f/2.8, rigid, fast focusing, high quality image... everything for a excellent lense.

Heavy(should be), expensive(worth every penny).

I use the lens for more than 5 years and it made me returned to Canon. 2 years ago I sold all my Canon stuffs(1n, 28-80/2.8-4...) except this lens and changed to Nikon F5, F100, AF80-200/2.8, AF28-105....Nikon was good in optics but I hated skaking while focusing from F5+AF80-200/2.8(non AF-S, so expensive and huge) combo. EOS1vhs + 70-200/2.8L brought me to Canon again. You will know my feeling if you had similiar experiment.

Customer Service

Never used.

Similar Products Used:

Canon EF300/2.8, EF80-200/2.8, EF28-80/2.8-4, EF85/1.8, EF135/2.8 soft focus, EF24-85/3.5-4.5...

Sharpness, color rendition and resolution. Solid contruction; built like a tank. Removable tripod collar. Compitable with 1.4 and 2.0x converter. Retains value even though the IS version is introduced, which is $600 more.

A little heavy but well balanced with EOS 3. Pricy.

L lens is the major reason I switched from Nikon to Canon. Being a Nikon user for over one year, I mainly used Nikon's prime AIS lenses such as 24/2.8, 50/1.8, 105/2.5 and 180/2.8. Back then, my major focus was image quality, sharpness, etc. However, I found MF is sometimes too slow and changing lens was inconvenient. So, I was thinking of getting the Nikon F100 and 28-70/2.8 AFS and 80-200/2.8 AFS. After doing a lot of research and comparision in B&H, I decided to switch to Canon because its L lens IMO is superior to AFS lens from Nikon -- sharper, less expensive and faster USM focusing. Actually, I prefer EOS 3 to F100 as it has more features (eye focus) and mirror lock-up. More importantly, I think at least in my case, L lens produces more accurate yet warm and pleasing colors given the fact that same films and same processing are used. As many people have mentioned, this 70-200/2.8L is comparable to those primes in its range. I think it might be sharper and has better color rendition than some primes. Good work! Canon. With regards to the newly introduced and over-priced IS version, the 70-200/2.8 non IS is a better value. Same optics unless you really need the IS capability. In my case, I haven't needed it yet. No plan to switch in the future. Only do I wish Canon will update its 16-35/2.8 L in the future, which is not a big improvement from the older 17-35/2.8L in terms of optics. What a disappointment! I may get the 24/3.5L TS-E for landscape and architecture.

Customer Service

None used so far.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 28-70mm/2.8L; Nikon 24/2.8 AIS, 50/1.8 AIS, 105/2.5 AIS and 180/2.8 AIS, Nikon FM-2n (still have it just for fun manual use); Nikon FE-2; Nikon N60; Nikon 28-105mm/3.5-4.5 AF.

SHARP COLOURS FULL TIME M.FOCUS LOOKS !!

WEIGHT :(

This is the lens ! colour ,sharpness & every thing that a good lense should have this 1 has . weight could be a turn off, but the picture quality makes you forget that you held something heavy at the time of taking it !

Customer Service

none

Similar Products Used:

135mm f/2L usm ,28-135 IS USM ,75-300 IS USM ,

Optics - just great and true to a pro-lens. F stop range - a must. Silence and features like inner focusing. Build quality - thank God for metal! Balance - of course it is heavy but it had to be.

None really except that the AF is marginally slower than the 28-70.

I bought this because: I wanted the best for my new EOS1V; my 28-70 EF L f2.8 is just brilliant and the new special non-IS pricing made it affordable. Having had 20 years of brilliant optics with original Zuiko lenses for my OM2s and OM4s convinced me to do the same when I recenttly upgraded to the EOS1V. This lens is superb. I've run a dozen film rolls testing outdoor and flash at most focal lengths and f stops. The colour, sharpness, blah blah are spot on. The definition picks up things like cobwebs I didn't know were in the shot! I was tempted to go Sigma EX for the cost but my decision was vindicated.

Customer Service

Not required for technical issues yet. But, in Australia Canon's customer service for getting product information is very poor. I was chasing the PC link kit and after 20 minutes on the phone I finally convinced the man that it was not a lens!!

Similar Products Used:

EF 28-70 L f2.8 EF 300 L f4.

Superior AF Great Balance (on Eos 1 and Eos 3) High contrast, high sharpness, etc.

None! (maybe the price, but you get what you pay for...)

As an aviation photographer, swift and decisive AF is what I was looking for in buying this lens. It hasn't let me down a single time! The great number of useable F-stops make shots taken with this lens really stand out from the other, e.g. when light levels drop you can switch down to f/3.2 of f/4.0 and still get high contrast slides, while others need to set f/5.6 of f/6.3(7) on a consumer zoom, giving much lower detail and also risking a lot of motion blur. Now that Canon has come up with an IS-variant, this lens will surely become available for a lot less than what most people paid for it when it came out, so I'll say: take your chance to get hold of this magnificent lens!! :o)

Customer Service

not yet needed

Similar Products Used:

EF 100-400L IS USM EF 75-300 IS USM

SHARP GREAT COLOURS QUICK F2.8 - Great In Low Light SUPERB BUILD QUALITY

Its a bit heavy but what do you expect.

This lens has to be in my opinion the best lens Canon has produced in recent years. Superb colours, pin sharp across the entire zoom range and if that was not enough the AF is very quick when the lens in mounted on a professional Canon body.

Customer Service

Never needed with this lens. Should you need it however Canon customer service is fantastic.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 17 - 35L, 20 - 35, 28 - 70L, 28 - 135, 28 - 80, 300 F2.8L, 300 F4L, 100 - 400L. EOS 1, 1N, 1V, 3 etc.

So stunning

It makes me crazy

One of the best things in my life. With this lens, you can get very very sharp images, even cut my finger when I touch those pictures taken this lens. The lens itself is so cute. I sleep with it every night. Better than my wife (please don't tell her).

Customer Service

None because I fix it myself.

Similar Products Used:

Canon EF 1-1000mm F1.0L VR IS USM HSM AF-S Super Apo

f/2.8 constant aperture, sharp even wide open, unnoticeable barrel and pincushion distortion, comes with tripod collar, nice-looking lens hood, smooth AF and focus barrels.

1)Heavy! 2)Draws attention whether you want it or not. 3)1.5m min. focus (compared to 1.2m on the f/4L) 4)Filters are expensive

Every bit as good as it''''s younger brother the 70-200 f/4L. Bought this to replace the 70-200 f/4L I sold. Needed the extra stop for indoor shooting. Image quality is about equal, though this lens has slightly less pincushion distortion (almost unnoticeable). Wide open is quite good, but stop it down to f/4 or 5.6 and image quality is really, really good. AF is a tad slower than my previous f/4L due to a longer throw of the focusing gears, but doesn''''t affect me much since there is a focus limiter switch. I miss the 1.2m closer min. focusing of the younger brother though :)

Customer Service

Canon Malaysia is top rate. I have no qualms sending my stuff there for service or repair.

Similar Products Used:

EF 70-200 f/4L USM EF 28-135 f/3.5-5.6 IS USM EF 50 f/1.8 Mk2 EF 28-70 f/2.8L USM

This is a very, very special kind of lens. Ten reasons to support this affirmative are: 1. This is a white very beautiful lens. 2. This is very strong and very well made. 3. This is a fast f/2.8 lens excellent for portraits and indoor photos. Keeping the image quality in all apertures and focal lengths. 4. This lens supports the use of original Canon TC 1.4X or 2.0X. Versatility... 5. The presence of USM with Full Time Manual focus is amazing. 6. The corrections of chromatic aberrations by use of 4 UD-glass. 7. The presence of standard tripod collar. 8. This lens has Inner Focusing. 9. It has 8 diaphragm blades for beautiful background blur. 10. The minimum aperture is 32 for great DOF.

*HEAVY

I do love this lens. Some of my favorite photos were take with it. Beautiful background blur and sharpness image for portrait photos are the big deal of this lens. Great quality of construction plus high technology ( Recently with addition of Image stabilizer ) made this lens very special. The use of original CANON TC 2X adds versatility to the lens.

Customer Service

XXX

Similar Products Used:

Canon 28-70L f/2.8 USM and 100 f/2.8 USM macro.

Sharpness, contrast, excuse the high brow photo-geekisms: luminence and microcontrast, AF speed, build quality, head turning "sex-appeal" (there ain''t nothing in photography like a whiteish Canon cannon to draw attention and awe). Bokeh from f/2.8 to 5.6 is wonderful, but is ok after that. Superb color accuracy.

Weight and size (but normal for this type of lens), cost (for non-professionals, but darn cheap for the quality of your results), may draw attention when you don''t want it to. Bokeh not up to the 85/1.8 USM or 200/2.8L prime from f/5.6 and smaller apertures, much less the 85/1.2L. Color saturation of 200/2.8 L slightly higher. Sharpness and coma not up to 85/1.8 USM or 85/1.2L.

If you own Canon or thinking about it, you MUST own this lens, or the new IS version.

Customer Service

N/A

Similar Products Used:

Similar Nikkors and Sigmas, Canon 85 mm primes, and Canon 200/2.8 prime