Initial Impressions of the 70-200 f4 L

[slejhamer]

I bought this barely used, two-months-old lens from someone on Fred Miranda's forum. It arrived Wednesday afternoon and looks to be in excellent condition. My previous lens experience has been with the 50mm 1.8, the 28-135 IS, the Tamron 28-75 Di, and the long-gone Sigma 17-35 EX, so this is my first L and my first telezoom beyond 135mm.

First thought: It's not white! Canon must really goose the color of these lenses in their ads. I'm not even sure how to describe it - very light khaki? Pale beige?

Second thought: This thing is HIGH QUALITY. Everything from the smoothness of the zoom mechanism to the paint to the lining inside the lens hood and mount. My plastic lenses feel like toys in comparison!

The lens feels well balanced on the 10D. The Big Ed grip would likely make it more so, but I've sold that ... Anyway, I was concerned about the weight but it seems like it will be manageable as a walk-around lens, as long as one has a good neck strap.

Many people have reported back-focus problems with this lens, and I will definitely look to see if this is a problem with mine. However, from what I can tell so far, focus is accurate but my technique is HORRIBLE!!! I was definitely spoiled by IS on the 28-135! Do I have to give up caffeine now? While hand-holding at 200mm, I can definitely see the scene jittering in the viewfinder, and the problem is obvious in the captured images. I think I will bump the ISO up to 400 to get faster shutter speeds while I work on technique... of course, I will also use my monopod and/or tripod regularly with this lens.

All in all it's an impressive lens and I look forward to really giving it a workout this weekend!

8)

[TimNYC]

Congrats, Slej! I'm sure the learning curve will be extremely short.

[timmyquest]

First thought: It's not white! Canon must really goose the color of these lenses in their ads. I'm not even sure how to describe it - very light khaki? Pale beige?



That was mine too

[eric1]

hi Slej,
this was my first L lens too. no probs with my focusing. i use it as walk around to places like the zoo. it's a very good lens, and i try to use it instead of the others when ever i can.

[Persian-Rice]

Congrats man,

yes you will probably need to bulk up those forarms a bit to get things comfortable. Adjusting the way you hold the camera will also really help out.

BTW, I like to call it off-white.

[aam1234]

Congrats slejhamer

If you allow me to steal your thread for a moment, then I'd like to paste what I said about that lens (which i don't have) in another thread:

If we are talking wishes, I have one. 70-200 L f4 with IS.

The current offering of that lens is either f2.8 with and without IS or f4 w/o IS. There is no f4 with IS. The reason for the wish is cost:

1- f4 without IS = $ 550
2- f2.8 without IS = $ 1,100
3- f2.8 with IS = $ 1,600

So an f4 with IS could be, theoretically, be around $1,000

[Mike H]

If you haven't tried it, the tripod adapter for this lens is a joy to use. It's expensive, but it's as high quality as the lens, so it will last.

Mike H