Review on Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM Telephoto Zoom Lens: Ultimate Performance for Canon SLR Cameras by Jenn Jones

Many of the reviews here repeat the obvious: it's a popular focal length, it's heavy, it's expensive, and it's sharp. We all know that, right? You can go to Flickr, search for a lens and see tons of examples with a specific lens. I will talk about my experiences with him. I had a non-IS f/2.8 and had to sell it. I like to shoot indoors with shutter speeds slower than 1/100s. The non-IS f/2.8 version was a very sharp lens, but I get sharp shots when using a shutter speed of 1/80s and slower. My photos are blurry. Sometimes I got lucky and got a sharp, non-blurry image at a shutter speed of 1/50s. I didn't like it and wish I had bought this one. So I sold my non-IS and bought this one as soon as I had the money. The first thing I had to check when I got it was that it wasn't spicy or anything. I had to test the image stabilization when shooting handheld, so I took the camera to a bar/restaurant at night and took pictures. Results? Wow. I get consistently sharp images at 1/10 exposure with still subjects or people posing! See attached pictures. All shots at 1/10s or slower (except for the woman, shot in daylight). The image of the bottles is captured at 1/2s (that's half a second) and I can't see the blur easily. Of course, the likelihood of a blurry image depends on hand stability, and I've found that 1/10s is the slowest with my hands that I'm comfortable with, with little chance of blurry images due to camera shake. With a lens that big and no tripod, I think it's a winner. The bokeh is creamy and I don't see any difference from the version without image stabilization. I am very impressed with the performance of this lens' Image Stabilizer and am glad I invested in it. I highly recommend this lens if you have the money.