Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

Very sharp, great bokeh, very fast and silent AF. Practically no chromatic aberration and vignetting (except perhaps at F2.8). Ideal for sports shooting. With the IS one can shoot usable pictures at 1/20 sec. Highly recommended. See also:

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Excellent lens that produces great quality images. It is a bit on the heavy side, but well worth the extra weight. I have used it for over a year and the improved quality of my images is really amazing. If you serious about producing excellent images this is the lens for you.

got this lens because of the reviews. there is no question the glass is outstanding. the night time pictures are out of this world. shot a thunderstorm, unbelievable pictures.
overall very very nice. But the weight is an issue. it is pretty darn heavy after two hours. i would not use it as an everyday lens. it is worth having in the bag, but until i get a lot stronger, it is my #2 lens. (24-135mm #1)

Exactly what I was looking for to add to my studio. This lens has a lowed me to take much better photos b/c of the high quality glass inside of it. I love this lens and would highly recommend it to anyone

I've had this lens for nearly 2 years and hardly ever used it until the last few weeks. I use to shoot with a Rebel XTi, but now I'm using a 5D. Pictures taken with the XTi were usually nice, but nothing special. Eventually I got into panoramas using medium format, manual focus lenses and shift adapters, so the 70-200 was put on a back shelf and was only brought out when I began to wonder if I was having trouble focusing my old, used MF lenses.

I had a $95 Hoya UV filter on the 70-200 until one day I was comparing its sharpness and image quality on the 5D to a set of 25 year old, medium format, manual focus, East German, Carl Zeiss Jena lenses. The 70-200 could not match the old commie MF lenses until I dumped the UV filter.

Then a couple of weeks ago, because so many of my usual haunts are flooded by the Mississippi, I dragged out the 70-200, put a 2X extender on it and started shooting big white egrets in a local park. It doesn't work so well as a bird lens, especially white birds against a green background. Focus wasn't so good. I compared it with the 2X extender to my 300mm Zeiss Jena, manual focus, MF commie lens targeting a monochromatic stone church bell tower from 600 to 700 yards out. The old commie lens bested it.

But this Father's Day it took wonderful pictures of family coupled with the 5D, and again today, it took beautifully sharp photos, coupled again with the 5D, but general photography, not big white birds or monochromatic stone work at great distances.

If you want to see what this lens can do:
1. Ditch any and all filters. High priced UV filters are worse than useless, they significantly degrade image quality and the lens doesn't need nearly the protection every newbee seems to think it needs. If you put one of those on the front of an f/2.8 70-200 you wasted $1000 of the $1600 you paid for the lens.
2. Ditch any and all tele-extenders. Getting good shots with an extender is very hit or miss, especially if the target is pretty much monochromatic and/or glaring white and very far away.
3. Get a 5D (or 1D) because with the little Canons (anything less than a 5D), you'll never know just how good this lens is. Of course, if you can't afford a 5D or better but plan on getting one some day, it's alright to buy the f/2.8 70-200 now. It'll be there waiting to show you what it can really do when you finally get a camera that can do it justice.