Canon EF 70-300 f/4-5.6L IS USM Lens

I used to have the 70-200 F.4 L IS lens and the 1.4 converter. I sold the converter to buy the new one Canon recently brought out, changed my mind, sold the 70-200 and bought the 70-300 L instead. I was a little worried as I wondered if the quality would be as good as the 70-200, ( because the 70-200 is an exceptional lens, and quite light to carry around). I am pleased to say that a lens specifically built with 300mm in mind is better than using the 70-200 with the extender. The quality all through is quite excellent, and this is a very versatile lens.

It is a compromise of sorts, as all zooms are. I would love to have bought the 300mm F2.8 but at £3000-5000 it's too expensive. The other options of the primes 400mm and the 100-400mm all have their charms. But I was won over by the newness of this lens. The newer IS system, the anti-smear coating, the complete weather sealing. The size ( for a zoom of this length) is very acceptable. It is a tad heavy to carry around but not too bad, but it's unobtrusive compared to some of the prime 300-400 and they are just too large and heavy to carry comfortably.

This lens can be hand held, obviously with the F stops it represents( F4 at 70mm, F5 at 135mm-200mm, F5.6 at 300mm), it is best used with a tripod in low light, but if anyone is upgrading from a standard or kit zoom, or for those who have never used the Canon L lens series, the quality is top notch. In daytime and normal light, it is excellent. the camera I use it on is a Canon 7D, I rarely use ISO above 200, but that camera can easily go to 1600 ISO without any real issues with quality. This lens works a treat.

The lens has a close focus of about 3ft, which is fine for most things, beyond that a macro lens is a must.

It has two black rings, the nearest to the camera is to focus, the furthest away the zoom. Some comment that this is unusual, but you get used to it in a matter of seconds. And isn't something that would cause any problems, unless you are a complete manual only user, which would create a new learning curve with the lens. The lens arrives with a hood and bag, but sadly no lens ring for the tripod. But these can be bought seperately.

I am very happy with this lens, it has enabled me to shoot wildlife and some action shots comfortably. It has no flare issues at all, and is extremely versatile and has great colour and contrast.

I have tried a number of L lenses, and this is one of the best I have. The others which are equally stunning( none of these have major chromatic aberration issues, or flaring issues, and work as advised on the tin) are the 135mm F2 which is stunningly sharp, the 24-70, which is heavy as a brick, but equally good. And the 70-200's and the 100mm Macro L, which is also a great lens.

So if you are like me, and need good reviews to help you make up your mind, this is a great zoom lens. The quality at 300mm ( which most will be buying it for) is excellent, and will make the expense of the purchase worthwhile. Great shots, all in one package.

Canon's white L-series telezooms have attained legendary status, amongst both pros and keen amateurs, because they're so damn good. This latest one is no exception. OK, it has a few design compromises, namely its slowish and variable aperture, but they're all carefully judged.

I have owned the 70-200 F2.8LIS, which I thought at the time was unbeatable. That is, until the 70-200 F4LIS came along at half the size and weight and stamped all over it for outright sharpness. Well worth the missed stop, thought I, and bought it.

I also have had the 100-400 F4/5.6LIS. Nice lens, but battleship-sized and weight; this was sufficient to discourage its regular appearance in my bag. Now along comes the 70-300 F4LIS. It's a surprisingly small package all in all, short and dumpy and - unlike the 100-400 - quite feasible to carry all day without a course of body-building and steroids.

The new kid on the block is a really nice compromise - good reach, extremely well built and compact. All this would be to no avail, however, if the image quality didn't stack up. But it does. I have just spent an entire afternoon doing test shots on my full-frame (5DII) and APS-C (550D) bodies. Quite simply, it performed impeccably throughout. To be frank, I found it virtually indistinguishable, optically, from the my 70-200 F4.

It has that combination of biting sharpness and buttery smoothness that I associate with top lenses: pixel-peep frames in Photoshop or Bridge to see what I mean...

That's high praise, and more than good enough for any pro use, I suspect. OK, I suspect the latest 70-200 F2.8LIS II is still the king of the hill, optically, but this 70-300 is a fine lens with great reach and ideally suited for travel use, with either full or half-frame bodies.

Strongly recommended, therefore.

If only Canon's wide-angles were as good...

I'd been a happy and contended user of the original EF 70-300 f/4-5.6 IS for several years with a 400D - this lens alongside the 18-55 IS kit lens (itself a vast improvement over the original non IS 18-55) and the ubiquitous 50 f/1.8 made for a balanced and versatile kit.

I upgraded to a 7D with the EF-S 15-85 at the end of last year and wasn't as impressed with my old 70-300 IS on the 7D as I was with it on the 400D - I'm not sure if as many suggest this was because the pixel dense 18mp sensor shows up previously unnoticed deficiences in cheaper lenses, or if I'd been spoilt by the excellent EF-S 15-85 - I suspect it was a bit of both.

So the search was on for a telezom zoom that matched the sharpness and colour of the EF-S 15-85. I agonised as many people do between this lens and the 70-200 F4L IS - the technical reviews in all the usual places rank them very closely and there's virtually nothing to choose in price between this lens and the 70-200 F4L IS with the Canon 1.4x teleconvertor. In the end my decision was swayed by not wanting to have to mess around mounting and unmounting the TC and to be able to have the full 70-300 range available all the time.

Very pleased indeed with this lens, I worried that the increase in image quality over the lens I was replacing wouldn't justify the price, but it does - the sharpness and colour are noticeably better than the non-L 70-300 and the AF is lightning fast and very accurate. I can shoot with confidence wide open at 300mm and be confident in getting a razor sharp subject nicely isolated from the back/foreground, something I couldn't do with the non-L 70-300. Build quality is superb and it's a joy to handle - it's certainly a weighty lens but surprisingly and pleasantly compact when closed up and with the lens hood reversed.

Highly recomended.