The 24-70mm f/2.8L II is THE standard zoom lens that I use when going on just about any sort of photography excursion.  Due to the incredible clarity and versatility of this lens, I feel prepared for just about anything when I head out the door with this attached to my camera.

 

I'm not going to dive deep into the tech specs here - there are tons of online resources for that.  Instead, I am sharing my experience with what I consider to be my default lens. My primary subjects are landscapes and scenery, for which this lens could not deliver better results.  I am able to capture incredible detail from very wide fields of view to fairly narrow.

 

The large 2.8 aperture makes it excel in low light (even astrophotography!), and stopping down to f/8 - f/10 delivers crisp images from foreground to background. The wide aperture also makes this a decent portrait lens as well.  While it may not give blur so strong that only eyeballs are in focus (eh, why?), it does provide that artistic look that look infinitely better than a phone snapshot.  Check out my sample images below, all shot with this lens, including some of my all time favorites. 

 

When this was my only full frame lens (#1 baby!) I had almost zero complaints...only that I wished it would go just a bit wider and maybe a little longer.  However, after owning it for a while my only (minor) gripe is that filters are a bit expensive with the 82mm front element.  

 

There is hardly any subject though that cannot be captured with just this lens alone.  If I could only have one forever, this would be it hands down.