A friend and I saw pictures taken with this lens on the web and couldn't believe it: we'd both sold camera gear for years and had never come across this. A year later he finds one for sale online and passes it up: a week later I'm the proud owner of a new old lens.

This lens is frighteningly sharp. Another friend who picked this up couldn't distinguish images shot with this lens versus his Zeiss ZE 50mm. Very few of Canon's lenses contain fluorite, and even fewer have two fluorite elements as this does. The fine-edge sharpness of the lens accentuates the dreamy bokeh, which tends to render backgrounds as if they were oil paintings. An image search on the web will yield some dramatic examples (best I've found are in Malaysia and China).

Weight-wise it is hefty, not heavy. It feels great on any camera. 58mm filter size means that filters are inexpensive. The thin profile and black color make the lens unobtrusive, although it is long. Great if you want a lower-profile telephoto zoom to work with. It won't break your back in a bag with other lenses.

I also love the push-pull zoom design. The lack of full-time manual (FTM) is also a plus for me, but I know many people prefer this.

Semi-slow AF that is noisy. While faster than the glacial (and similarly sharp) EF 100-300mm 5.6L, it is slower than its other contemporary EF 70-210mm f/4. No full-time manual -- which I actually prefer, finding FTM irritating should you bump the focus ring with a super-sharp lens.

It seems to run 'dark -- cinema folks would say that its T-stop is a stop below the rated f-stop. This is a measure of actual (versus the theoretical) transmission of a lens: in studio settings I have to open up a stop from a flash meter recommendation. A minor inconvenience.

Finally, L-zooms from the first generation of EOS lenses were NOT weather proof: only primes of the era got that treatment. So you should mindful of using this on a digital in dusty environments. I will say years of using the similarly-designed EF 100-300mm 5.6 L on digitals have not shown this to be a huge problem, although I dont tend to shoot in heavily dusty environments.

A stellar lens that is probably the rarest lens in EF mount except for the 1200mm 5.6L. Sharp, portable, sharp, affordable, sharp, great bokeh. Oh yeah; it's really sharp, too! ;)

Sharpness is not the end-all of lenses. The images from this lens have a distinct look. It is a shame it was discontinued so quickly by Canon: an updated version of this formula would sell like crazy. Worth hunting for and having.

Similar Products Used:

EF 80-200 2.8L; EF 100-300mm 5.6 (non-L and L); EF 70-210mm 4; EF 70-200mm 2.8 L II and III.

Cheap with useful zoom range.

As in summary

Bought this lens several years ago to go with a secondhand EOS 600. Wanted a simple point & shoot lens at the time. Being none USM the focusing is slow and hunts a lot. Image quality is average (2.5) and vignettes at 200mm. Noisy with rotating front element.

Customer Service

Not used

Sharpness, weight and size, versality, cost. L quality glass.

slide zoom, mechanical autofocus.

Great lens, it''s now my "all around" lens that stays on the camera all the time. Very fast auto focus, great contrast and sharpness. If you don''t mind the slide zoom and the focusing noise it''s a wonderful lens with a great zoom range.

Customer Service

none needed

Similar Products Used:

100-300 f5.6 L, 28-135 f3.5 - 4.5 IS USM