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Another grey market deal from eBay — as this items do not come from a Canon USA authorized dealer, a 1-year Canon USA warranty is not guaranteed. It is from “deals-all-year” — based on reader and eBay feedback, a reliable and reputable dealer.
If grey market is not your thing — we have a current street price of $1599, and are eagerly awaiting Canon’s next move after the current rebate period expires on Saturday.
Not quite the bargain the 70-200mm was the other day, still not too bad. I think this lens is still imho the king of it’s class. I know it lacks IS, and that sucks, but for most the things you would shoot with this that really matters little. This is an event lens; weddings, indoor sports, etc, all things that require a faster shutter than you would need IS for anyway. It would be nice to see a mkIII with IS though, but I also wonder if the issue is that lenses at this length suffer too much IQ loss when IS is added (shorter lengths tend to be hard to work that out). I could be wrong, and I hope Canon can prove me wrong.
In any case, if you use a full frame camera and plan to shoot events, this is a must have lens unless you only use primes. If you are a crop user, well, I personally don’t suggest using 24-70mm lenses on a crop since the crop factor kind of kills it’s wide angle of view. I would instead suggest the EF-S 17-55mm F2.8 IS USM for that, as you will retain a good wide angle that will be useful in close settings while still having the advantage of the F2.8 for exposure. It even has IS, though it is a kind of dated version. It is also much cheaper, and just a more sensible choice for crops. I personally stick to crop lenses for angles of 35mm or wider. If you are worried that you can’t use it on a FF camera, then maybe you should jsut consider getting a FF camera instead, since I personally see no reason to cripple your wide shots on the off chance that maybe someday you will have a FF camera. But it is a personal choice, that is just my opinion.
Canon 70-200 III