Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After debating between this and the 70-200 L series I decided to purchase this lens. I have been pleasantly surprised by the results. I also own the 17-85 and the 50mm 1.8 lenses and I have found that I have gotten the "most pleasing" results from this lens. The pictures have been very sharp from my 20D - even in the 200mm - 300mm range. I've also been happy with the quality of the bokeh. The primary drawback I see is that the AF tends to hunt a fair amount when confronted with low contrast images. That being said, I used it for some flying bird shooting at the wildlife refuge and was surprised to see how many of the shots were in sharp focus. However, it was a little bit of all or nothing. Several shots were also wildly out of focus. Since the lens is fairly slow to focus, you never know what you're gonna get with such a fast moving object against the distant sky. I had much more consistent results when shooting soccer, softball and football in the park. The AF speed did not present an issue for any of these activities and the results were excellent. I wish the lens were a little less expensive but I the prints I have gotten from my 13 X 19 printer have been worth the extra money.