Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

Buy Cheap Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

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Telephoto lens newly equipped with an Image Stabilizer enabling hand-held shooting for easier movement. The fluorite element and two UD-glass elements effectively correct the chromatic aberrations prone to occur with telephoto lenses. With the EOS-1v and EOS-3, the AF speed becomes the world's fastest. To reduce the overall weight and enhance portability, the lens barrel and many other exterior parts use magnesium-alloy. Also, the detachable tripod collar revolves smoothly and locks securely.
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Technical Details

- EF mount; telephoto lens
- Ultra-low Dispersion glass with Fluorite elements; inner focusing ring; full-time manual focus; image stabilizer
- 300mm focal length
- f/2.8 maximum aperture
- Ring UltraSonic Motor (USM)
See more technical details

 "Yes, it is that good." 2010-02-13
By E. Martin (Miami, FL USA)
Let's just recap what all the reviews say about this lens in one word: perfect.



My review won't add too much more to what's already been said, but I will point out a few things about this lens that I really like.



+ It's the sharpest piece of glass I've ever seen. This lens is sharper wide open than my 100-400 at 300mm stopped down to f/8.



+ It has 3 focus limiter switches. This takes a while to get used to, but it also makes the autofocus incredibly fast especially for distant moving targets.



+ It takes a 1.4x and 2.0x teleconverter incredibly well. Even with the 2x attached, the lens is still very sharp. When using the focus limiter, the autofocus with the 2x is still fast enough to capture birds in flight handheld. There's no appreciable difference with this lens bare and with the 1.4x teleconverter.



+ Attached to my 1D2, the autofocus is so fast I can't visually keep up with it sometimes. Yes, it's that darn awesome, and no I'm not kidding...



+ The focus preset system is not really intuitively clear, however, once you get it down, it's really really helpful for setting up your shots when you know where your target is going to be. Bigtime plus for tracking faster subjects in predictable paths.



There are no cons to this lens except one. It's HEAVY. I use mine on a tripod or monopod, however it can be use handheld even with the 1.4 attached for a good amount of time especially if you've got stronger arms and can hold it up.



Overall, if I could give this lens 10 stars out of 5, I would. I was worth every single penny.

 "An excellent lens but I have a question below:" 2010-02-04
By Trim Damage (Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada)
I am not a professional photographer. I bought this lens from Ebay, used and without IS. The lens is very fast, sharp and sturdy. I like it very much. I used this lens to take pictures of deer in my backyard. But the lens is very heavy. You cannot use it without a tripod or monopod. However, I have a question and I would appreciate if you could spend a moment to share your valuable experience with me. Does this lens require a UV filter and a Polarizing filter? I bought two of these filters, each 110mm in size, thinking that I could install them at the front end of the lens. But there is no thread in the rubber-molded rim at the front end of the lens. I checked the Amazon specification above and noticed that a 52mm dropped-in filter is mentioned. (Nothing mentioned about any 110mm filters). Logically the only location for putting a 52mm filter would be at the back end of the lens. Discussing with a filter supplier in England, I was informed that there is a 52mm gel-type filter at the back end covered underneath a screwed-plate. This 52mm lens may have been put in there by Canon when the lens was built. I bought the 110mm filters from this filter supplier, then he asked me whether the 52mm gel-type filter is available in market. Now I have two problems to solve: (1) Do you use UV and Polarizing filters with this lens? If so, how do you fasten them to the lens, and (2) Is the 52mm filter available in market? and where to get it from? Thank you.

 "Sharp Wide Open And That Is What Counts" 2010-01-11
By PJ (GTA, Canada)
Love:



- Sharp wide open and that is what counts (sharpens nicely with software).

- Sharpens more when stopped down an f-stop (outstanding resolution).

- Fast auto focus (fastest I have seen).

- Solid build (switches and rings are precise without play).

- Replaceable flat front glass which protects the adjacent UD element.

- Autofocus stop buttons.

- Dust and water resistant.

- Programmable preset focusing.

- Removable tripod collar.



Like:



- Optical image stabilization (wish it had the newer 3-4 stop version).

- Hard case (good for storing lens in your house, vehicle or airplane).

- A good way to meet nice strangers (especially the ladies) who approach and raises questions about the lens.



Dislike:



- E-145 lens cap (will dislodge if lens is carried in the field with the hood reversed).

- Paint will come off on the barrel at the ET-120 lens hood contact point.

- Need to buy Canon touch up paint to repaint lens hood contact point on barrel.

- Not a dislike but the strap's buckle can scratch the prism housing (position the buckle close to the lens away from the camera).

- Weight (not really hand holdable and needs at least a monopod).

- Cost (but it's faster and sharper than the Canon 300/4 versions).



This is the sharpest and fastest autofocus lens in my collection. The 70-200/4 IS is a close second.



Please refer to my uploaded photos.

 "My favorite lens" 2010-01-06
By J. Roemer
I shoot track & field, cross country, and nature photos with this lens, and the sharpness and the image quality are unparalleled. After 4 years I'm still amazed at what this lens does. Flawless.

 "Quite simply the Sharpest Lens..." 2009-11-09
By Andrei Duman (New York)
Oh my goodness...what a lens! This is such an awesome lens. I wrote a review for the 35mm and said that it was the sharpest lens Canon made but oh god was i wrong. This lens is so darn sharp at all stops. It focuses so quickly and takes the most insane photos. It is a little heavy and you will draw a few looks carrying it around. I went to Yellowstone with this attached to my 5D Markii that already had a grip and people were literally staring at me and pointing. It felt a bit strange. Anyway the quality of the build is the best you can get. It is expensive but really worth the price. You will not regret it at all. It works great with the extender 1.4x. To see some of my shots with it go to my site:

[...]



Hope this was useful.


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Buy Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras Now

Canon EF 300mm f/4L IS USM Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

Buy Cheap Canon EF 300mm f/4L IS USM Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

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Compact L-series telephoto lens with an Image Stabilizer, which compensates for camera shake with the equivalent effect of a shutter speed two stops faster. Two Image Stabilizer modes are provided: Stabilizer Mode 1 (the same mode featured on the EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM) and the new Stabilizer Mode 2, which steadies the image during horizontal or vertical panning. Mode 2 detects the panning direction automatically. The closest focusing distance is 4.9 feet (1.5 m).
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Technical Details

- EF mount; telephoto lens
- Ultra-low Dispersion glass with Fluorite elements; inner focusing ring; full-time manual focus; image stabilizer
- 300mm focal length
- f/4 maximum aperture
- Micro UltraSonic Motor (USM)
See more technical details

 "Excellent Lens" 2010-01-23
By G. Berger (Bellerose, NY USA)
I bought this because I sometimes need greater reach than provided by my 70-200 f4 L. It's a very sharp lens, and because of its relatively light weight and IS I've been able to get some stunning shots hand-holding it when a tripod is not practical.

The only negative I've noticed is that the IS is noisy when it first kicks in, but other than sounding a bit like 'elves moving furniture around' (not my words, but apt), it's not a problem.

There is no doubt that the 2.8 version is a sharper lens - it's a legend in its own time. But I don't make a living from this so I really can't justify the extra $3,000.00.

I haven't had any problems with focusing - it's fast and accurate. This is a great lens and well worth the money.

 "Very sharp and IS works" 2010-01-22
By Ching-Hsiang Lin (Irvine, CA)
This is my first lens longer then 135mm in focal length and with IS feature. I am not a professional, but just take pictures for family occasions.



Before I got this lens, I could not understand why people always like to have IS (or equivalent) for telephoto lenses and only believed safety shutter speed and tripod. But after I received this lens, I realized that neither of them is really applicable. First of all, with telephone, the shutter speed drops a lot. It's not easy to maintain the minimum shutter speed, even in outdoor. Secondly, the field of view is much narrower, a tripod will not help on following fast moving object. The IS really provides a solution to those problems. With its superb optics, I ever got a clear shot at 1/50(of course, the object was not moving). Its performance is way beyond my expectation.



Before I ordered it, I also read lots of reviews. Some reviews mentioned that its AF speed is not fast. The fact is that it depends on light condition. In low light, its AF is really really slow. But when in the outdoor and it's bright, the AF is super fast. I don't see it any slower then my any other EF lenses. The difference is so noticeable and significant, but I think it's because of its long focal length.

 "my favorite prime lens" 2009-11-09
By Nachtpfauenauge (Mainhattan)
My preferences are tele and macro photos, currently I use an EOS 50D body and as a backup an EOS 450D (Rebel XSi). After several thousand shots out in the wilderness the 300 mm/ f4.0 IS USM turned out to be my favorite lens - to my own suprise even for macros if I cannot get quite close. It's closest distance of 1.5 m makes it very useful for that purpose. In particular it is interesting to compare it with another lens that I use in such "keep distance" macro situations: Tamron's 70-200 mm f/2.8 macro as this zoom has an excellent optics and is very sharp (according to many reviews sharper than Canon's 70-200 mm f/2.8 L IS USM). But it has a disappointingly old fashioned, slow, loud and inaccurate autofocus (AF) drive, combined with the lack of any image stabilization.



So I end up to only use this zoom if I have enough time to focus manually and I carry a mono- or tripod with me. Shooting with the EF 300 mm beams me then from the stone age of photography to the current state of the art. It is such a pleasure to use! It is still light enough for hand-held shots, the AF is so quick that you really can try to catch flying birds, and it works silently and precisely. The IS system is not Canon's latest generation but very reliable. In practise you win about 2-3 aperture stops, i.e. even hand-hold shots at about 1/100 s are basically sharp (if the subject isn't too fast of course).



The most important argument in favorite of the EF 300 mm f/4L IS USM is its superiour picture quality. In particular I love it's soft, harmonic bokeh (background blur). The Tamron zoom does not meet this nice bokeh completely though it is not bad and - like many zooms - it can produce some visible chromatic aberration (CA) under bright contrasty conditions. With the EF 300 mm you never have to worry about CA. Since the pictures are so sharp I can well accept in macro situations, that Canon's 300 mm provides "only" a 0.24 magnification (the Tamron 1:1), because crops of the 300 mm tele pictures still look very good. Personally, I can accept light-hardedly the limitations of a prime lens. If I cannot catch the whole bird within the frame I shoot its portrait and am happy with the fantastic result.



Pros:

- extremely sharp already with open aperture

- no issues with chromatic aberration

- no issues with vignetting (at least not with a crop DSLR such as a EOS 40/50D or a Rebel body)

- wonderful bokeh (background blur)

- silent, fast and accurate AF

- very good 2-mode IS (one mode for standard situations, one for quickly moving objects)

- professional L quality, perfect look & feel

- closest distance of 1.5 m opens up serious macro potential (versus 2.5 m of the faster and bigger 300 mm f/2.8 L IS USM)

- makes effectively a decent 480 mm tele lens on a crop DSLR with a smaller sensor (such as the 50D)

- f 4.0 is still fast enough to combine it with a tele extender: I use Kenko's very sharp Kenko 1.4X PRO 300 TeleconverterDG-Canon EOS which delivers effectively a huge 672 mm tele lens on a crop DSLR (it slows down AF but still can produce acceptably sharp results)

- still light enough for hand-held shots

- nice retractable "slide and screw" lens hood

- very well balanced in the hand, even with a small rebel body

- expensive, but still good price-performance ratio.



Cons:

- AF sometimes hunts if the background is vivid: therefore I programmed my 50D so I can stop this with its AF-ON button

- f 4.0 is okay but faster f 2.8 would be, of course, sometimes better (freezing fast movements in particular drives crop DSLR users quickly to noisier ISO 800+ settings)

- well, finally: it's a pity that physics will never allow to create any zoom with such a prime lenses' amazing image quality!



So, if you can accept the limits of a prime lens and it's price level, I can highly recommend you this 300 mm tele.

 "Leave The Monopod Collar Attachment on when hand holding" 2009-09-14
By J. Gwinn (West Virginia USA)
It is hard to imagine the f2.8 version being superior in most shooting conditions. The fact this lens is so much lighter & portable you open up a whole vista of angles very quickly due to hand holding vs the monopod dependent big brother version. Sharpness & color saturation is excellent. I have used this lens in extreme light deprived situations..e.g.,amphitheatre after dark shooting 200+ feet from subjects on a concession building rooftop. Could quickly pan the stage from either side. The image stabilizer was great. With a good brace 1/20-30 of a second is possible. With a full frame sensor camera at high ISO you get great results from this little gem.



Sports photography? Are you kidding me? This is a great lens. I took shots from the upper deck/40 yard line at the University Of Tennessee/Neyland Stadium with my canon rebel XT...even from that vantage point you can crop down & see the eyes/ expressions of the players @ midfield during the coin toss.



Why leave the collar on? For me at least it aids in helping with a more steady brace while hand holding. The bottom part of the collar is flat & helps to balance/acts as a fulcrum to balance the body & lens.

 "Handheld telephoto!" 2009-07-30
By Comdet
I prefer using my telephoto lenses while on the hoof (rather than plant myself somewhere with it fixed on a tripod) so I was in the market for a reasonably priced ($1000-$2000) Canon telephoto with image stabilization. This one, the 300mm, was the longest range I could get for my target price with IS. I worried it wouldn't be long enough and I'd miss the extra 100mm (I sold my 400mm without IS in order to fund the purchase of the 300mm) but what I gained is so much more valuable to me - I can now, with the lens on an APS-size sensor camera, have a handhold-able, walkaround 480mm-equivalent lens (it was impossible for me to handhold the 400mm) - and as a result, I take it out to play much more often than I did the 400mm.



Add a 1.4x teleconverter to that and you have well over 600mm - and this lens is of such a good build quality that it easily handles a teleconverter with no noticeable loss of image quality (although I hear that with the 2x teleconverter the loss in quality is noticeable).



This is quite simply an excellent lens, good contrast and sharp, sharp, sharp. I've been very pleased with this purchase.




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Buy Canon EF 300mm f/4L IS USM Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras Now