Canon EF75-300 USM IS

[golden-balls]

Hi Folks

I've heard good reports about this lens.

It's priced at £354 from www.warehouseexpress.com

Any of you folks have opinions on it or know where I can get it cheaper?

Cheers.

GB
__________________
GoldenBalls
N. Ireland

[Mike Panic]

its not a lens i would buy.. its no where near fast enough for me... and there is some barrel distortion on the long end

its generally bought by people new to photoraphy who want a big zoom w/out a lot of bucks to spend

[Jim Larson]

All the 75-300 and 100-300 lens are very soft beyond 200mm. Wide open performance at 300mm is poor.

The 75-300/IS is basically the same optically as the non-IS version. . .just more expensive and it has IS.

Unfortunately, your alternatives are grim (ie, expensive). The 70-200/4L is super high quality, but lacks IS and does not perform at all beyond 200mm. The 100-400/5.6L-IS has IS, but is a push-pull design, weighs over a kilo . . . and costs over $1100 US. The 70-300/DO-IS is smaller, but has "weird" optical properites and also costs over $1000 US.

[yellow_belly]

David, sorry Golden Balls :) I have this lens but do not use it much now as I now have the 100-400 L IS. You will hear a lot of negative comments about this lens, IMO a lot I think from people who havnt actually used it and just go by clinical reports, but in the real world useage I have found it quite acceptable in use, the quality is slightly down at the 300 end and auto focus may also be a little slow. If you can afford an L glass lens then I would go for that but I dont think you will be disapointed especially regarding the carry-ability (compared to faster/bigger lens etc) and image stabilisation.

Terry

PS that price looks reasonabe to me :) but you can get it for £299 from 7dayshop if you want the lowest.

[lomond]

its not a lens i would buy.. its no where near fast enough for me... and there is some barrel distortion on the long end

its generally bought by people new to photoraphy who want a big zoom w/out a lot of bucks to spend

I would tend to agree with Mike with most of what he says.

However "no where near fast enough" well that depends on what you want to use it for. It's by no means a fast lens at 4-5.6 but if you want faster then you have to shell out a shed load. I have the 100-400L and at 4.5-5.6 it's in the same ball park, speed wise.
Basically if you can afford it buy the 100-400L if its the zoom you want. If you want fast, buy a prime such as the 200 f2.8 and maybe a 1.4 TC later.
I had the 75-300 IS and it was an OK lens. I liked the IS.
If it's for sports then maybe the 75-300 is not fast enough. I don't own the 200 but it's a lens I'm considering and I dont think it will disappoint, neither would the 100-400, but it's a jump in price.
I would also add that the 75-300 suffers from lens creep, which did annoy me.
Hope this helps,
Cameron

[mr.photoguy]

Please search.
We just got finished with another 75-300 post.

[Cadwell]

Or you could compromise and buy the Sigma APO 100-300 f/4 EX for @£550 which is one of the finest 300mm zoom lenses on the market... ;)

[mdr]

I bought the 75-300mm IS to replace my 100-300mm USM, because of the IS and I couldn't afford L glass at more than three times the price. I'm saving up for the 100-400mm L IS or hopefully its replacement which is rumoured to be announced next month.

If you don't need the IS, go for the 100-300mm USM, as the optical quality is the same or even better, the auto focus is much faster and it's smaller/lighter. I actually sent my 75-300mm IS back because I thought the AF was faulty, but it turned out to always be dreadfully slow.

If I have to rate the non L glass lenses optically, I would say the 100-300mm is first, the 75-300mm IS second and the 75-300mm non-IS third by a long shot. Note that I have owned and used all three and that this is my persoanl experience/opinion.

Suggest you look at the second hand market, where you should be able to find a mint condition one for about £300. Make sure that it comes with a 3 or 6 month warrenty though. You can pick them up even cheaper on eBay, but you will most likely not get a warrenty.

[mdr]

Note that 7dayshop.com will sell you a grey import, with US warrenty which Canon UK will not honour. Any warrenty will be through 7dayshop.com.

[yellow_belly]

Note that 7dayshop.com will sell you a grey import, with US warrenty which Canon UK will not honour. Any warrenty will be through 7dayshop.com.Hi MDR - that may be true of some items but the web site says this for the 75-300IS....

"This Lens is Supplied with a Canon 1 Year International Warranty !"

Terry

[mdr]

This warrenty is apparently not honoured by Canon UK, as it is a Canon US warrenty, see some older threads with experiences. Canon UK warrenties are honoured by any Canon authorised UK dealer/service centre. Faulty goods purchased from 7dayshop.com will have to be shipped back to 7dayshop.com as per 7dayshop fine print.

This has not stopped me buying a 20D and 17-40mm f4 L lens from 7dayshop.com, as the price was irressistable.

[Cadwell]

Canon UK will honour US lens warranties. They won't honour US warranties on camera bodies...

[lomond]

If the price was right it wouldn't stop me.
If it works on arrival it's likely it will last the year.
Put it this way if you bought a lens from Jessops for £500 and they said £400 for a 12 month guarantee from the date of purchase, would you buy that guarantee. ( bearing in mind the difference between the £ & the $ )

Cameron

[Neens_wa]

I'm preparing to upgrade lenses next month. I have this lens now. I've had the 100-300, then grew into the 75-300IS. It is soft, yes, but what are you planning to shoot? You may not care. Can you pull off some decent shots with this lens? Yes.

If you have a money pile - buy something else. However, if you're like most of us, and have to save <grin>, you can do fine with this lens for a while. My personal experience is that as my skills improved, and I really began to understand the type of shooting I want to do, and WHERE I'd like to go with my shooting - I realized I needed to move on up in quality.

I shot an extreme bulls competition in August of last year with this lens. See if the lens is up to snuff for you. Also - under my London gallery is a photo of a butterfly taken at the Syon Park B-fly house. Mind you, I lowered the res on these webshots to like 96 to 120 or something, and even then, you can still see the detail inside the lilly in the b-fly pic. I can email you original files if y ou'd like. They were shot with a 10D.

www.pbase.com/neens_wa

[yellow_belly]

This warrenty is apparently not honoured by Canon UK, as it is a Canon US warrenty, see some older threads with experiences. Canon UK warrenties are honoured by any Canon authorised UK dealer/service centre. Faulty goods purchased from 7dayshop.com will have to be shipped back to 7dayshop.com as per 7dayshop fine print.

This has not stopped me buying a 20D and 17-40mm f4 L lens from 7dayshop.com, as the price was irressistable.
MDR I think Cadwell (above) is right on this one as if Canon wont honour a warranty then 7day shop tell you that in the case of a fault then you have to send it back to them and they deal with it, which is the case with your 20D I believe because I also got my 20D from 7dayshop because of the price and that is how it was explained to me :)

Terry

[IanBMW]

I owned that lens. Not bad if you can't afford any better, but I felt as though the AF wasn't even there.....I mean if you have two minutes for the camera to find your subject that's all fine and dandy......as for me I gave up. Later I will just get a L.

[lomond]

I owned that lens. Not bad if you can't afford any better, but I felt as though the AF wasn't even there.....I mean if you have two minutes for the camera to find your subject that's all fine and dandy......as for me I gave up. Later I will just get a L.

Come on, how pretentious can you get,

"Not bad if you can't afford any better".

"if you have two minutes for the camera to find your subject"

It's by no means the best lens in the world, but I have taken some decent shots with it.
So have many others.

Cameron

[Jack W.]

There was a thread about this lens a few days ago on DPR. A member named Gayle posted a bunch of shots taken with this lens that were terrific.
I got this lens for my girlfriend. It may not be an L, but it's quite capable of VERY good pictures.

[JATPhotos]

I shot dance competitions with that lens and my 10D last year and it performed fairly well with stage lights and fast anction. I sold a lot of the photos. This year I bought the 70-200 2.8 IS and a 20D, it is like night and day. Great lens and camera for low light action, I still use the 75-300 lens for outside action shots.

[Jon]

I have this and the 100-400 L. I still carry this one when weight/space is an issue or I know I'm not going to need 400 mm (museums, for instance). Properly used, it's a worth-while lens to have.