I have a 450D with the 17-85mm IS USM kit lens. I’m thinking of buying a new telephoto lens and I’d like to know if the L series lenses are worth the extra money?

EOS magazine: Canon L series (the ‘L’ stands for Luxury) lenses are the best lenses that Canon make. A good telephoto lens for your camera would be a 70-200mm zoom and Canon make four L series lenses of that focal length: the 70-200mm f4 L USM, the 70-200mm f4 L IS USM, the 70-200 f2.8L USM and the 70-200mm f2.8L IS USM. What do all those letters stand for? USM = Ultrasonic Motor. Canon lenses fitted with an ultrasonic motor have a very quiet, virtually silent autofocus mechanism. IS = Image Stabilization. Lenses with Image Stabilization can generally be hand held at shutter speeds three to five stops lower than a lens without IS. This is very useful when handholding the camera in low light. 

Image stabilization pushes the price of the lens up and the answer to whether it’s worth the extra money depends on what type of shooting you do. If you’re shooting handheld portraits in low light a lot, then perhaps IS is for you. If landscapes are your thing, and you put the camera on a tripod to shoot when light levels get low, then you don’t need IS. 

The maximum aperture is another important factor. The f2.8 lenses give an extra stop of speed and a softer background when shooting wide open. They also cost (and weigh) substantially more, which is why Canon manufacture both f4 and f2.8 models, so that photographers who don’t need the f2.8 lens don’t have to pay out for features that they don’t require.

As for whether buying an L series lens itself is worth the extra money, in our opinion the answer is a definite yes. The lenses are strongly constructed, the autofocus is virtually instant and silent, and image quality, as one would expect, extremely high. It’s hard to describe how good an L series lens feels in the hand, and there’s a big danger that once you’ve used one, you’ll never want to buy a lesser quality lens again!

As ever, the final answer depends on your budget and needs. An L series lens won’t automatically improve your photography. It WILL give you a much better tool for taking photos. As someone once pointed out, quality is remembered long after price is forgotten.

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