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EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

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Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM


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Rating
Reviewed by: 

Audible

( Intermediate)

Review Date
September 14, 2005

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Value Rating
 2 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5,
1 votes

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Review 1 of 69

Price Paid:  $900.00 from perth

Summary:

Basically, a average grade lens with IS tacked onto the side. This lens is soft pretty much all the way thru. Sharpen's up quite well at F8-11 but at 230mm length or more, nothing will save it. Distortions & aberations are pretty good for the price. The slow focus speed and hunting makes owning this lens painfull. Good lens to own if you want to practice manual focus. I did. Overall, it isn't a bad lens. The IS is great. Easily hand hold 1/60. Just keep it under 230mm and you have a pretty decent walk about & low light lens. With practice you will learn to avoid the situations where this lens AF gets confused. (dark rooms)

Strengths:

Image stabiliser. 75-300mm range. Build quality.

Weaknesses:

230mm+ zoom length. Slow focus speed. Focus hunt. Price for what it is.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 70-200 F4. Sigma 100-300 F4. Canon 90-300 usm.

Customer Service:

Unknown.



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Rating
Reviewed by: 

I_Fly

( Professional)

Review Date
June 8, 2005

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5,
1 votes

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Review 2 of 69

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:

I used this lens for several years without a problem or complaint. It's not a bad lens. However, it is soft at 300mm. It's slow and my copy often hunts for focus. The hunting gets much worse in low light conditions. As I do a lot of action photography (aviation related) the IS does me no good as it only has a mode 1 type IS (no panning). If I had to do over, I wouldn't buy the IS version and save the extra $ for an L lens.

Strengths:

Nice range. 75-200 relatively sharp.

Weaknesses:

Very soft at 300mm. Slow focusing. Hunts a lot, especially in low light.

Customer Service:

Not needed.



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Rating
Reviewed by: 

bbee0955

( Casual)

Review Date
March 14, 2005

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
1.00 of 5,
2 votes

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Review 3 of 69

Price Paid:  $370.00 from Eby

Summary:

This weekend I recieved my new 70-200mm "L" lens. It is fast, snappy, sharp like everyone else claimed. However, I decided to return it and keep my 75-300mm IS. Why? 75-300mm IS have 2 major strength over the 70-200mm. One is IS, which offer you more opptunity to get the shot you want in dim light. Second is the reach. That extra 100mm does come handi when you need that extra inch. I admit, I probably got a pretty good copy or something, because when I do the side-by-side comparison, quality between 70-200mm L and 75-300mm IS coming pretty close, except 70-200mm L offer better contrast and a little bit sharper. In the end, the most important thing to me is getting the shoot!

Strengths:

IS 300mm Good performance/value ratio

Weaknesses:

Slow AF and hunt a lot in the low light. However it can be overcome by using only center focus point. 1st generation IS does not offer panning - What I discover is turn off IS and just us it as a normal 75-300mm and it works pretty well.

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 75-300mm DL Canon 70-200mm L



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Rating
Reviewed by: 

bbee0955

( Intermediate)

Review Date
February 18, 2005

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

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Review 4 of 69

Price Paid:  $350.00 from Ebay

Summary:

I think I got a good copy of the lens. My shoots are sharp and clear. IS really works!

Strengths:

IS, light weight.

Weaknesses:

Slow AF, especially in low light.

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 70-300 DL



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Rating
Reviewed by: 

Douglas

( Expert)

Review Date
July 5, 2004

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Value Rating
 2 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
2.80 of 5,
5 votes

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Review 5 of 69

Price Paid:  $500.00 from Jessops UK

Summary:

The Canon 75-300mm consumer zooms - I've owned and used both the IS and non-IS versions - are pretty average at best and poor value for money. Not only soft, as people rightly say, but also prone to flare which reduces colour saturation and contrast. I was very disappointed by the quality of shots taken in intensive use of the 75-300mm IS in sunny and photogenic Crete a couple of years back, and subsequently traded it against the 70-200mm f4L instead. Best move I ever made. Now that the 70-200mm f4L is dropping in price it is even better value. Save up for the 1.4x converter to go with it and/or use it on a digital body - THAT combination can give you great results where the 75-300mm will probably always disappoint you too.

Strengths:

Decorates camera bodies for sale and is not quite as bad as the (dire) 22-55mm or the(mostly poor) Canon standard kit zooms.

Weaknesses:

Most important, the versions I have used seemed incapable of making sharp, saturated images whatever care was taken. Prone to flare and colour degradation. Cosmetically they feel flimsy and plastic. I do appreciate that not everone wants or can afford L glass, but there are much better non-L lenses for the money.

Similar Products Used:

70-200mm f4L; 70-200mm f2.8L; (both with 1.4x and 2x canon converters) 80-200mm Leica f4 ROM.

Customer Service:

Unless it is free it would be wasted on one of these.



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