I've come across a used Magic Drainpipe. Since I'm afraid the 70-200 F4 L will limit me with its F4 I thought this could be a good choice for me. Plus it's not white, so a better fit for street photography. There are few problems with the lens though. When zooming, you have to go "back" to 80 or 200 before being able to zoom back.. It's difficult to explain. I'll give an example. 1. You are zooming from 80 to 120. 2. You go further to 140 (no problem). 3. You want to go back to 100.. oops.. no can do. it stucks 4. You need to go to 200 and then back up to 100. So obviously this can be frustrating. But I reckon I can live with it for the crisp images and F2.8 I get in return. Plus the black-stealth. It also has a "Chip" in the front element, but the seller claims it has no influence on the image. It's at least 10 years old and has been used quite a bit in that time. Canon does not have any replacement parts for it anymore. What do you think I can pay for it? I thought about 325 euro.. what do you think? Thanks L
To be honest, I wouldn't pay for a discontinued lens that has a malfunctioning zoom and (most importantly) a chip in the glass. Unless you're aiming for low-light street photography, f/4 shouldn't hinder you that much. You can simply use a slower shutter speed or higher aperture to compensate. In reality, you're only talking about a 1-stop difference between f/2.8 and f/4, so it shouldn't be that much of an issue. And regardless what the seller says, a chip in the glass is a major issue, in my opinion. That, coupled with the wonky zoom leads me to believe that he might not have taken great care of the lens, so you have no idea what else may be wrong with it. Just my 2 cents. -monkey
He only had it for a month, but got a 200mm prime instead. Oh, for readers that don't know the magic drainpipe. It's a EF 80-200 F2.8 L. It was the 70-200 F2.8 L from ten years ago. It got its name for a logic reason.. fantastic piece of glas. Major differnece with the 70-200 is that it's white. L