The Canon 70 - 200 f/2.8 L IS is one of my favorite lenses and I'm not the only one that feels the same way about this lens. Most professionals and advanced amateurs have this lens in their possession. It is especially popular with photojournalists, wedding and portrait photographers. 70 till 200 mm is a very versatile zoom range. It allows you to make both overview and close up shots without having to change lenses. The only other Canon L lens that has an even greater versatile zoom range is the Canon EF 28-300 f/3.5-5.6 L IS. Another reason why it is a beloved lens is because of the nice bokeh it produces. For people with a main interest in nature photography 200 mm won't cover their needs. Of course you can use teleconverters on your lens but the image quality reduces too much with this lens. The Canon 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L IS, which is in more or less the same price range, will be a better choice for them.
The Build quality is absolutely superb. Everything is made of very durable materials. The weight is proportional to this superb build quality. Of course the fact that it is f/2.8 glass is also responsible for the weight. While looking at the weights in the following table you can see the difference between non-L glass, L glass, f/2.8 and f/4.0 glass. You will notice a huge difference. Although some people find it a bit on the heavy site, most people will learn to live with its weight when they see the images produced by this lens. Using a 1D series or a lower series body with a battery grip attached will result in a well balanced whole, making carrying it for a longer time easier. A body attached to this lens without a battery grip will be a little bit front heavy. This has an impact on how stable you can hold it for longer periods of time. Personally I have hand held this lens for up to 3 hours without noticeable difficulties.
| Weight | Dimensions | MFD | MM | Filter | |
| Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L USM | 1310 g | 85 x 194 mm | 1.50 m | .13x | 77 mm |
| Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM | 1470 g | 86 x 197 mm | 1.40 m | .17x | 77 mm |
| Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 DG HSM II Macro | 1370 g | 87 x 184 mm | 1.00 m | .29x | 77 mm |
| Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di Macro | 1320 g | 90 x 194 mm | 0.95 m | .32x | 77 mm |
| Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L USM | 705 g | 76 x 172 mm | 1.20 m | .21x | 67 mm |
| Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L IS USM | 760 g | 76 x 172 mm | 1.20 m | .21x | 67 mm |
| Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS | 390 g | 70 x 108 mm | 1.10 m | .31x | 58 mm |
| Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 IS USM | 630 g | 76.5 x 142.8 mm | 1.50 m | .26x | 58 mm |
| Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM | 1360 g | 92 x 189 mm | 1.80 m | .20x | 77 mm |
Abbreviations: MFD = Minimal Focussing Distance; MM = Macro Magnification
The Image quality is absolutely superb. It is sharp even wide open and get even a bit sharper at f/4.0. A little bit of flare is present when directly pointed at a strong light source. To reduce flare in all other occasions the standard lens hood does a magnificent job. It delivers photographs with great colors and contrast. You can state that this zoom lens delivers the versatility of a zoom and the optical quality of a prime lens. When you don't need the f/2.8 you should get the f/4.0 version of this lens. It also produces very sharp images. Some people even state sharper then the f/2.8 lens. The other upside of this lens is that it costs much less and is about half the weight. On full frame cameras there is some vignetting present at f/2.8. Stopping the aperture down reduces the vignette. This vignette is not visible on APSC cameras.
One of the big party peaces of this lens is the image stabilization (IS). On the 70-200 f/2.8 L IS it is a 3 stop image stabilizer. Which, with the right technique, makes it possible to achieve razor sharp images at 200 mm within the range of 1/40th of a second. Although it isn't always possible to go this slow on the shutter, IS always diminishes motion blur cause by the photographer. The IS can be put into 2 modes. Mode 1 stabilizes horizontal and vertical movement. For most photographs this is the right mode. While mode 2 is selected only the vertical movement is being stabilized thus allowing pan shots without the IS interfering. The IS installed on this lens is also tripod sensing. It senses that the lens is mounted on a tripod and thus able to reduce the still remaining vibration caused by the tripod or mirror slap.
The image on the left shows from left to right the Canon EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L IS, the Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 L IS and the Canon EF 24-105 f/4.0 L IS. The image on the right shows the Canon EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L IS and the Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 L IS with there hoods attached.
Wedding and portrait photographers use this lens mainly because it produces a very nice bokeh. Combining the 200 mm focal length and the f/2.8 8 blade aperture allows you to really separate your subject from the background or create some nice depth of field photographs. Sport photographers gives it the possibility to use faster shutter speeds to freeze the action and make the subject stand out of the background.
The auto focus is top notch. Canon used their top of the line Ultrasonic Motor. It keeps up with almost everything. Most of the time the limiting factor is the camera body attached to the lens. The auto focus tends to hunt in low light and contrast conditions. A way to reduce this drastically is making use of the auto focus limiter. You have 2 settings on the focus limiter. From 1.40 m till infinity and from 2.50 m till infinity.
Full time manual focus is possible by using the big focussing ring.
One thing I don't like about this lens is that if you hold your camera portraiture wise, you easily switch off the auto focus. I have missed some shots because of the fact that I unintentionally switched of the auto focus. Some photo journalists tape off the switch so this doesn't happen.
Zooming can be done with a large high quality ring on the barrel of the lens. The lens doesn't extend while zooming. This is a major advantage of this lens because it allows a much better weather sealing compared to a lens that extents while zooming. The lens has some other features to make it weather resistant against water drops and dust.
People who are interested in macro photography but don't want to buy a macro lens often go for a lens with macro capabilities. If we look to the Canon 70-200 f/2.8 L IS, the maximum macro magnification is 0.17x. This low magnification is mainly caused by the long minimal focussing distance of 1,40 m. You can minimize the focussing distance by using extension tubes, like the Canon EF 12MM II or Canon EF 25MM II. Using these extension tubes it is possible to take macro photographs with this lens. This combination can give you satisfying results when you occasionally take macro photographs. Of course there are better lenses suited for this kind of photography but the long focal length gives you working distance and another perspective then macro lenses will produce (except for the Canon 180 f/3.5 macro lens).
The lens comes with a tripod mount as standard. Personally I have never used the tripod mount. Most people remove it to reduce the weight, personally I have turned it upwards and use it as a handle to carry it around. It's nice that you get all the accessories as standard so you have them in the case you need them. Back ordering the tripod mount and lens hood isn't cheap. It uses 76 mm filters, which is nice because most lenses use 76 mm filters so filters are interchangeable.
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| 70 mm (APSC = 112 mm) | 95 mm (APSC = 152 mm) |
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| 135 mm (APSC = 216 mm) | 200 mm (APSC = 320 mm) |
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