Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

With over 100 lenses produced for Canon EOS system, finding the right lenses can overwhelm even the experienced photographers. My search for walkaround lens took over two months of research and auditioning. After choosing Canon's EF 17-40mm f/4L USM as a walkaround lens and EF 50mm f/1.4 USM as a portrait lens, my attention shifted toward telephoto. A bit of background info. My current DSLR body is Digital Rebel XTi (EOS 400D). I plan on upgrading to full frame DSLR body next, so I only look at EF lenses (no EF-S) with solid build quality (it needs to be around to serve the next camera). At first, finding a telephoto lens seemed almost as easy as portrait lens. Professional reviewers alike hail EF 70-200mm f/4L USM for top-notch build quality and superb optical performance at a reasonable price. (EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM and EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM are too heavy, large, and expensive for my needs.) 70-200mm focal range is just about ideal for me, which becomes 112-320mm in 35mm print format. I took many fantastic pictures with it, but quickly found a problem. Without a tripod, telephoto isn't easy to shoot. With 17-40mm lens, I can take well-focused images shot after shot. Even under challenging light, I can hit fairly high percentage of photos without flash. At 200mm, situations get considerably trickier. Under very good lighting, I can take one great looking photo after another. Under somewhat limited light, however, I found myself with rather high percentage of out-of-focus photos. Increasing the ISO speed helped a good deal, but even that has a limit. Eventually, I found myself depending on the tripod for reliable results. Then I saw EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM. At nearly twice the price tag, I was very reluctant at first. Then I was given the opportunity to play with it in person. To my surprise, it weighs and sized about the same as non-IS counterpart. And it has super-state-of-the-art 4-stop (!) image stabilizer with panning mode and tripod detection. After selling EF 70-200mm f/4L USM at a minimal loss (L-series lenses tend to have very high resale value), I saved up for IS. Weighing in at 1.68 lbs., it is only slightly heavier than non-IS and about half as heavy as f/2.8 counterparts. At 3" width and 6.8" length, it is also considerably smaller than f/2.8. Even on comparatively small Digital Rebel XTi, it does not feel entirely out of place. Thanks to inner focus, the lens does not extend nor rotate during focusing or zooming. It stays at 6.8" at all time. As to be expected, its ring-type USM with full-time manual override is silky smooth and fast. Simply a pleasure to use. The lens has 4 switches, (1) focus limiter (sets minimum focus distance of 1.2m or 3m... a bit far in my opinion, but then again, this is a telephoto lens), (2) auto/manual focus, (3) image stabilizer, and (4) stabilizer mode (regular mode 1 or panning mode 2). The image stabilizer is simply fantastic. As with other image stabilizer, it is not effective at stopping subject in motion. Once IS is switched on, it kicks in with a satisfying click when you press the shutter button half way. Click all the way and you may be able to say goodbye (at least see you later) to tripod. So how does it perform? The sharpness is simply amazing, almost as sharp as my benchmark EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens from center-to-edge. All in all, images were even better than non-IS counterpart, with smooth and more vibrant color, no noticeble barrel distortion, vignetting, nor chroma aberrations. Also noteworthy is new circular aperture blades (8 of them), creating prettiest blur effects (bokeh) you will ever see. Thanks to Super Spectra coatings, it is even better at suppressing flare than non-IS and f/2.8 counterparts. Simply put, this is one of the most state-of-the-art zoom lenses Canon has produced. As with other L-series lenses, it comes with a carrying pouch and a lens hood. It accepts 67mm filters. Pros: - 4-stop image stabilizer. - Not too heavy. Not too large. - Amazing build quality. - Great image quality with very nice bokeh. - Top-notch focus mechanism. Cons: - Expensive. - IS will use more battery. - f/4 aperture may not be fast enough for some.