Briefy - What is a 'L Series Lens

canon400d

Can someone please tell me exactly in layman's terms what an 'L' Series Lens is. I have been reading the reviews on B&H about a EF 70-200mm f/4.0L USM and wow what reviews. I have a Sigma 70-300 for my 400D. How much better is the 70-200mm to mine. I have been put in the mood again to purchase. Comments please.
Bob
Dumfries & Galloway
Scotland

gus

canon400d wrote:

Can someone please tell me exactly in layman's terms what an 'L' Series Lens is. I have been reading the reviews on B&H about a EF 70-200mm f/4.0L USM and wow what reviews. I have a Sigma 70-300 for my 400D. How much better is the 70-200mm to mine. I have been put in the mood again to purchase. Comments please.
Bob
Dumfries & Galloway
Scotland

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Canon-Lenses/Canon-L-Lens-Series.aspx

DavidTO

gus wrote:

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Canon-Lenses/Canon-L-Lens-Series.aspx

Gus,

How on earth did you find that?

Shizam

canon400d wrote:

Can someone please tell me exactly in layman's terms what an 'L' Series Lens is. I have been reading the reviews on B&H about a EF 70-200mm f/4.0L USM and wow what reviews. I have a Sigma 70-300 for my 400D. How much better is the 70-200mm to mine. I have been put in the mood again to purchase. Comments please.
Bob
Dumfries & Galloway
Scotland

A Lot. L Lenses tend to have larger max apertures, are (way) sharper at that max aperture, have faster focusing ring-USM (then even normal USM), and use more exotic glass that results in better colors and contrast. And some other tidbits like stronger build, extra buttons to futz with.

What it comes down to is sharper more colorful images, you can shoot in lower light and get thinner DOF and focus faster not only because of the faster USM but because of the larger aperture the camera can use for focusing.

And they'll break the bank

z_28

canon400d wrote:

Can someone please tell me exactly in layman's terms what an 'L' Series Lens is. I have been reading the reviews on B&H about a EF 70-200mm f/4.0L USM and wow what reviews. I have a Sigma 70-300 for my 400D. How much better is the 70-200mm to mine. I have been put in the mood again to purchase. Comments please.
Bob
Dumfries & Galloway
Scotland

It's ALL about "L"uxury

In your particular case:
Sigma 70-300 is longer, darker, cheaper and ugly black.
Canon 70-200/4L is shorter, lighter, more expensive and WHITE !!!
Additionaly have better optical quality and very important - got red stripe.
Sell and buy, sell and buy ...

canon400d

Awesome reply Gus
Well Gus that was an awsome reply about the Canon 'L' series lens. There is no doubt in my mind which road to go down now after looking at that Canon site. A huge big thank you.

Bob

canon400d

z_28 wrote:

It's ALL about "L"uxury

In your particular case:
Sigma 70-300 is longer, darker, cheaper and ugly black.
Canon 70-200/4L is shorter, lighter, more expensive and WHITE !!!
Additionaly have better optical quality and very important - got red stripe.
Sell and buy, sell and buy ...

After reading Gus's reply on the Canon website. I couldn't agree more.
Bob

Awais Yaqub

So what is L glass of other comapnies ? are there any good lenses then L ?
I always love L because they look beautiful and solid in pictures lets see when i touch them

BVardy

I caught "L-disease" this year, after using my friend's 70-200 F2.8L IS. I lasted about 6 months before I just had to have it. Three weeks later, I sold my 3-month-old 17-85 F4 IS at a substantial loss and replaced it with a 24-105 F4L IS.

I just spent a few days in the company of a good friend who's a serious pro, and sponsored by Nikon. Even through his understandably Nikon-coloured glasses, he shows respect for these lenses.

As usual, you get what you pay for.

sirsloop

duh... everyone knows L stands for "Lots of money!!"

The 70-200/4L is about the best bang for the buck L lens in existance. Its like the benchmark of sharpness for a zoomer. Everyone should own two!

z_28

canon400d wrote:

After reading Gus's reply on the Canon website. I couldn't agree more.
Bob

I can't find that reply
Canon website ?
http://usa.canon.com ?
http://canon.jp ?

I need heelp

thebigsky

DavidTO wrote:

Gus,

How on earth did you find that?

You could try typing:- 'what are canon l series lenses' into google

Charlie

gus

thebigsky wrote:

You could try typing:- 'what are canon l series lenses' into google

Charlie

Yeeeeep.

S. Horton

Technical comparative:
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/ISO-12233-Sample-Crops.aspx?FLI=0&API=0&FLIComp=0&APIComp=0&Lens=104&Camera=9&LensComp=376

David_S85

400, Canon has this set of resources for you to download, in PDF format. Together, these should satisfy most every question you'll ever have on their entire series of lenses.

water_boy

Many "L" lens are also weather sealed. All mine are as the beach in winter and waterfalls I need a bit of protection from the elements

thebigsky

sirsloop wrote:

duh... everyone knows L stands for "Lots of money!!"

The 70-200/4L is about the best bang for the buck L lens in existance. Its like the benchmark of sharpness for a zoomer. Everyone should own two!

I'll second that, it's a great lens, and it's not too heavy either!

Charlie

S. Horton

Awais Yaqub wrote:

So what is L glass of other comapnies ? are there any good lenses then L ?
I always love L because they look beautiful and solid in pictures lets see when i touch them

L is a designation only from Canon. Sigma, Tamron and Tokina all make lenses speifically for the Canon bodies as well.

Nearly complete list on http://www.eflens.com

If you go to that site and follow links to reviews, you will see people comparing some lenses to the L-series.

If you want to go even further, there are several other (very nice) lenses you can use with adapters, too, including Zeiss.

ziggy53

water_boy wrote:

Many "L" lens are also weather sealed. All mine are as the beach in winter and waterfalls I need a bit of protection from the elements

I should add that while many Canon "L" lenses have weather sealing O-rings and such, some "require" a front filter to complete the seal.

They also require periodic maintenance to sustain the seals' performance.

claudermilk

Awais Yaqub wrote:

So what is L glass of other comapnies ? are there any good lenses then L ?
I always love L because they look beautiful and solid in pictures lets see when i touch them

AFAIK it's this:

Tokina: AT-X & AT-X PRO

• "[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]AT-X comes from our original concept of “Advanced Technology-Extra.” This vision encompasses a special group of lenses that are manufactured without compromise, using the most advanced design and fabrication technologies available."[/FONT][/FONT]

Sigma: EX

• "The exterior of this lens is EX-finished to denote the superior build and optical quality, and to enhance its appearance."

Tamron: SP

• "SP (Super Performance) Lenses featuring high-performance specifications"

I can definitely say that Tokina's AT-X PRO lenses--or at least the one I own--do match Canon's L lenses in general build.

Gus' original linked article pretty well sums it up. The Ls (and the above-mentioned thrid-party manufacturers lines) are top-of-the-line professional products with the best technology the company has to offer. Expensive, but also more versatile, tougher, and generally better images.

There are non-L lenses that are perfectly good. For we snobs, mainly the shorter primes such as the 50mm lenses (1.4, 1.8, 2.5 macro), 85/1.8, etc. The one zoom I can think of that's well liked is the EF-S 17-55/2.8IS.

sirsloop

You also need to take support into account. Canon, from experience, has fantastic customer service. It helps that their service center is literally a mile down the road, but I've always been happy with their work even when money was paid out.