Ok not to be a gearhead but,

Just bought me a 70-200 2.8 IS and the pictures from it look fine - yay! When putting it away tonight, I noticed a small speck trapped inside the lens (toward the glass on the mounting end) -- boo! I'm within my return period and have no doubts B&H would swap it out for me. I highly doubt it will affect image quality, but I'm also wondering if it could be an early indication of something else that may flake off inside down the line and (god forbid) if I was ever to sell the lens, I know dust inside can depreciate it's value. I could also have Canon service it I guess and clean it, but it's new and that always risks getting more gunk inside. I thought this version was more or less dust sealed.

I'm leaning toward swapping it out... i guess I just needed to post and see what others would do, if you've dealt with this. thanks!!

I had the same issue with my 85 1.2 ... VERY frustrating to pay that kind of $$ then see that. I was not within a return period when I saw it. I haven't noticed it in any of my files so far ... so that's comforting.

I guess I'll sleep on it over the weekend. For now, the speck can sit there taunting me happily out of reach

With zooms, you'll get dust. Moving the lenses inside (zooming) will create a vacuum and suck stuff into it. That's just the way it is.