Canon 200mm f/2L IS

The successor to the legendary 200mm f/1.8L, this new lens has a bit tighter aperture but adds Canon’s 4-stop fourth-generation Image Stabilization. With 17 optical elements including fluorite and low dispersion glass elements, the lens is supposed to have lower chromatic aberration and faster autofocus than its predecessor, better dust and weather proofing, and remain amazingly sharp even wide open.

The 200mm primes are THE indoor sports lenses, often used for theater work and other low light applications. They are superb with 1.4x teleconverters, giving the option of creating a 280mm f/2.8 lens, and even good with a 2x converter, becoming a 400mm f/4.

Roger’s Take: For the die-hards among you let’s get it out of the way first – I have owned and shot the 200 f1.8. This lens is every bit as good from a sharpness standpoint and while its common use (indoor sports) doesn’t require the IS feature too often, the IS is quite amazing. It takes 1.4x and 2x teleconverters very well which allows you to have 200 f2.0, 280 f2.8, and 400 f4 IS lenses all in one package.