Should I buy the vintage 100-300 f/5.6 L that costs USD $300?

[loithuxua]

Thank you all for the advices and opinions. I bought it and never regret about buying it, quite as good as a 70-200 4L


I'm offered this one in mint condition (no hood) with the price of USD $300. I search the whole forum for info about this lens but most of the results are from Classifieds.

I read many reviews and comments about it on other sites but still not sure of its building and image qualities.

I want to know if it deserves $300? With this amount of $, what are the other Canon lenses I should consider beside this one?


I Would like to hear your opinions of it. Thank you.

[Permagrin]

you'll get great IQ and somewhat slower AF. It was known for being one of the sharpest zooms canon ever made.

I think that it's so far and above the IQ you'd get (compared to other lenses in that price range) that it would be worth it.

[loithuxua]

Originally Posted by Permagrin

you'll get great IQ and somewhat slower AF. It was known for being one of the sharpest zooms canon ever made.

I think that it's so far and above the IQ you'd get (compared to other lenses in that price range) that it would be worth it.

Really?! your these words make it impossible for me to not buy it. I must check it myself.

Any other ideas and advice before I take the final step, please?

[rklepper]

I would agree. For $300 I am not sure how you could go wrong, unless of course you really have no use for it.

[footballdude2k3]

for 300 i think it is worth at the minimum a test, if it is local pick up i would be a lot more apt to buy it so i would be able to try it out. i say if you can try it and it works, why not

[msowsun]

Here is a complete review: http://www.photozone.de/canon-eos/20...report--review

The Canon EF 100-300mm f/5.6 L is ancient lens released back in 1987 so it saw its first light with the birth of the Canon EOS system. It is now discontinued but still pretty popular on the used market - no surprise because it is one of the very few Canon L (Luxury) lenses within the reach of budget users. On APS-C DSLRs the field of view is equivalent to 160-480mm. It's a full frame lens and as such compatible to all EOS cameras out there

The Canon EF 100-300mm f/5.6 L can still convince optically with very high resolution figures, low distortions and quite low vignetting (on APS-C). However, mechanically the lens is totally outdated and clearly substandard compared to current Canon L lenses. In fact most of today's consumer zooms are better in this respect. If you cannot afford the new EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 USM IS the ancient EF 100-300mm f/5.6 L remains still worth a serious thought regarding its much lower price tag on the used market and it still puts most other xx-300mm zoom lenses to shame specifically regarding contrast.

[msowsun]

One more review: http://photonotes.org/reviews/ef-lenses/

EF 100-300 5.6L.

I replaced the stolen 100-300 USM lens with an older lens with the same focal range - the 5.6L. This is actually quite an elderly lens by EOS standards. It came out in the late 1980s and represents a typical EOS lens for the time. In fact, it’s barely an L series lens. It may have a fluorite element, a low-dispersion (UD) element and decent optics, but its construction isn’t anywhere near as good as any modern L lens. It uses the older-style hard black plastics and just feels kind of clunky.

The 100-300 5.6L design is basically of the same era as the 28mm 2.8 and the 50mm 1.8. It’s got an all-plastic barrel, a noisy and slow AFD (arc-form drive) focus motor and has a poorly damped manual focussing ring. It’s nothing like the hefty metal and silky smooth 70-200 2.8L, say. It’s also optically slow, with a maximum aperture of only f/5.6. It has a three-position focus mode switch - manual focus, autofocus and autofocus limiter. In regular autofocus mode the lens will focus across its full range. In limiter mode the lens focusses from 2 metres to infinity only. (ie: it doesn’t try to focus any closer than 2 metres) Unfortunately this switch is very stiff, isn’t raised very far above the lens barrel, and is generally irritating and fiddly to adjust when the lens is mounted onto a camera.

The lens is also of the push-pull design. This means that you simply slide the outer tube back and forth to adjust the focal lens. Unfortunately it does not have the more convenient rotating ring setup of a two-touch zoom lens such as the 100-300 4.5-5.6 USM. Push-pull zooms suck in a lot of air and dust every time you zoom by definition. The lens also suffers from zoom creep if it’s tilted up or down - the weight of the lenses causes the lens to slide, zooming inadvertently. The lens isn’t compatible with Canon’s teleconverters - they physically do not fit.

The recommended hood is the clip-on ET-62 or ET-62 II, which are included with the lens along with a strange-looking lightweight ribbed soft lens case. I don’t know what the difference is between the ET-62 and the ET-62 II, as the latter does not have a flocked interior, which is common with mark II lens hoods. Note that the lens ships with an unusual removable rubber ring at the end, and this ring must be removed for the lens hood to fit. Disappointingly, no tripod mount is included with the lens nor is one available from Canon. This is a real shame, since the lens is just long and heavy enough to benefit from a tripod mount on the lens rather than relying on the one on the camera body.

In short, this lens is kind of annoying to use, particularly if you’ve spent any time using any similar lens with an ultrasonic motor and full-time manual focussing. When the lens can’t achieve focus, which is often, it racks back and forth quite slowly, making high-pitched buzzing noises. Grm. However, it’s the only 100-300 EF lens which Canon has ever built which offers half-decent optics. And, since it’t discontinued, you can buy used examples of this lens for about as much as a new 100-300 USM.

So your choice basically comes down to convenience versus image quality. Since I generally try to use an inconvenient tripod with a lens this long and slow anyway, I’ve opted for image quality.

Canon EF 100-300mm 5.6L

Focus drive type. AFD (arc-form drive).
Diagonal angle of view. 24° to 8° 15'.
Groups and elements. 10 and 15.
Aperture range. f/5.6 - f/32.
Diaphragm blades. 8.
Maximum magnification. 0.26x.
Close focus distance. 1.5m or 4.9'.
Filter diameter. 58mm.
Hood type ET-62 II clip-on hood.
Length. 167mm or 6 5/8".
Weight. 695g or 1 lb 8 1/2 oz.
End rotates when focussing. Yes.
End extends when focussing. Yes.
End extends when zooming. Yes.
Zoom control type. Push-pull (no zoom ring).
Distance scale. Yes.
Metal lens mount. Yes.
Other features. Focus limit switch, nice red ring painted around end.