I have owned or examined most of the EF zooms made by Canon.
One notable exception is 24-105L. Held it in my hands but that was about it.
The 70-200 f/4 IS ended up being returned after a couple of days....didn\'t like its unremarkable IQ at MFD.
Lastly, while 24-70L can be very good, I believe there are many lacklustre copies out there as well.
My top echalon contenders were 100-400, 80-200L and 16-35L MkII.
Unfortunately, 100-400 is not a very agile lens.......aperture- wise and AF-wise.
The 16-35L MklI is excellent per se, just that in the flat, low rise suburban/rural country where I mostly shoot, an extra wide lens doesn\'t get used often enough.
Therefore, my personal winner is the old \"magic drainage pipe\" : EF 80-200mm f/2.8L. . Plenty (prime-like) sharp, beautiful colours/bokeh, no aberrations of any sort that I have noticed, peerless build quality for a black lens (180L is in the same league) and fast AF drive although it is not USM based. Too bad it is not being supported by Canon any longer.
Those that wish to showcase their own personal favourite zoom, please try to enclose some images taken with the lens.
Oct 14, 2009 at 07:33 AM
Previous versions of PetKal's message #7638723 « The Best Canon Zoom Ever »
. Plenty (prime-like) sharp, beautiful colours/bokeh, no aberrations of any sort that I have noticed, peerless build quality for a black lens (180L is in the same league) and fast AF drive although it is not USM based. Too bad it is not being supported by Canon any longer.