On the verge of buying a Canon 70-200 F/4

[Daniel Browning]

If portraits is what you will mainly shoot with this lens then consider the 85mm 1.8 (much cheaper but ultra sharp and much wider aperture for great Bokeh) and also the 135mm f2 L (again wider aperture and very sharp even at f2).

Good suggestions.

My problem with the 70-200 f4 is that it really gets better at 5.6 or 8 and by then the Bokeh is not great.

I kindly disagree. It is very sharp wide open:


f/4 vs f/8 at 70mm


It cleans up a bit with stopping down, but it's plenty sharp for portraits. And at 200mm the difference in resolution/contrast between f/4 and f/8 is practically nothing:


f/4 vs f/8 at 200mm

I really find this irritating and moreover because of the weight a lot of time there is unavoidable shake

Huh? At 1.5 pounds it's slightly less weight than the 135mm f/2 that you recommended. I can shoot all day at that weight without experiencing any issues at all.


Or perhaps you meant that it was too light? So light that you get more shake? That's easy to solve,
just strap on some extra lead weights to the lens to help deaden your
shakey hands.

For portraits you would need a wider aperture than f4 for really good background blur and the 85mm and 135mmfulfillthat

I get nice diffuse background blur at 200mm f/4 all the time: just as much as the 85mm f/1.8, in fact. If you want super-thin DOF (difficult to nail focus, only one eye in focus, eyes but not ears/nose, etc.), then the 85mm and 135 are a better choice. But if you want to have diffuse background blur *AND* deep depth of field, the 70-200 is a better choice. It will let you have the entire face in focus and still get background blur.