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

Canon announced its update to the 70-200mm ƒ/2.8L IS leading up to CES2010. A go-to lens for most Canon professionals, the new version of the telephoto zoom lens features a revision to the optical design (using 5 UD glass and 1 fluorite glass element) and a slightly closer minimum focusing distance (1.2 meters instead of 1.3).

The EF lens is compatible with both sub-frame and full-frame sensor camera bodies, and uses a constant ƒ/2.8 aperture across all focal lengths. On a sub-frame body, the effective field of view for the lens is 112-320mm; on a body such as the Canon 1D mark IV, with its APS-H-sized sensor, the lens provides an effective field of view of 91-260mm.

The lens ships with the ET-87 petal-shaped lens hood, a lens case, and tripod mount. The lens is available now for around $2,450.

August 30, 2010: We’ve added our new image stabilization test for this lens.

Sharpness

Beginning with the lens mounted on the sub-frame 20D, we noted excellent results for sharpness at all focal lengths, even wide open at ƒ/2.8. Performance at ƒ/2.8 is not tack-sharp, but it’s quite close at around 1.5 blur units. Stopping down to ƒ/4 provides a marginal increase in performance, and at 100mm and ƒ/4 it is indeed about as sharp as our testing can measure. There are tiny gains from ƒ/5.6 onward, but the focal range between 135mm and 200mm never hits 1 blur unit; by ƒ/11, diffraction limiting begins to set in, and impacts on overall sharpness. At this point it’s more notable at 200mm, where we see 1.5 blur units; at the other focal lengths, we still note excellent sharpness results, between 1 and 1.5 blur units.

Stopping down further impacts significantly on sharpness, until we see between 2-2.5 blur units at ƒ/22, and around 4 blur units, fully stopped down at ƒ/32.

The full-frame 5D is even more demanding on the lens. Wide open at ƒ/2.8, the lens shows its best performance at 70mm, with a generous sweet spot of 1-1.5 blur units in the center of the frame, degrading slightly to some corner softness; around 2 blur units. From 100mm and up we note increasing corner softness and a lessening of that sharp sweet spot until it’s just over 1.5 blur units in the center and 2 in the corners at 200mm.

Stopping down provides additional sharpness, but never does the lens reach absolute, 1-blur unit “tack” sharpness across the frame (it comes very close, for instance 70mm at ƒ/8). Still, it’s very sharp indeed. At ƒ/16 diffraction limiting has set in, with the lens providing a consistent 1.5 blur units across the frame. At ƒ/22 the lens shows 2 blur units across the frame, and interestingly, at ƒ/32 it shows 3 blur units across the frame (as opposed to the 4 blur units we noted with the 20D at that aperture).

Chromatic Aberration

You have to peep very closely to the 100% crops of our sample images to detect any chromatic aberration at all with the Canon 70-200mm ƒ/2.8 II; that fluorite element is clearly earning its keep. In short, there is hardly any to speak of, and where it does show is in the corners at either 70mm or 200mm.

Shading (”Vignetting”)

On the sub-frame 20D, corner shading isn’t really an issue with this lens. The only light falloff to speak of is found at 200mm and ƒ/2.8, where the corners are just over a quarter-stop darker than the center. Not much to write home about.

On the full-frame 5D, it’s another story however, with significant corner shading when the lens is used wide open. It’s slightly more forgiving at 70mm; at 100mm and greater, using the lens at ƒ/2.8 produces corners which are almost a full stop darker than the center. This reduces to a half-stop, a third of a stop and a quarter-stop at ƒ/4, ƒ/5.6 and ƒ/8 respectively. When used at 70mm, this light falloff reduces earlier, with the corners being only a third of a stop darker than the center at ƒ/4, and less than a quarter-stop darker at ƒ/5.6.

Distortion

Results for distortion are typical of telephoto zoom lenses, with some barrel distortion at the wider end, and pincushion distortion at the telephoto end. The point of convergence (where there is neither type of distortion) is balanced nicely at around 105mm. As you would expect the distortion isn’t as significant with the lens mounted on the sub-frame 20D; it shows just +0.25% barrel distortion in the corners at 70mm and -0.2% pincushion distortion in the corners at 200mm. With the lens mounted on the full-frame 5D, it’s a bit more prominent, with +0.5% barrel distortion in the corners at 70mm, and -0.5% pincushion distortion in the corners at 200mm.

Autofocus Operation

As an L-class lens with Canon’s USM focusing technology, there aren’t many lenses which will keep up with the focusing speed of the EF 70-200mm ƒ/2.8L IS II USM. It takes well less than a second to go through the focusing range. The lens makes almost no noise as it does this. As well, autofocus results can be overridden at any time by simply turning the focusing ring. The autofocusing speed can also be improved by restricting the focusing distance: a switch allows the user to select between two focusing ranges, either 1.2m to infinity or 2.5m to infinity. The front element of the lens does not rotate during focusing, making life that little bit easier for polarizer users.

Macro

While the lens isn’t intended as a macro lens, its minimum close-focusing distance has been improved, at just 1.2 meters (just under four feet). The magnification is 0.21x.

Build Quality and Handling

Like all the white-body L-series Canon lenses, build quality on the EF 70-200 mm ƒ/2.8L IS II USM is exceptional, incorporating seals for weather and dust-resistance. It’s built like a tank, and frankly weighs like one as well. This is a very heavy lens (over three pounds), not one that you’re going to want to hand-hold all day. Combined with its image stabilization, a monopod with a ball head would be a great way to work with this lens. If you do have to handhold it though, the IS works very well. Canon claims four f-stops of shake reduction, and we will be hopefully be producing some evidence to discuss the accuracy of this claim in the near future.

There are several control and information points on the lens that are worth noting. In addition to the focus and zoom rings, there are four command switches. From top to bottom, you have the focus limiter switch (described previously) and a switch to enable or disable autofocus on the lens (“AF / MF”); there are then two switches to control image stabilization. The first activates or deactivates the system (“ON / OFF”) and the second selects the image stabilization mode, mode 1 (for stabilization both horizontal and vertical motion) and mode 2 (for stabilizing just vertical motion, suitable for panning shots). A window provides distance information in feet and meters, and while there is no depth-of-field scale, there is an infrared index.

The focusing ring is quite large (slightly larger than the previous version, in fact), composed of rubber with small ribs about 1 3/4 inches wide. The ring provides excellent manual focusing fidelity, with a slightly smooth resistance and plenty of travel. The ring ends in soft stops on both ends of the focusing spectrum, and will focus past infinity.

The zoom ring is composed of rubber with large ribs, about 1 1/4 inches wide. The ring takes about seventy degrees of turning action to go from 70mm to 200mm, and again, the ring is very smooth, firm but not too tight; it requires two fingers to move. Zoom creep isn’t a problem with this lens, and there is no lens extension during zoom operations.

The ET-87 lens hood is petal-shaped, attaches via a bayonet mount, and adds about three and a half inches to the overall length of the lens. The interior of the hood is flocked to reduce any stray light, and there’s a locking mechanism to keep the hood attached to the lens. It’s a pricey item: around $75 to replace.

The lens features Image Stabilization, and you can see our IS Test for more details there.

Alternatives

Canon EF 70-200mm ƒ/2.8L IS USM ~$1,900
The twenty-four hundred dollar question is whether or not the new lens is worth the upgrade from the old. Without question, the new lens is sharper than the old, but the gain is mostly at 70mm. The old version of the lens was very sharp indeed. Thanks to the fluorite lens elements, chromatic aberration is reduced to minimal levels, but the old lens didn’t really suffer from CA. The other characteristics – distortion and corner shading – are essentially the same. Canon claims an extra stop of image stabilization with the new lens.

Canon EF 70-200mm ƒ/2.8L USM ~$1,200
If you can live without image stabilization, Canon also offers the previous model in a non-IS version. The lens proved to be slightly sharper than the previous IS-version, but the new IS 70-200mm f/2.8 lens is sharper than them both (at double the price, you’d hope it would be). CA, distortion and corner shading are at about the same level.

Sigma 70-200mm ƒ/2.8 EX DG OS HSM APO ~$2,500
We haven’t yet tested this new lens from Sigma, and it doesn’t yet seem to be shipping. At the price point suggested by Sigma, it will have to be a very good lens indeed to justify an off-brand purchase by Canon users. Non-OS lenses from Sigma in this focal length range have been very sharp, with HSM motors providing very fast autofocus results.

Tamron 70-200mm ƒ/2.8 Di LD IF Macro SP AF ~$730
Tamron also offers a 70-200mm alternative, though Vibration Control (VC) technology hasn’t yet been added to this lens. Even so, it’s one of the sharper 70-200mm offerings, though chromatic aberration is more evident. Distortion and corner shading are about the same.

Conclusion
This one’s fairly straightforward: if you were looking, you probably were already thinking about getting this lens, and there’s nothing to fault it. If absolutely need image stabilization and the sharpest, best image quality in a 70-200mm zoom, it’s money well-spent. However, if you are less picky, you probably won’t be disappointed with the tried-and-true original version of the 70-200mm f/2.8 IS, either. Canon’s made some impressive fine-tuning adjustments to the lens, but unlike other manufacturers, no one was really complaining about the original version of the lens so much that it needed a refresh.

Sample Photos

The VFA target should give you a good idea of sharpness in the center and corners, as well as some idea of the extent of barrel or pincushion distortion and chromatic aberration, while the Still Life subject may help in judging contrast and color. We shoot both images using the default JPEG settings and manual white balance of our test bodies, so the images should be quite consistent from lens to lens.

Still Life shot

VFA target

As appropriate, we shoot these with both full-frame and sub-frame bodies, at a range of focal lengths, and at both maximum aperture and ƒ/8. For the ”VFA” target (the viewfinder accuracy target from Imaging Resource), we also provide sample crops from the center and upper-left corner of each shot, so you can quickly get a sense of relative sharpness, without having to download and inspect the full-res images. To avoid space limitations with the layout of our review pages, indexes to the test shots launch in separate windows.

(From Canon lens literature) Improving upon one of the most celebrated lenses in the Canon EF line is no easy feat, but Canon has done just that. The all-new EF 70-200mm ƒ/2.8L IS II USM increases the speed, performance and optical quality of the EF 70-200 ƒ/2.8L IS USM while maintaining all of the characteristics that have made it a legend for professionals and advanced amateurs alike.

The EF 70-200mm ƒ/2.8L IS II USM features one fluorite and five UD elements for increased optical quality and reduced chromatic aberration. It has a minimum focusing distance of 1.2m/3.9 ft. at all zoom settings, which is useful for photographers in smaller spaces trying to get closer to a subject.

It features a next-generation Optical Image Stabilizer, providing up to 4 stops of correction at all focal lengths. And as with all L-series lenses, the EF 70-200mm ƒ/2.8L IS II USM is dust- and moisture-resistant and designed for use in the challenging environments typical of rigorous professional use.

Canon has been through a number of generations of image stabilization systems now, and the maturity of their technology shows in the 70-200mm f/2.8 IS II’s performance. At 70mm with an already fairly steady shooter, we found that it delivered a bit over three stops of shake reduction. At the wider end of its range, IS performance degrades relatively gradually, in that the percentage of sharp shots decreases steadily over a range of 3-4 stops of shutter speed. This means you may still get a small percentage of “keepers” even at shutter speeds more than 3 stops beyond your normal “safe” hand-holding range. This contrasts with some lenses and camera bodies that seem to maintain a high percentage of good shots to a certain shutter speed range, and then run out of steam fairly quickly. As we’ll see below, this lens more closely follows this second behavior at the 200mm end of its range.

Mouse over this chart to show results with IS activated.

At 200mm, the shake reduction was comfortably four stops, Canon’s claimed level of performance. It’s actually fairly rare to see lenses delivering the full amount of shake reduction claimed by their manufacturers, so the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS II is a rare bird, indeed. Our main lens tester Rob is a very stable shooter, but the size and weight of this lens took a toll even on him, as witness that only 50% of his shots were acceptably sharp at 200mm and 1/160 second with the IS turned off. With the IS on, though, 70% of his shots were tack-sharp and an additional 10% acceptably sharp at 1/10 second. That deserves repeating: 80% of shots were sharp at 200mm, handheld at 1/10 second. That’s just flat-out amazing. When it does finally run out of motion-compensation ability, though, it happens fairly rapidly: The percentage of keepers went from 80% at 1/10 second to just 20% at 1/5 second.

Mouse over this chart to show results with IS activated.

IS systems tend to provide more benefit to less-stable shooters than very steady ones, so most users will see the same or greater amounts of shake reduction as we measured here. You can read more about our IS test methodology here: SLRgear IS Test Methodology, v2.