Yes.Liz,a large improvement,its a prime lens which means no zoom
fewer elements,very sharpe images,it feels like it focouses quicker.as i said these images taken within first hour of use,hand held.i am told
when used with tripod,even better results,also its new,need to get use to it,but so far its pretty easy to get to get images like the above.
I bought it for bird photography,and in that field want to hopefully get
some good raptor pics with it.
The lens was worth the money,i would recommend L lenses
cheers