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Author
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Rob Barron
Loves the place
Registered: September 2006
Location: Poole, Dorset
Posts: 5954
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Review Date: Sun September 17, 2006
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Stunning sharpness and bokeh
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Cons:
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Not cheap
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Ok, first off, get the hate mail out of the way ok, I paid RIDICULOUSLY cheap for this lens: £300. I know, I am a jammy git and a few unprintable words to go along with it but hey, I have never won the lottery so I don't get lucky all the time! I just happened to spot this one on Ebay and for some reason other people missed it. List price is £1150 and generally available between £900-1000.
Ok, so is it worth it, at the price you would expect to pay? OF COURSE!
A 300mm prime telephoto lens is not something a lot of photographers are going to buy, choosing instead to opt for something like the 100-400mm L series. So why go for this one? Mainly because it is a prime lens. That means it is sharp enough to cut your eyes on. It is also wider aperture at F4 (there is an F2.8 version but at £3000 that is WAY outside my league) and the IS is very effective.
The usual way to determine lowest shutter speed to be effective in hand-holding is to invert the focal length. In other words, a 300mm lens should generally be used at 1/300th second or faster. Ok, we all know 1/250th would mostly be fine as long as you stand still properly. With the double gyroscopic image stabiliser of this lens, you can get at least two stops advantage, 3 if you are experienced and have trained yourself to stand well. So, with this lens, you can hand hold a 300mm lens at 1/60th second. I have even taken photos at 1/30th second with very acceptable sharpness. That is superb for a lens of this length.
Is it long and cumbersome? No, but it does have a fair bit of weight to it so I would strongly recommend using a monopod just to give yourself a bit of extra support. The IS system allows for either horizontal panning (great for sports shots) or for both planes. Using a monopod and the horizontal stabilisation gives you superb control, I assure you.
The lens comes with the tripod ring mounted at the right point (easily removed but definitely worth keeping it on most of the time) and has an inegral hood that slides back. That is VERY useful. I have the 100-400mm IS L lens as well and it is a cracker but because it has the two rings, it has no room for a built-in hood. That means you have to faff around mounting it and using a circular polariser is nigh on impossible as you can't reach the ring to turn it. On this lens, you just slip the hood back, adjust the polarisation to best effect, slip the hood back out and fire away: easy!
I know this lens is not for everyone as it is a lot of money to spend BUT if you are a wildlife enthusiast like me, you will LOVE this lens. You can add the 1.4x or 2x teleconverter to it and it works beautifully. Using the Canon versions, these are L series quality optics and thus do not reduce the quality at all.
Think about it: put this lens on a 30D with the 1.4 TC and this is what you have: (300mm x 1.4) x 1.6 (equivalence factor) = 672mm at F5.6 (1 stop reduction for the TC)
672mm prime lens at f5.6? That is going to get you eye-popping shots of wildlife that you would never get close to normally. Yes, I'd love the f.28 version but I am not able to go and spend £3000 but the combo I have with this lens and my TCs makes it an absolutely stunning set of optics.
Hope you find this review helpful. I really can't say much negative about it as it is a truly stunning lens!
Cheers,
Rob
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M1ke A
Been here a while
Registered: November 2007
Location: Sussex
Posts: 440
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Review Date: Thu November 22, 2007
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: £600.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Cracking IQ even wide open
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Cons:
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UK price, some won't like the weight
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Picked one of these up in Hong Kong and have been very pleased with it thus far.
I won't bore you with specs and what have you, you can graze the interweb yourselves........
I will however waffle on with a few empirical comments
It's 280g lighter than a 70-200 f2.8IS and you can feel it. The barrel is slightly narrower and you can comfortably get your fingers in between the tripod mount and lens. It is however longer and I have felt like I'm waving it around a bit more.
Here it is with from the left, 70-200 f4L, 70-200 f2.8L IS and 300 f4L IS
And with hoods up / on
The built in hood is excellent and I believe the 400 f5.6L has the same sensible arrangement?
Samples (apologies for the cycling slant to these )
1/400s f/4.0 iso320
1/320s f/4.0 iso320
1/320s f/4.5 iso160.
Yes I know I should have focussed on the bloke in the middle ( ) but this still gives you an idea of how little dof there is at 300mm.
I can't fault the IQ, even wide open, which is where this lens will spend it's life . The IS is only 2 stops and does seem to 'jump' more than the 70-200 but certainly appears to do it's job.
Definitely recommended though I certainly wouldn't pay the UK spankme price  . Kerso et al on't eBay would be my first port of call
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