bjcook's Full Review: Sigma EF f/4.0 L USM 70-200mm Lens
You know the problem with camera lenses? They're never quite long enough, just when you think you have the lens that will reach out there you find yourself wanting just a bit further. The problem is unless you're a pro or have $3000 to invest in your hobby the choices are limited. So we compromise, but which route do you take? A 75-300 is compact but usually not the fastest choice and not always sharp at the long end of things, there's the faster constant aperture lenses but they're not as compact or as cheap. Enter the Canon 70-200 f/4 "L" series lens. The "L" can be thought of as "luxury" and at around $600 this is the entry level to the series so affectionately dubbed "the white lens." They are white so they don't get as hot as a black lens and that makes sense but it also makes you stand out like a sore thumb.
One of the first things you will notice is that the lens does not extend as it is zoomed in/out and focuses. In fact, the lens give such a sense of being sealed you know a little rain or moisture or dust won't bother it. Canon also includes the large black lens hood (which is huge and makes the lens looks incredibly obtrusive) and a grey lens pouch. I must say the soft lens 'pouch' was something of a let down, it has no padding and 'cinches' off at the top. Come on Canon, I mean Sigma gives you very nice padded cases with zippers on a lens that runs $200. The front element does not rotate, meaning a polarizer is no problem. When mounted on my Canon 300D it definitely feels like it is in control of the camera and not vice-versa. The lens has a distance meter which you can see through a protective window on top of the lens.
I have used quite a few tele-zooms on my Canon 300D but the minute I put this lens on and pressed the shutter halfway down to get a focus lock I was blown away. To those who have not experienced the high speed focusing of Canon's USM motors you won't beleive how fast it achieves focus. It was pretty much instant, I ended up having to press it a few times to make sure it actually was working. One thing that helps to speed up focus is the focus limiter which when turned on will focus on objects past 1.2 meters. Since the lens doesn't have to worry about focusing close it speeds things up (not that it's a slouch with it turned off.)
For anyone new to the term "USM" it stands for Ultra Sonic Motor and how it works is instead of how we think of a traditional motor turning it works more like electrical charges being sent through rings which causes them to turn, the result is a much faster and accurate response.
The constant f/4 aperture is also great, it's not f/2.8 but that lens is substantially larger and not one I would like to carry around all day. Keep in mind on the Digital Rebel with the 1.6x multiplier you're actually getting a 320mm f/4 lens on the long end - this is pretty good. In all the tests I did the lens is sharp at f/4 and gets only slightly better stopped down. Don't get me wrong at all though, the shots at f/4 are very useable. Throughout the range from 70mm to 200mm all the shots were sharp with excellent contrast.
If you need more reach this lens will work with the Canon 1.4x and 2x extenders but you will lose 1 and 2 stops of light respectively. And at around $300 you better have a good use for it!
Real World Experiences
I used it at a couple of my son's ball games this summer and with the focus limiter on I was abe to shoot through the fence with ease for low-angle shots. It also cut right through dust to get a perfect focus lock on players when running and sliding. The quick focus makes this lens perfect for little league games and since the fields are small the focal length will get you right in the action even from the fence. The f/4 aperture was also a nice but since you're increasing the ISO to shoot action anyway a faster aperture really wasn't necessary. Also, I must say the size and balance of the lens made it nice to hald-hold shots unlike the f/2.8 versions which would not (at least in my opinion) be comfortable to hold for entire games without a monopod.
For outdoor and nature photography this lens again excels. One thing I did notice was the colors were a bit more subdued in a few shots but that may be due in part to my camera parameters and personal taste (I like Fuji Velvia.) That really doesn't matter anyway because the colors were accurate so you can make them more vibrant in your favorite post-processing program.
Not to say that you can't take blurred and bad pictures with this lens, in fact my first few shots were a big disappointment but the lens was not to blame. It's easy to get an inflated ego with that piece of white glass on there but don't get to thinking just because this lens is near perfect that it will compensate for your shortcomings - it will do what you tell it to and it will do it well.
Head to Head with the Sigma 70-300 APO
As you can read in my review of the Sigma 70-300 APO I took this lens head to head with the Sigma and it pretty much left the Sigma in the dust. However keep in mind the Sigma is 1/3 of the price, has a 100mm longer range and also has a very nice macro capability. The most glaring differences between the two are the focus speed and sharpness wide open. The Sigma's autofocus tends to hunt a little more in low light situations but not much can keep up with this Canon in the area of focusing speed. It pretty much goes without saying but purple fringing (Chromatic Aberration) does not seem to be a problem with this lens.
In some ways this lens is in a similar position as the Sigma I pitted against it, there's really not another lens with these features and quality in this price range. I did not notice any significant distortion at the short or long end on this lens, I'm sure there's some since it's pretty much impossible to eliminate all of it but it is not pronounced on my target shots or real world application as many of the tele-zooms I've tried.
Any Downsides?
One of the few drawbacks to this lens is the fact that when mounted on my 300D it becomes 112mm on the short end. That puts you out there quite a ways so even though the quality is great you'll often find yourself going to a different lens for indoor and wide angle landscape shots. As I stated before the white lens will get attention, both good and bad. Another interesting conundrum with this lens is a filter, a 67mm B+W polarizer is not cheap but you hate to put anything on the front which might degrade image quality. So you can't decide whether to go filter-less most of the time and risk damage to the lens or buy a real expensive multi-coated German UV filter to live on the front. Since the lens does not extend/retract you may get annoyed carrying it around if you're used to the zooms which retract to a nice compact length.
If you're looking for something less conspicuous, cheaper and lighter with macro capability I would say go with the Sigma 70-300 APO. However if you want the best image quality and fast focusing this side of $1000 then this is the lens to beat. There's some talk about 'bad copies' and 'front focusing', 'back focusing' and that type of stuff, I don't know how prevalent it is but I guess I got lucky because I've observed no such problems. If you need more range consider teaming this lens up with the 1.4x or 2x converter.
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