This is my third copy of 24-105mm lens. The first copy I bought in Broadway which the image was soft and had a little bit out focus. So I returened to it and they welcomed me to have a second copy. The seond copy was sharp but the i.s. was a little bit slower than the first copy. Finally I changed to the third copy and this time everything is alright. So anyone who going to buy this lens should not accept any acceptable "sharpness" quality of this lens. The lens can reproduce a sharp image in condition that it's not a bad copy. Don't give up.
After using it, you will love the zoom range, colour and outlook of it. Anyway, lens is still a tool only. You have a cool image or not is still depend on how you use the lens and processing the raw.