noah2950

I got this lens for indoor sports such as volleyball and basketball, along with portrait, wedding, and event photography. Canon L build quality has been great as always. The large f/2.8 max aperture has been fantastic for sports and the image quality has been wonderful as well. Before using lens for long shoots (4 hr football games etc), I never really realized just how heavy this lens is. This is no general purpose carry lens, and the quality is paid for in size and conspicuousness. The IS has been a great feature for some of my wedding and portrait shots indoors and in low light, though I must admit that the extra weight and $600 more for the IS version of this lens probably wouldn't be necessary if I'd just use a portable monopod. AF is almost always incredibly fast and accurate, though in low light the lens slows down the AF and has a tendency to hunt a bit. The lens also works well with a 1.4x TC, though there is some slight image quility loss that goes away after around f/5.6. In short, you get what you pay for with this lens...but you pay a lot. Unless you really know you need the IS and the fast aperture the 2.8 non IS and f/4 versions of this lens all performed equally as well w/ AF speed and image quality. I have also seen excellent results with the Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 and 100-300 EX, though built quality and customer service lead me to the Canon.