One of the best lenses ever made. Period.

This lens is close to optical nirvana, if there is such a thing. It's not perfect, of course, but no lens is. I personally think this lens is THE best lens Canon has ever made. Fastest consumer Auto focus 200mm lenses in the world. It really shows the skills of Canon lens engineering at its best. I have never seen a lens this sharp and usable wide open. Everything good you have read about this lens is true.

This lens really shows its strength for indoors sport, low light photography, and portraiture. For a lens this large and heavy, auto focus speed is blazingly fast. It snaps into focus instantly on 1-series of camera with large batteries.

The bokeh on this lens is superb.

It's not perfect, of course. On high contrast, brightly lit scenes, overall contrast is a little low, and shows a hint of color fringing. And it's heavy. At almost 7 lbs, this lens is handholdable for a short time in good light. I am not exactly a person with strong arms, but I can handhold this lens on a 1Ds for 10 to 15 minutes at a time. I think with a lens strap, and allows the lens/camera to hang on your neck every few minutes, one can shoot without a tripod or monopod. All the pictures you see in this gallery are shot hand held.

Its replacement, EF 200mm f2L IS, has been on dealer's shelf, but at $6k. That's a lot of money if you don't use it for a living. The EF 200mm f1.8L is still the fastest 200mm auto focus lens in the world :-)