The Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM III Has Been Discontinued

[Michael Clark]

The ‘magic drainpipe’ was a good lens for its day, but that day has long passed. The EF 70-200/2.8L non-IS that succeeded it delivered better IQ, and today the IQ of the latter is surpassed even by RF consumer / non-L zooms, and more so by modern L-series zooms.

It's all relative. The Magic Drainpipe blew away what any previous 80-200mm or similar f/2.8 lens could do optically. It was the first zoom lens to seriously challenge the idea that no large aperture zoom could be as good as even a modest prime. That was revolutionary in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In the years since we have seen constantly improving quality of zoom lenses, but it has been more of a series of continuous incremental improvements. I do not think we've seen as large of a jump from what had been previously available to what a new lens could do since the EF 80-200mm f/2.8 appeared on the scene. The only thing that even comes close is the EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II USM compared to the EF 70-200mmf/2.8 L IS in 2010, and that was not the same level of improvement that we saw with the Magic Drainpipe compared to what else was out there in 1987.