What's the difference between these two lenses

[bbirnie]

Hi,

Both of these are 70ish-200mm with max F of 4-5.6 lenses but completely different looking, and completely different sizes. Can someone explain the advantages of the more expensive one ?

Thanks

 

[Josh66]

Well, the most important difference is that they're different mounts....

The top one is a Canon lens, the bottom one is Nikon.

The Canon one is an 'L' lens, with IS. I can't tell if it's the f/2.8 or f/4 version... Looks like f/4 though.

The Canon one will stay a constant aperture throughout the zoom range. The Nikon one likely won't.

I don't really know anything at all about that Nikon lens, but the Canon 70-200's are very good.

 

[bbirnie]

Ok sorry, I should've specified what answer I was looking for........

I was just using those pictures as examples, lets pretend they were the same mounts, the same brand, same max-app........ Im just wondering how two lens of completely different sizes but offer the same mm range differ.

 

[Josh66]

Cheaper construction, different number of groups/elements, different grades of glass, etc...

Lenses like the bottom one usually have a smaller max aperture while zoomed out - while lenses like the top one don't.

Focusing speed and accuracy will probably be very different too.

edit
An example of the cheaper construction - the bottom lens has a plastic mount (from what I can tell...), the top one has a metal mount.