Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 IS USM Lens
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at
3:07 pm
- EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM
CANON EF 4.0-5.6/70-300 IS USM NAFD… more >>
Rating: 
(out of 17 reviews)
>>See Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 IS USM Lens other details
Review by ladybegood for Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 IS USM Lens
Rating:
This and a Tokina 12-24mm ultra wide angle lens are my travelling companions everywhere I go. The Tokina is wonderful for landscape/seascape shots, the Canon 70-300mm for getting in nice and close for sharp detail. I’ve also used it very successfully for portraiture (allows you distance, so no need to crowd your model) and for fine art photography subjects. It’s an absolute boon for travelling, being fairly light, and the image quality is consistently high every time. Thanks to the Image Stabilisation, hand-held shots, even at the full telephoto 300mm range of things, are plenty sharp enough and despite its relatively small aperture, the IS ensures the lens performs well in fairly dingy light too – providing you know how to set your camera up right. Okay, so the build isn’t L class, but then you’re not paying L Class money either. For a very useful and extensive zoom range, image quality, and convenience, this lens is invaluable and excellent value for money.
Review by John Smith for Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 IS USM Lens
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I bought this lens as an alternative to the £500+ L series Canon lenses for my canon EOS 400D before going on holiday and it has been absolutely superb.
The foucs is admitably slow at times but this has not affected me too badly when shooting subjects inside and outside of doors. The lens itself is a nice weight (not too heavy but not too light/”plasticy”) and fits nicely into my Lowerpro Slingshot 200 bag when attached to the camera body.
I spent months researching zoom lenses before finally buying this one and it has been a fantastic buy.
The minimum focusing range is quite high so you’lll have to stand quite a way away from your subject (which has meant me having to switch between this lense and my standard 17-55mm) but lets face it, you’re not going to buy this lense for it’s portrait-taking abilities. My tripod has been used very little alongside the lense because most of my shots have been taken in bright light (faster shutter speeds have been used) Although one would be useful during the winter months.
Be warned, if you want to avoid scratches on the lense itself, then a filter is a must-have (a lense cap is provided).
Images tend to get slightly soft at the extremities, but as long as there is sufficient light, your pictures will come out crisp and clear (I would post some on here if it were possible to prove my point!)
If you are looking for a cost-effective, reliable alternative and don’t mind the slightly slower focusing then this is the lens for you.
Review by markh5682 for Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 IS USM Lens
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I bought this lens to use with My EOS 40D last year.
For a lens with a maximum of 300mm focal length it is quite compact and is easy to use hand held, the image stablizer works quite well in all but poor light conditions.
Auto focus although generally good can be a bit hit and miss at times, searching back and forth to find the focus for a few seconds, but it usually focuses well in the end, it does work a lot better in bright light conditions though.
The picture quality is sharp and clear throught the zoom range and the fine detail is well rendered, on most pictures colour is also rendered well, but on some higher contrast subjects, slight colour fringing (chromatic abberations) is apparent especially when you zoom into the picture for a closer look, it is not a major problem, and you can remove it in post processing, but on a lens of this price I would have expected better than that from Canon.
Overall this is a very good lens giving you sharp clear pictures, and it has a good zoom range, it has no major faults and I have been happy with the vast majority of the pictures that I have taken with it, but it loses one star because the autofocus can be a tad slow under certain conditions, and colour fringing can affect some high contrast subjects.
Not perfect, but it is still a very good lens and it is recommended.
Review by SjB for Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 IS USM Lens
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I’ll only review the IS aspect of this lens and make one other comment since I have only had it 24 hours and have yet to go out and about with it.
Image Stabilization:
Having solved the problem I comment on below, I hooked this brand new lens up to my 400D and started shooting objects at maximum focal length across the room using available light only. No flash. I took two frames of each, one with IS on, and the other with IS off. Shutter speed was 1/10 – 1/20 second in each case. Yes, 1/10 – 1/20 second and I was using 300mm focal length, hand held. Those frames taken with IS off were blurred beyond any semblance of use. Those with IS on were pin sharp. I was blown away. Truly. One of the frames was of a toy car on a shelf, the car occupying the whole photo. Naturally, depth of field was short – which added to impact – but for the chosen focus area every spec of dust was clearly visible. No lens will completely compensate for bad technique, but I proved that with good techique (in this case how to hold equipment and relax with low shutter speeds) the realms of expectation can be dramatically extended.
Comment:
On first attaching this lens to my 400D the camera would occasionally “hang” mid shot and need the battery removing to reset it; no buttons would operate, the screen went out, and bizarrely the camera’s power LED stayed on even when the camera was switched off. I was sure I had a duff lens, but found help on the web saying “FULLY recharge your battery first, and then try again before sending the lens back”. They were right. My battery (actually two in a BG-E3 grip) were not showing flat according to the camera but recharging them had the lens working perfectly. The reason for this behaviour is that the IS system demands much more power than a normal lens. Nothing to stop you buying this awesome piece of kit, but something to be aware of.
Review by Jag K for Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 IS USM Lens
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Used this with my Canon eos 450 and it is excellent !
I bought it mainly for taking photos at the theme parks and my children’s school plays and sports days. I managed to get some great shots of my children on the rides at Drayton Manor Park after my wife missed them all with her compact because her digital camera (a 2 year old Panasonic Lumix digital compact) simply couldn’t keep up with the speed and focus. The USM and IS combination worked so quickly and so well – got some great photos of my kids on the fast moving rides – I captured the expressions on their faces as they enjoyed the thrill of the rides, rather than being limited to the usual static photos which I would otherwise have taken at the beginning or end of the rides with my compact on previous occasions (Just be aware though, the camera does become very heavy with the zoom lens attached, but for the quality of photos, it was well worth it !)