Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS II lens color is off ...

I just got this lens in a few days ago. It is as everyone says. Fast focus, sharp wide open, great IS, heavy if you hold it up for a while, but somethings was not quite right...

Then it hit me. The lens body color is off ... off white that is. It is more of a putty color in fact. All of the photos that I have seen online made it look whiter than it is. I guess I need to get my monitor calibrated. From what I can see so far, the color is not that distracting (attracting depending on your POV), the size definite is.

Online pics are usually taken with flash so it looks white. Don't worry about the lens color mines like kinda white yellowish too

This is normal...

Get the new 70-300L if you want a "whiter" white.

Mine is RED...... i mean the line but it is WHITE.....gray.

Forgot to say it is also with my 300 f2.8L IS, i think it is due to dust, light, heat, usage,.....etc

Photos lie. Canon "white" lenses are not white.

They are "off white", "cream", "putty", "pale gray", "beige", "bone", "ivory", or any other suitable name you can think of. You need to hold it in your hand to see the true color.

Here are two photos of the same lens taken in the same room on AWB within a minute of each other. One is against a white bed sheet and one is against a yellowish wall near a window:

Both photos are wrong. The true color is somewhere in between. (but closer to the first one)

lol, funny thread!

Yes OP, this is normal, white L lenses are not actually white, they are more of an off-white putty color.

lol, I thought the same thing when I bought a used 70-200 from a craigslist local.
I started to panic a little bit, then I realized that the color is proper, and I was just being over paranoid.

Paint it with white if you so PARANOID!!!

Paint it White-Out white.

You better be worrying about how good your lens "Optically" is rather than its exterior shell whiteness.

I think you have a lens white balance problem.
You could try using the LWB control that's under the secret door by the AF/MF switch.
It's not intended to be opened without a special tool, so if you can't get it open, you'll have to send it in for LWB calibration.

xarqi wrote in post #11402878
I think you have a lens white balance problem.
You could try using the LWB control that's under the secret door by the AF/MF switch.
It's not intended to be opened without a special tool, so if you can't get it open, you'll have to send it in for LWB calibration.

I found that a large, flat headed screwdriver works best. It took several sharp blows with a mallet, and I did end up with two lenses, but they're both perfectly white now. I think.

Who cares what colour the outside is ...