heavy weight lens

This lens is a heavy weight both in that it is as good it gets when it comes to color and contrast and its weight.

But, if you can stand to carry it, you will be glad you did. It is often called, the wedding photographer lens because of its quality and range.

It has a very fast focus, has a great range for everyday use (is 80% of what I shoot), has a 2.8 aperture (great for low light and blurring the background).

The newer 24-105l by canon extends the range and adds image stabilization all in a lighter body but you lose the 2.8 aperture. Hmmmph, trade-offs.

Though I absolutely adore the 24-70. If you want your pictures to really "pop," it is a lens to consider.

This lens will spoil you however and you will no longer like most of your other non-L (read L = canon professional) lenses.

It costs about $1K, but holds its value much better than the camera body itself. Check out the resale market on fred miranda or ebay - sometimes more than you would pay new.

Plan on getting a good filter as it would be silly to put cheap glass in front of expensive glass. Hood is included which is nice but bulky. The hood and lens itself can interfere with the light from the built in canon flash (bummer) so prepare to not use it or buy a big old flash.

a lot of people who buy this lens like to buy a battery grip too to make the proportion and weight of the camera and the lens feel better.

Can you say paparazzi?