| Re: Medium Range, High Quality Zoom.
Hi Nick
As you know from my post on this subject I have the f4 non IS version which I am extremely pleased with and picked up last year for £300. I bought it for a lightweight general purpose lens at a sensible price. To be quite honest it has not seen a lot of use, the 24-70mm f2.8L covers me for fungi and flowers etc as well as portraits and the 100mm-400mm for wildlife.
The 70-200mm range is very popular as a general walkabout lens ideal for shots of friends and family, weddings, stagework, pets and some portrait work. If you do a lot in these areas and in poor light conditions then it may be worthwhile splashing out on the f2.8 version. Given the weight (1310g) and a desire to handhold I would go for the 3 stop IS version which weighs in at 1470g has a MFD of 1.3m and maximum magnification at 200mm of 0.17x (the f4 version is 0.21x). Stick a 1.4tc on it and it will have some limited use for wildlife and make a nice zoo lens.
Gerry |