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

WORLD and sale made me buy this lens. It's still a lot of money to spend on a piece of glass, but it covers so many areas that it's worth it. One of the reasons I bought the 2.8 and not the 4 was for future considerations, the ability to add a 2x converter + crop body would give 600mm+ @ 5.6 with this lens. The converter is available for less than $500, making it a no-brainer if you don't have the budget to afford the more expensive TVs. Unfortunately there aren't any! I've only had the lens for about two weeks, but everything is great so far. I use it on an old 40D body and the autofocus is still incredibly fast. Images were sharp/clear with great color. As mentioned, the lens weighs quite a bit, but that's no big deal. The day after I received it I took a 3 hour (5-7 miles) hike/walk with this thing on my camera body and everything was fine. Sure, it's hard, but I didn't have a tripod with me because I could hold most of the pictures I took that morning by hand. Bottom line, if you need/want 2.8 features, you'll have to deal with weight and cost. If you can get by with f4, save money and weight and just use f4. Personally I could get away with f4 for the normal 70-200 range, but with discounts and holiday sales it made the 2.8 much more appealing with the addition of a teleconverter. Make sure you do your homework, rent/borrow or test before you buy and buy the right one once.