGI bear. Kid's obsessed with it. The lens renders very nice bokeh even at f4. And because it's on a full frame camera, the depth of field is still quite shallow.

Canon EOS 5D Mk. III + Canon EF 24-70mm F2.8L USM
| 1/50 sec, f/4, ISO 640 | 1/60 sec, f/4, ISO 2000 | 1/80 sec, f/4, ISO 1000

At 70mm @ f2.8, it makes for a very good portrait lens. It's fast so shooting the kids aren't that big of a challenge.

Canon EOS 5D Mk. III + Canon EF 24-70mm F2.8L USM
| 1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 | 1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1000 | 1/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250 | 1/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250
| 1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1000 | 1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640 | 1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 | 1/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1000
| 1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250 | 1/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250 | 1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250 | 1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800

Even though it doesn't have IS, it handled itself pretty well with ISO not going crazy high. Speed also remained pretty hand-holdable. I credit the f2.8 for this.

Canon EOS 5D Mk. III + Canon EF 24-70mm F2.8L USM
| 1/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 | 1/50 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 | 1/50 sec, f/2.8, ISO 125 | 1/30 sec, f/2.8, ISO 250

I even managed to handhold at f8 indoors! Interestingly, Matthew's teacher has always wanted him in her class since pre-school, but only in this last year of his kindergarten did she manage to get him hahaha.

Canon EOS 5D Mk. III + Canon EF 24-70mm F2.8L USM
| 1/60 sec, f/4.5, ISO 1600 | 1/13 sec, f/8, ISO 400 | 1/40 sec, f/8, ISO 2000 

Taking pictures of kids are always such fun. Just point a camera at them and they start to pose and kid around. I think it helps that they all got a big bag of candy and snacks though.

Canon EOS 5D Mk. III + Canon EF 24-70mm F2.8L USM
| 1/40 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1250 | 1/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 | 1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800

So, what did I think of the EF 24-70 f2.8L USM? It's pretty nice. It's fast, it's sharp and vignette is not too bad on the wide end. It's big, chunky and on the heavy side but it feels good in the hands. It also feels weird that at its widest focal length its at its longest extension. However, for its price, it really should have IS.

It'll be interesting to see how the upcoming EF 24-70 f2.8L II USM will perform. MTF charts for that lens is through the roof. It's also slightly lighter and looks to be less chunky. Unfortunately, that lens won't have IS either. It will also be as expensive as heck at the MSRP of USD 2,300. Yikes!

As for the 5DIII, I find that it underexposes by at least 2/3 stops in all of these shots. Perhaps it's because of the lighting in the room? That's however, not a big deal for me since I post process all my pictures. To the credit of the camera's AWB, the pictures proved easy to get 'right' color-wise. For this set of pictures, I actually processed the JPG files as Lightroom did not yet read the 5DIII's RAW files. And it's much much easier with these JPG files than with the ones from the 60D, especially indoor shots.