Canon EF 70-200mm f4 IS USM L

Pros: Fast, silent zoom with incredible overall picture quality, pleasing bokeh, razor sharp pictures; constant F/4 aperture; light weight; good image stabilization; good zoom range for portraits and outdoor photography.

Cons: Price; F/4 may not be bright enough in some situations such as action photography or low light, indoor photography; no tripod collar for the price.

Summary: I recently got this lens off of craigslist for a relative bargain but it was still very expensive and stretching my lens budget. I've been shooting with it on my XSi, both outdoors and indoors. For indoor shooting, the camera's ISO settings need to be punched up a bit to 400 or 800 (or less preferably, to 1600 in some cases). Has Canon's USM focusing feature and boy does it work! I was able to take a shot of my light sleeping infant daughter without waking her up and my hyperactive dog as he played with a toy. I think it's best suited for outside portrait and outdoor landscape shots, although the indoor shots came out very nice as well. The background blur is amazing and people (or any subject) pop out. Pictures look razor-sharp across the board from wide open on down. There is some barrel distortion and pincushion distortion but not more so than any other zoom. I didn't notice any vignetting at any aperture. Purple fringing seems to be non-existent; details look beautiful and colors look very nicely rendered in the camera's jpeg large fine setting. The IS feature also works as advertised. I was able to get good, decently sharp pictures hand-holding at 200mm down to 1/15 in good, outdoor light, ISO 200 and 1/60 indoors, fairly low light, ISO 800. It does include a lens pouch and a hood, however, for the $1200 or so Canon asks retail for this lens, I thought a tripod collar would have been included. That minor grip aside, if a person needs a good, medium telephoto zoo lens and can spare the cash or find a good deal, this is the lens to get.

Updated on Mar 12, 2012

Need to add that the L-lens is built like a tank! The lens lens slipped out of my bag, recently and fell on to concret for about a 1 meter drop. As my heart dropped and after nearly soiling myself, I checked the lens and the filter that was on it couldn't be salvaged but not one scratch on the lens. Amazing!