Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS II USM

[bitteraspects]

congratulations on being the proud new owner of what is undoubtedly one of the pest pieces of glass on the market.

 

[Groupcaptainbonzo]

I too would join in and say how nice the car is, the camera is and the lens, and the images. ... But 'cause I'm pig sick jealous, I WON'T....

 

[MrLogic]

Review:

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 USM L IS II - Review / Test Report



(3 pages)

 

[CMT]

Hi guys. Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to the thread. Sorry I wasn't clear, again that GT3 is not mine but I do adore the thing.

I have done a bit more shooting with the lens - I tried out the Canon Closeup Lens 500D:

I did not go into it thinking I suddenly transformed the 70-200 into a true macro lens, but 500D's overwhelmingly positive reviews justified the gamble of its sub-$200 cost. I got one acceptable watch shot:

And I tried my hand at my first round of flower shots ever:

Pics from 5D/70-200:

Pics from 5D/70-200/500D:

Very satisfied with the results for a first time doing the flower thang as one must start somewhere.

 

[CMT]

I was finally able to make it to the track. I live about an hour southeast of Lime Rock Park and an old family friend was there one day racing with the Vintage series. I took a lot of shots with the 1DII/70-200 II, and here are some of the better pictures.

Taken with the 2x Extender:

Taken without the Extender, 1DII/70-200 II:

Again I am really impressed with the quality of the shots while using the Extender in good light, but the shots without it are far better. This lens has seriously upgraded my track/sports picture quality and the family friend who I shot that day was very impressed with the output. He is a Canon guy as well, and he let me try out his 28-300 L that day and I loved that lens. So versatile! It was really nice to be hitting deep track pics and then pan back to grab action in the nearfield without changing lenses.

 

[Fedaykin]

I was finally able to make it to the track. I live about an hour southeast of Lime Rock Park and an old family friend was there one day racing with the Vintage series. I took a lot of shots with the 1DII/70-200 II, and here are some of the better pictures.

Taken with the 2x Extender:

Again I am really impressed with the quality of the shots while using the Extender in good light, but the shots without it are far better. This lens has seriously upgraded my track/sports picture quality and the family friend who I shot that day was very impressed with the output. He is a Canon guy as well, and he let me try out his 28-300 L that day and I loved that lens. So versatile! It was really nice to be hitting deep track pics and then pan back to grab action in the nearfield without changing lenses.

Holy crap those are some nice shots.

 

[Overread]

Hmm very impressive result with the 500D - I might have to get one of them myself if this lens is capable of getting that much magnification! Out of interest was this a full shot or a crop of a larger shot?

Also I'm impressed with your 2*TC results, I'm starting to work with this setup myself recently and the M2 of this lens certainly performs far and away better than the original with this TC. Image quality certainly takes a hit, as does focusing speed, but both remain quite usable!

 

[CMT]

Holy crap those are some nice shots.

Thanks! I have one more - A handheld moon shot that's been (obviously) cropped and processed:

1DII/70-200 II with 2x Extender.

I have no idea why the .exif info for this picture is nonexistant. :/

Hmm very impressive result with the 500D - I might have to get one of them myself if this lens is capable of getting that much magnification! Out of interest was this a full shot or a crop of a larger shot?

Thanks! It's absolutely, substantially cropped. I just tried to dig up the raw file for comparison but cannot seem to find it. I'll keep looking.

Also I'm impressed with your 2*TC results, I'm starting to work with this setup myself recently and the M2 of this lens certainly performs far and away better than the original with this TC. Image quality certainly takes a hit, as does focusing speed, but both remain quite usable!

Very usable - Surprisingly so. I was going to go with the 1.4x but I had friends already testing the 2x on this lens and sending me some super sharp pics with very satisfied feedback (albeit on much newer bodies), so I decided to take the chance. Very happy that I did!

 

[Overread]

Aye it was seeing some compared shots between this setup and the 100-400mm
70-200 f/2.8 IS II + 2X TCII vs 100-400 Wide Open - Canon Digital Photography Forums

that made me upgrade my 70-200mm to the new version for the teleconverter shots. Certainly it was well worth the upgrade cost; though I still think the lenses current market price is a little bit high in comparison to the old.

 

[CMT]

though I still think the lenses current market price is a little bit high in comparison to the old.

Agreed. I would have loved to have saved ~ $500 or so on the II. At its current price I have to admit that I expected/demanded utterly awesome stupendousness.

 

[AlexL]

the 70-200 f2.8 IS II USM is my dream lens...... sadly I can't afford it!

Same for the Porsche GT3......

 

[CMT]

Back to Lime Rock Park again, this time shooting the PCA advanced run group driver's event. I continue to be impressed with the image quality of the 1D II / 70-200 IS II combo, and can only imagine what the lens would be like on the 1D IV:

 

[prodigy2k7]

excellent shots

 

[CMT]

Thanks man!

 

[aadhils]

Awesome! How does this stack up with the 200mm Prime?