I have been using the 24-70L for almost 2 years now and it appears to be very sharp wide-open with in-camera sharpness set to 2! Don't get me wrong though, by sharp wide-open I mean shooting portrait with a 1.6x body. Your second shot does seem to be quite soft, however, I'm not sure if this is due to a soft lens or it's not in focus.


Sometime I don't get expected sharpness from the lens when it's not focused properly. You can check the lens' focus by doing some simple tests, for example, tripod mounted and shoot newspaper on the wall, then enlarge to see if the place in focus is where you focused to.


I realize that at least these two pictures you posted were taken indoor. The lens could appear to be not as sharp when ambient lighting is not great, so instead, you can do some test in good lighting like outdoor under sun light. Poor lighting environment will somewhat affect the AF accuracy as well.


Also please make sure to use safe shutter speed to stop any kind of hand shaking or motion blur. the 24-70L does not have IS and as far as I use it I become nervous when handholding it down to 1/30s. So testing in good lighting also helps in this regard. Plus you can turn the ISO down in good lighting andlow ISOwill allow the camera to capture every detail for your benefit to determine if the lens is sharp or not. You don't want to judge sharpness at ISO3200...


Just just personal advise.[]


Ben