We reviewed the Canon 400mm ƒ/5.6L USM back in 2008, which makes a good candidate for comparison with the 200mm ƒ/2.8L USM and 2x Extender attached. In terms of sharpness, the two are quite similar: the 400mm is slightly better at ƒ/5.6 and ƒ/16, but at ƒ/8 and ƒ/11, they're almost identical.

The 200mm ƒ/2.8 offers exceptional performance for sharpness at ƒ/2.8, on both APS-C and full-frame test bodies (7D and 1Ds Mark III respectively). While it's not tack-sharp wide open, results are still very good indeed; there's slight improvement at ƒ/4, but by ƒ/5.6 it's sharp all over and stays that way through to ƒ/11 where diffraction limiting has begun to set in.

In two very full days of shooting with the Canon EOS 60D in Yellowstone, we found it for the most part comfortable to use. We were able to switch all the settings relatively quickly (with the annoying exception of movie mode), and the articulating LCD led us to use live view much more than we would have without such a screen. This also let us brace the camera on a railing or in the nook of a rock when a tripod was not an option.

Another significant addition is the Wireless Flash option, which allows the camera's pop-up flash to be used as the master for other Speedlite flashguns. While the subject of flash can be mysterious to beginners, Canon has gone to the trouble of including an EasyWireless flash mode to help simplify flash for new users, and has broken everything down step-by-step in the accompanying user manual.

The EOS 600D / T3i is actually more than an EOS 550D / T2i with an articulated screen and wireless flash control. It inherits a number of small but useful features from the EOS 60D, including manual control over audio levels in movies, creative effects in playback and multiple aspect ratios in Live View.