Best Canon lens?

The best lens in terms of sharpness is the 200mm 1.8L, which has been out of production for over 10 years.

There is no one "best" lens, since even the 200mm f1.8L will not be suitable for something that calls for a wide-angle FOV, for example.

I think Canon makes a lot of excellent EF lenses, with several good lenses at different focal lengths.

For example, at the wide end the best lenses are the 14mm f2.8L, 24mm f1.4L and 16-35mm f2.8L II

For short telephoto it would be the 85mm f1.2L and 135mm f2L

All the super-telephoto L lenses are excellent (300mm f2.8L, 400mm f2.8L, etc).

 

Agree on the 70-200 2.8 IS

great for action and limited distance. You can even go with a 1.4 or 2x teleconverter (extender) for distance and loose some F-stop.

 

Any of the "L" series lenses are as fine optically as anything you can buy, and they're built to take abuse as well, but of course you pay the price! The only time I've ever used any is on the old "Canon Photo Towers" they used to have at Watkins Glen and Long Beach in the "good old days". (Late '70s-early '80s!)

(The only lens I've bought for my Digital Rebel XTi so far is the 28-135mm f3.5-5.6 IS. While a fairly old design (1997) originally designed for film EOS cameras, the lens factor makes it equivalent to a 45-216mm lens on a 35mm camera. Thus it doubles as both my normal and telephoto zoom lenses. With both ultrasonic focusing and image stabilization it does everything I want and doesn't either weigh too much or cost a lot to buy. Maybe not an equal to an "L" lens, but I like it!)

 

+99

I'm not totally crazy about my 16-35ii though.

The primes always outshine their zoom brothers.

My copy of the 35 1.4 is as sharp as my 85 1.2. Just wicked.

You can see examples shot with the canon 1 series, Leica M, Leica R, and 6x17 fuji at www.williamsonimages.com

Robb

 

70-200 F/2.8

Without a doubt.

Prime lenses ROCK though.

Tried a 500 F4 a while back. HOLY COW!

 

Wish canon made a 200-400 L.

Will cross my fingers for a new lens like this at photokina in cologne.

Robb

 

For distance the 70-200 2.8 IS would be one of the best, and for close up photography the 17-40 or 16-35 would be best.