I recently sold my Canon f4 zoom lens and am thinking about buying the newly released 2,8 version, particularly to shoot Robin's indoor riding competitions. I went to my local camera store recently to ask about the range of suitable Canon lenses and of course the one I need / want is the biggest & best (therefore most expensive) that Canon make in the 70 - 200 mm range. Aarrgghh. They also stock third party lenses (Tamron, Sigma etc) but I am a Canon kinda guy.

The 2.8 sounds great but could I make it work for me to justify the purchase? So the following week, I went back to the store with my 1D MK3 body and tried the lens on for size. Wow, is it heavy or what! I tried a few hand held shots in store and was shocked by the brightness and clarity indoors, hand held with no flash. See my sample image below.

And now here is the clincher. This week I accompanied Robin to one of her events with my 24 - 105 f4 lens and tried to photograph the 'Hunter' event indoors at the Werribee Equestrian Centre.

Overall, the results were just awful. This image and the one on the home page were the best of a very ordinary lot. Not enough zoom and not enough light. Bumped the ISO to 800 and the results were grainy & poor. I felt sorry I couldn't get some better shots for her. I think I see the 2.8 in my future!