Busted Knuckles, On the ISO charts, the 70-200 f/2.8 doesn't look sharpest, and it seems to be common knowledge that the older (not IS II) f/2.8 lenses were not as sharp as the f/4. The 70-300 we're considering is the L, which is supposed to be pretty sharp. On the ISO charts it looks very good, aside from 70mm, where it's just okay.

If you have real-world shots from the f/2.8 non IS that say different from the ISO charts, we'd love to see them.