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lens

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November 17, 2004

The EF 70-210 f/4 is a very early EOS lens, introduced in 1987. It's optical performance is good, but it is push/pull design, has a noisy and slow autofocus motor, and (I could be wrong on this) the front element rotates with focus - an annoyance when using a polarizing filter.

It was replaced in 1990 by the EF 70-210 f/3.5-4.5 USM. This lens is sharper, and has the more popular rotating collar for zooming. It uses a ring-USM autofocus motor that is very fast, silent, and has the full-time manual focus feature - you can manually focus without having to use the AF/MF switch. It also has non-rotating front element, so filter orientation does not change with zoom or focus. This lens never sold well as consumers tended to go for the very similar EF 100-300 f/4.5-5.6 USM or cheaper EF 75-300 f/4-5.6 instead. It was discontinued ~1996 or so. But it is a very good performer if you cannot afford the professional EF 70-200 f/4L USM, EF 70-200 f/2.8L USM, or EF 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM. The ring-USM af motor and non-rotating front element and slightly faster maximum aperture of f/3.5-4.5 (instead of f/4-5.6) are advantages that are not available in similar zooms from Sigma, Tamron, Tokina.

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November 18, 2004