Canon Lens

A friend of mine asked me about Canon lens nomenclature, for that I am not really familiar, except for a Canon G3, I don't shoot Canon. But Google is my friend.

Here is what I wrote him:

regarding Canon, L might really stand for luxury, that's pretty ridiculous.
IS, image stabilization
USM, ultrasonic motor

If you are really going to get 70~200, IS would be a great help
shooting hand held. Especially if you are in the late stage of
Parkinson or you can still get sharp pictures when you are having a
seizure. Nikon calls it VR as in vibration reduction, you know girls
don't like it, that explains Canon got a bigger market because it got
the women's vote.

I own the Nikon 80~200 f2.8 and sometimes it isn't that easy to get sharp pictures shooting handheld. Sometimes, I am afraid the old one I once rented from Adorama actually got better picture quality than the spanking new one I bought .... Rationally speaking, I think they should be the same. With that rental experience, it kind of gives me more confidence in buying used lenses. The rental looked old but the picture quality was good.