The Canon 70-200 f.2.8 L IS USM II is quite a flagship of a lens. At $2500 and 2.9 pounds it is quite a beast, and almost every review or recommendation I’ve seen on it states that the only real issue with it is that you will never change lenses after using it.
Lisbon based Photographer Rui M Leal had a different experience though. Rui was assigned to shoot a concert when he noticed a bright halo at the edge of the frame when shooting at the 90-110 zoom range.
“I took it [the 70-200 lens] for an assignment and start to noticed that between the zoom range 90mm-110mm it produced some kind of a strange flare, well not a flare but more of an halo. First I thought it could be something related to the front filter but that being also a Canon Protect I thought it was a little odd and decided to test it out without the filter on a new assignment.“
After fiddling with 3 different new lenses, all exhibiting the same halo effect, Rui deducted it may be a real issue and contacted Canon. Canon Germany replied that this is “not a malfunction it was a NORMAL procedure with this lens under this lighting condition as per information of Canon Inc. Tokyo“.
While this is a pretty isolated event, I wonder if it is just a metter of photographers not noticing this behavious as Canon confirmed it.
Being the methodical person that he is, Rui tried to check where the halo is coming from and discovered that one of the internal threads was reflecting light that bounced and created that halo lined reflection.
Here are some photos and videos showing how clear the effect is:
Rui reports that this effect was not present with his older 70-200 L IS USM II lens.
Currently Rui is waiting for more data from Canon on this, and I certainly can’t blame him for being annoyed after spending $2500 on a lens.
Halo Problems on Canon Lens 70-200 L IS USM II | Rui M Leal
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