Lenses

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 - Canon's only Ultra-Wide-Angle lens choice for crop body cameras but an excellent performer

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L - Thoughts and impressions of Canon's budget L walkaround lens plus sample images

Canon EF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 IS II - Canon's basic kit lens for lower price APS-C DSLR models

Canon EF 40mm STM f/2.8 pancake - the first of its kind in the EF range and a good performer

Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L IS - one of the best lenses I have ever owned

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 - a stunning performer for a modest price

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro - the budget macro lens with a reputation for superb image quality

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro - Canon's updated 100mm macro lens incorporating IS and an L designation

Canon EF 300mm f/4.0L IS - the EF 300mm L lens for sports and wildlife if your budget doesn't stretch to the f/2.8 version

Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L - the longest Canon lens before the big, expensive ones

Canon EF 1.4x II Extender - a small, light and high quality teleconverter to give you some extra magnification when required

Canon Extension Tubes - a cheap way to increase magnification for macro work

Lighting

Canon ST-E2 Speedlite Transmitter - Canon's IR device for triggering flash units mounted off-camera

Canon 430EX II Speedlite Flash - Canon's mid-range flash unit

Canon 550EX Speedlite Flash - previously Canon's top-of-the-range flash unit

Electra Studio Lighting - a budget studio lighting kit that can deliver surprisingly good results

Support

Giottos MM 9550 Monopod - a budget monopod for those occasions when a tripod isn't suitable

Markins Q3 Ball head - small, light, high-quality ball head capable of supporting big loads

Gitzo GT2541EX Tripod - highly adaptable, high quality, carbon tripod ideal for travelling

Cameras

Canon PowerShot S90 - Canon's compact P&S for those times when you don't want to haul SLR gear around

Accessories

Electra Colour Balance Panel - a cheap version of the popular ExpoDisc for setting custom WB

Sekonic L-308S Flashmate - a convenient light meter that can be used for ambient light or strobe lighting

Lens Impressions

I bought a Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L lens with my first digital SLR as a general walkaround lens but I had always used manual focus telephoto zooms with my film SLRs so was desperate for an EF equivalent.

My FD 70-210mm f/4 had served me very well for many, many years so this lens, the EF equivalent, was an obvious choice. It's a fantastic lens. It's small, light, and the image quality is incredible. It's one of the cheapest 'L' lenses available and, as such, it is something of a bargain.

I sold it. The only reason for this was that my next purchase was the EF 300mm f/4L IS and I got bitten by the Image Stabilisation bug. When Canon announced an IS version of the EF 70-200mm f/4L I couldn't resist.

I really didn't want to sell the EF 70-200mm f/4L non-IS because it was such a good lens, but after having bought the IS version there was no reason to own both.

On my film camera 70-210mm was 70-210mm. However, with a 1.6x crop body dSLR the EF 70-200mm gets a free teleconverter effect. All of a sudden I found myself trying to hand hold a 320mm lens and the lens shake was quite noticeable.

By the time of the EF 70-200mm f/4L IS announcement, Canon had improved the Image Stabilisation significantly over my 300mm f/4L IS and for me there was no choice.

The only negative thing I can say about the non-IS version is that it doesn't have IS but that is rather obvious. It's still available new and there are lots of good used ones on the market. It's an absolute bargain and regardless of your camera body, this lens will give great results.

The lack of IS means you will need to use a bit more care when shooting in low light but high ISO performance keeps improving, as does noise filtering software.

Of the lenses I have included here, this one probably gets the most interest. It's quite a lot cheaper than the IS version and I think people want to know whether it is worth paying the extra for the IS.

This is a personal choice. My view is that IS is essential, and that the latest version of IS is really worth having. Some people don't share that view.

IS allows you to hand-hold at lower shutter speeds but those lower shutter speeds won't freeze fast moving action. Some people would prefer an EF 70-200mm f/2.8L non-IS to the 70-200mm f/4L IS.

It depends on your personal preferences and the type of subjects you will be shooting. I prefer having an option that I can turn off if I want, rather than having a lens without the option.

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Post-Processing

I owned this lens when I was mostly shooting JPG images. Some original images were shot in the RAW format and converted with Adobe Camera Raw. Noise was reduced using Imagenomic Noiseware Professional. Small amounts of image enhancement were applied using Adobe Photoshop CS2 (curves, levels, saturation) before sharpening using the Smart Sharpen filter (Amount: 30% - 120%, Radius: 0.2px - 0.3px, Remove: Lens Blur).

The large JPG images that open if you click on a thumbnail were saved with a 'High' quality setting of '8' on a scale of 0-12.

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Lens Details

Weight: 22 oz; 705 g
Filter Diameter: 67mm
Closest Focusing Distance: 3.9ft; 1.2m
Minimum Aperture: f/32
Supplier: Cathay Photo, Singapore
Price: Can't remember
Lens Hood: ET-74 (included)
Soft Case: LP1224 (included)

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