The Canon 70-200mm f/4L USM is one of the cheapest L-series lenses available. Despite this fact, it is
a very well-performing lens. It has two big brothers, the 70-200mm f/2.8L USM and the 70-200mm f/2.8L
IS USM, both of which are over twice as expensive.
I used a Canon 1D (Auto White Balance mode) on a tripod with autofocus. The purpose of using the
autofocus was to test the consistency of the focusing. Due to
errors in focusing consistency, some (very few) pictures came out of focus (OOF) and were useless for
comparing sharpness. Overall, the autofocus reliability was excellent. Unfortunately, at these longer
focal lengths with fairly long exposure (like 1/4 second up to about 6 seconds at 200mm), I should have
used mirror lock up or higher ISO, because some camera shake was evident on some photos due to small
wiggles in the tripod.
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM -- Near Focus (~1.2m)
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f/4.0, 200mm
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f/4.0, 70mm
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f/4.5, 200mm
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f/4.5, 70mm
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f/5.0, 200mm
|
f/5.0, 70mm
|
f/5.6, 200mm
|
f/5.6, 70mm
|
f/8.0, 200mm
|
f/8.0, 70mm
|
f/11.0, 200mm
|
f/11.0, 70mm
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f/16.0, 200mm
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f/16.0, 70mm
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f/22, 200mm
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f/22, 70mm
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Notes on Near Focus
200mm:
- Looks like it picks up slightly around f/4.5 - not bad!
70mm:
- Looks like it picks up slightly around f/5.
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM -- Far Focus (~4m)
|
f/4.0, 200mm
|
f/4.0, 70mm
|
f/4.5, 200mm
|
f/4.5, 70mm
|
f/5.0, 200mm
|
f/5.0, 70mm
|
f/5.6, 200mm (Motion blurred by moving tripod)
|
f/5.6, 70mm
|
f/8.0, 200mm
|
f/8.0, 70mm
|
f/11.0, 200mm
|
f/11.0, 70mm
|
f/16.0, 200mm
|
f/16.0, 70mm
|
f/22, 200mm
|
f/22, 70mm
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Notes on Far Focus
- I can't really see any difference between these images! They all look slightly fuzzy probably due tripod movement (I shot
around ISO 200).
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