Canon 70-200 F 2.8

[Jay42]

It's an AWESOME lens...in fact, i can confidently say it is my FAVORITE lens (more so than the other L lenses I own). The only possible downside I could see to this lens is that it is a little on the heavy side, but I still lug it around everywhere because I love shooting with it.


As you also know, it is not an inexpensive lens, but you will likely keep it for several decades. There are tons of scammers out there. The basic rule of thumb of "If it seems to good to be true, it usually is" applies here. Sure you could save a couple bucks shopping around, but I don't think it pays to mess around with such a big purchase. I have bought several lenses and bodies from B and H Photo. They have excellent customer service and very prompt shipping.

 

[840quadra]

The Canon F4 70-200 IS is also a great lens. I picked mine up from B&H last month after testing both the F2.8 and F4. I can easily get 3 to 4 stops with the IS however and have taken shots as low as 1/30th at 200mm. The 2.8 was a bit larger as well as a lot heavier. I primarily shoot outdoors so the extra stops really didn't matter to me, expecially for the extra $. If you end up going with the 2.8 make sure you pick up the tripod mount ring or you'll be liable to bend your mount if you don't support it properly. Either way they're both awesome pieces of glass you'll have for a long time!

The 2.8 version comes with the tripod ring from Canon.

I strongly considered the F4 IS, however the IS would do nothing to stop the type of blur I usually get (subject motion blur). The wider aperture was the only sure way to help with that, and keeping my ISO's down and my shutter speeds up to stop the action.

I actually had the opportunity to shoot with both at the type of events I cover, and had less keepers with the 4.0 (Motocross images turned out better with the F2.8) . I did love the IS for taking crowd shots, or images in the pits!

It's an AWESOME lens...in fact, i can confidently say it is my FAVORITE lens (more so than the other L lenses I own). The only possible downside I could see to this lens is that it is a little on the heavy side, but I still lug it around everywhere because I love shooting with it.


As you also know, it is not an inexpensive lens, but you will likely keep it for several decades. There are tons of scammers out there. The basic rule of thumb of "If it seems to good to be true, it usually is" applies here. Sure you could save a couple bucks shopping around, but I don't think it pays to mess around with such a big purchase. I have bought several lenses and bodies from B and H Photo. They have excellent customer service and very prompt shipping.

I agree. I only shop at my local vendor (National Camera and Video) or if I need a better price or something they don't have (which is actually quite rare), I go to B&H.