I traded in my non-IS 70-200 2.8L (which I loved) for the new 70-200 2.8L IS iii. I did my first tests this afternoon, taken at the worst time of day for photography, but it was all I had to work with. I went out to Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, which is a hybrid zoo/garden/museum. As most of you know this lens is just a rebrand of the version 2, with a different shade of white paint and some new lens coatings to reduce flare.
I never liked white lenses and would far prefer if they made it in black. That being said, the new shade of white is even worse than the old. The old had a slightly warm cast, but the new is stark white and almost looks cyan in comparison. The important part is how it works and how sharp it is, of course, and there are no surprises. We already know it's a great lens because the version 2 is a great lens - one of the best zoom lenses ever (and if you have a version 2, don't bother changing).
First test of flare is a shot of pathway with hood on and hood off. The sun was high in the sky, so not much of a test, but I was at an angle where the full sun hit the glass with the hood off. The two shots look identical to me, so the flare control seems to work in normal situations making the use of the hood less essential perhaps than with other lenses.
Next to really test flare, I found a tall flower where I could kneel down and shoot almost directly into the sun with the hood off. The sun is just out of frame above the image area. There are no sun streaks and flare seems to be very well controlled indeed. Image is a bit hazy, but not bad at all and certainly easy to fix with a bump in contrast during post production. (I should mention that all of these samples are unedited JPEG except for downsizing).
I also wanted to make sure the AI focus tracking mode worked and found an unusually active skunk. Camera tracked it reasonably well, with face sharp at f2.8 on a large percentage of images. Of course a walking skunk is not the same as a bird in flight and if that is your primary interest, you are apparently better off with Nikon (as per Art Morris' recent switch).
With a sitting mountain lion I used the single shot mode, focusing on the eyes. Even shooting at an angle through glass (handheld), the detail is exceptional, as this crop of the left eye shows.
Final test is the image stabilization (which is reportedly identical to version 2, so no improvement there but as I said I had the non-IS version). In the reptile building I zoomed out to 200mm and started low at 1/13 then 1/20 second with blurry results. At 1/40 I got ok but not tack sharp result (though if I was at a better angle I might have gotten sharp). At 1/60 it was tack sharp, which is still not bad for a 200mm lens. I turned off the IS for comparison and it was quite blurry indeed.
Conclusion: My non-IS lens was stellar and I debated getting rid of it (and still partly wonder if I made the right choice). I decided to switch not only for the image stabilization but also because the IS ii and iii focus almost a foot closer. If you have a version 2 stick with it, but if not the version 3 lists for the same price so you may as well get the newest one like I did. If you shoot into the sun a lot then the version 3 may be an upgrade.
I never liked white lenses and would far prefer if they made it in black. That being said, the new shade of white is even worse than the old. The old had a slightly warm cast, but the new is stark white and almost looks cyan in comparison. The important part is how it works and how sharp it is, of course, and there are no surprises. We already know it's a great lens because the version 2 is a great lens - one of the best zoom lenses ever (and if you have a version 2, don't bother changing).
First test of flare is a shot of pathway with hood on and hood off. The sun was high in the sky, so not much of a test, but I was at an angle where the full sun hit the glass with the hood off. The two shots look identical to me, so the flare control seems to work in normal situations making the use of the hood less essential perhaps than with other lenses.
Next to really test flare, I found a tall flower where I could kneel down and shoot almost directly into the sun with the hood off. The sun is just out of frame above the image area. There are no sun streaks and flare seems to be very well controlled indeed. Image is a bit hazy, but not bad at all and certainly easy to fix with a bump in contrast during post production. (I should mention that all of these samples are unedited JPEG except for downsizing).
I also wanted to make sure the AI focus tracking mode worked and found an unusually active skunk. Camera tracked it reasonably well, with face sharp at f2.8 on a large percentage of images. Of course a walking skunk is not the same as a bird in flight and if that is your primary interest, you are apparently better off with Nikon (as per Art Morris' recent switch).
With a sitting mountain lion I used the single shot mode, focusing on the eyes. Even shooting at an angle through glass (handheld), the detail is exceptional, as this crop of the left eye shows.
Final test is the image stabilization (which is reportedly identical to version 2, so no improvement there but as I said I had the non-IS version). In the reptile building I zoomed out to 200mm and started low at 1/13 then 1/20 second with blurry results. At 1/40 I got ok but not tack sharp result (though if I was at a better angle I might have gotten sharp). At 1/60 it was tack sharp, which is still not bad for a 200mm lens. I turned off the IS for comparison and it was quite blurry indeed.
Conclusion: My non-IS lens was stellar and I debated getting rid of it (and still partly wonder if I made the right choice). I decided to switch not only for the image stabilization but also because the IS ii and iii focus almost a foot closer. If you have a version 2 stick with it, but if not the version 3 lists for the same price so you may as well get the newest one like I did. If you shoot into the sun a lot then the version 3 may be an upgrade.
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