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

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM: Handling and features

Weighing 1490g, this lens has a fair bit of heft to it and you certainly notice its there when being carried about for long periods. Still it balances extremely well on the EOS 5D MkII used for testing with the controls all being in very natural positions for operating the lens and supporting the weight at the same time. High quality materials have been used throughout and a rubber gasket is located around the lens mount to keep dust and moisture from the camera.

As focus and zooming actions are preformed internally, the 77mm front filter does not rotate during use, making use of polarising filters quite a pleasant experience. A petal-shaped lens hood comes supplied, which fit onto the bayonet around the front.

The zoom action is smooth requiring little force to move it through the range, but providing enough resistance to stay put and avoid zoom creep. The manual focus ring is silky in operation and well-enough damped for easy manual focus adjustments.

Focusing is lighting quick and virtually silent on the EOS 5D MkII used for testing and the minimum focusing distance of 1.2m is fairly typical for modern lenses of this ilk.

A four stop image stabiliser comes fitted to this optic and it performs excellently. Shooting at 200mm, I could manage four out of five shots sharp at a 1/25sec and around two out of three shots sharp at 1/13sec, which is four stops slower than the usual rule of thumb for sharp hand held images dictates.

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