Please review photos and comment. 75-300 IS Lens

[fntzlnd]

Hello all,

I have a friend that bought the 75-300 IS lens from Canon for his digital Rebel. The following pictures and 100% crops are from said lens both taken from the digital Rebel and my 10D. As you can see, the lens performs pretty well, and with some levels and unsharp mask the images look pretty good. However, I ask... what is with the "double vision" in the out of focus areas? Any ideas? Is this lens defective? I know this is the first lens with IS, so is this an artifact of IS? If so, will this be a problem on the 100-400 L IS? I know the 100-400 has a newer IS system.

Anyway, he only has a couple days to return the lens if it is defective, so any comments would be great.

All images taken with IS on.

Example #1
http://www.thedecamps.com/tmp/75_300_ex1.jpg

100% Crop
http://www.thedecamps.com/tmp/75_300_ex1_crop.jpg

Example #2
http://www.thedecamps.com/tmp/75_300_ex2.jpg

100% Crop
http://www.thedecamps.com/tmp/75_300_ex2_crop.jpg

Example #3
http://www.thedecamps.com/tmp/75_300_ex3.jpg

100% Crop
http://www.thedecamps.com/tmp/75_300_ex3_crop.jpg

Example #4
http://www.thedecamps.com/tmp/75_300_ex4.jpg

No 100% crop here, just an example that this lens performs pretty well.

Thanks to all in advance.
Greg

[aznkid.com]

your lens is fine..that's how out of focus areas are supposed to look.. 'bokeh' i suppose..

for your 100% crops, be sure to crop areas that are IN focus and not out of focus..people want to see the sharp areas ;)

[gillyworld]

I can see absolutely nothing wrong with the results from your lens.

Alan

[psk4363]

That's a great lens and I can't see anything wrong with the results it's produced.

Barry

[evilenglishman]

i have to agree with the original post - it doesn't look right to me.
There is an almost striped effect going on. I don't own this lens so i don't know if its normal but looking at the samples on pbase it shouldn't be like that:
http://www.pbase.com/cameras/canon/ef_75300_4is

#edit#
the pattern also seems to run at different anges - the first photo has a definate top-left to bottm-right effect and the next example is almost running vertical.

I would ask to try another lens.

[gillyworld]

i have to agree with the original post - it doesn't look right to me.
There is an almost striped effect going on. I don't own this lens so i don't know if its normal but looking at the samples on pbase it shouldn't be like that:


I have to diasagree. Here is an actual size out of focus area of a shot taken with my 75-300IS lens. Which exhibits the same out of focus patterning. (The rest of the shot was in focus - just in case anyone asks!!)
http://www.gillyworld.com/temp/test.jpg

Alan

[Olegis]

I would say that the bokeh (out-of focus areas appearance) looks fine on these images. Here's pretty similar bokeh from the 70-200 f/2.8L :

http://www.pbase.com/olegis/image/27799787.jpg

[roanjohn]

There are good bokeh and bad bokeh. It's all dependent on the lens. So long as your main subject is nice and sharp, I would not complain.

Nice shots BTW.

Ro1

[Scottes]

I think the out-of-focus areas look odd. The striped effect is quite noticable in the 100% crops. I can't even begin to understand how that could happen. It looks like camera shake, but this isn't possible since there are sharp areas in the photo. I am curious though... Will this striping happen with IS on *and* off?

Does anyone else with a 75-300mm IS have a 100% crop of an out-of-focus area to compare?


I do have to say that the image looks quite fine in the full version. So I'd wonder if the striping would ever be noticed unless you viewed at 100%. Have you tried printing an 8x10 to see how it looks?

[evilenglishman]

There are good bokeh and bad bokeh. It's all dependent on the lens.

If that is how it is supposed to look, then I think its bad and I would avoid the lens altogether.
The "pattern" is very visible in the pumpkin photo and it looks like the more you sharpen it the worse it will get.

For me the bokeh shouldn't be distracting from the main focal point - just the opposite in fact, if you don't notice it then its good and this is very noticible. I would like to know how it manages to change angle though.

[maderito]

I think what is being called "bokeh" with patterning is out-of-focus patterned areas in the images that are not enough OOF to create a classic , beautiful bokeh blur. Grass, leaves, wood chips, etc. give really poor bokeh unless you have a wide aperture and narrow DOF to get the non-essential image details way OOF.

The 75-300 IS lens has an 8 blade diaphragm which should give good bokeh under with appropriate exposure settings and subject matter - as some of these shots demonstrate.

[Mark Kemp]

Wow I am impressed!

I reckon lens manufacturers have come a long way.

Years ago we all worried about the quality of the sharp bits, now we are worried about the out of focus bits.

How bad can a lens be if the only complaint we have is that the out of focus bits are poor.

[Quinn Porter]

I agree that the OOF areas look odd. You can see the striped effect clearly in the first two images. Greg, you might want to share unprocessed images (these are heavily sharpened) with stabilization on and off to get better answers. Or, you could just return this lens and hope for better luck with the next one.