great landscape, portrait lens
Pros:
super fast auto focus, fast maximum aperture, close focusing
Cons:
cost, weight
The Bottom Line:
fast autofocus, great light gathering ability, beautiful images, this is a great lens!
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
This is a professional quality wide to short tele zoom with super fast autofocus and large maximum aperture. It's sharp, accurate and produces minimal distortion even at its widest setting.
The lens is nicely balanced and since it's an internal focusing optic, works well with filters.
While I use this lens mainly for landscapes, group shots, portraits and sports, it would also be quite useful for wedding photography too.
Construction is solid, accounting for its weight. The two touch zooming focusing design is fluid and comfortable to use. The constant 2.8 maximum aperture provides even, predictable exposure through its zoom range. The lens has a 77 mm filter mount and comes with a "perfect" lens hood to minimize lens flare.
Autofocus is fast and sure enough for sports and action photography. As canon's second version of this lens (replacing the 28 to 70 2.8-4L), the lens features the ability to fine tune focus manually while the lens is still set for autofocus, a capability not present on the earlier version. Manual focus is smooth and comfortable.
This is an expensive optic, costing more than $1,000 when new and still commanding upwards of $800 or more on the used market. The fact that the lens holds its value is yet another indication of its high regard in the pro ranks. For many, this is a comfortable substitute for several prime lenses including the 28 2.8, 35 2.8, 50 2.8 and 70 2.8.
Close focusing -- while not a true macro lens, the 28-70 2.8L does offer the ability to get quite close to your subject. I've used if for full frame images of monarch butterflies with very satisfactory results.
