IS

Slow AF, 300mm is a little soft.

Produces great quality pictures at almost all the zoom sizes. 75mm is sharp.

Customer Service

No experience.

Optically this produces some great results up to 250mm, I was impressed with the sharpness when it settles on the focus. The image stabiliser is great. I 've taken tack sharp shots at 1/60 on 250mm in windy conditions.

The autofocus on occasions is an absolute dog Like the non USM mk 111 model this is soft in the 250-300mm range. I don't mind the plastic but this lens feel very brittle.

How good you find this lens is in my opinion dependent on what type of subjects you shoot. Some of the images I shot with this lens were briliantly sharp and what you expect for a lens that normally retails for NZD$1200 plus. The image stabliser is a great addition and is something I found extremely useful. Especially as my main style of photographt is travel, and I like to get a lot of candid shots. On the downside however, on too many occasions this lens seems to hunt like a tiger but without finding its prey. To be perfectly honest, I found the focusing on the non USM mark 111 model I replaced with the IS to be much better. The mark 111 model was on occasions soft in the 250-300mm range (not always, I still got some great shots over 4 years in this range) and for the money I would have expected Canon to have rectified this problem. Unfortunately they haven't. Sometimes it even hunted when focusing on a stationary object! If you take like to take shots of stationary subjects then this lens would be very good as it does have the ability to produce very sharp images. If however like me you shoot moving subjects then this lens I have found is just too unreliable and will be trading it in for something else.

Customer Service

Not used

Similar Products Used:

Canon 75-300 f4-5.6 mk111 non usm Canon 28-135 f3.5-5.6 IS (still undecided on how good this one is right now) Canon 28-80 f3.5-5.6 (beginners lens) Sigma 28-70 f2.8 ex (excellent lens) Canon 50m

The Image Stabilizer is the fine part of the lens. without this its just a lens.

The lens need a little more sharpnes on short focus...

I bought this lens to shoot birds and animals. I am surprised how fine the autofocus is funktioned. I use the lens with Canon 10D.

Similar Products Used:

Sigma, Nikon ED180mm

IS is a great invention, but what happened here in this lens body??? 58mm filters on front element

45% focus Do not use for sports/action/quick shots Front Element rotates when focusing Can not over-ride auto focus to manual focus unless you flip the switch.

I use the Canon Elan 7e body and the 28-135mm IS for my photography. I purchased this lens to compliment the 28-135 IS lens for a wedding that I was asked to do. I have used the 28-135 for 2.5 years and am very pleased with it. But this lens, I needed it to reach over the crowd from the back (not allowed to approach the congregation during the ceremony) to get the close shots of the wedding - what a waste of time and effort. This thing hunts for focus with about 45% of the time actually finding it. I missed shots like "you may kiss the bride" - because of the hunt. I don't know why but when pressing the shutter button down half way to engage auto-focus and metering, the lens makes a clunk noise that is distracting and disturbing. I took it to a local photo shop to try one of their copies - same thing - Clunk!. It does not do it when the IS is turned off. I strongly suggest not to purchase this lens for sports or fast framing.

Customer Service

I have yet to use - though I shall call them about this lens.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 28-135 IS (awesome lens) Canon 70-200 2.8 L IS (this lens rocks!)

IS is really good and offsets the lower optical performance. Compact and light weight.

Optics are acceptable but not great. IS would not work well with fast moving objects as you would need fast shutter speed to freeze the action anyway. Higher battery consumption to power the gyros and built-in microcomputers.

I have read many negative, hrash comments about this lenses. I think some credits should be given to the fact that this is the world's first IS camera lens. And also I don't think you should compare it with L-series lenses as the optics are very much based on the cheap non-IS version, which is designed for mass consumers. The beauty of IS can be clearly seen on the viewfinder at the 300mm end. From my experience, AF speed is decent with my EOS 3. If you switch on the IS, you can hear a tiny buzz noise from the two gyros and disengagement of the locking clutch for the floating IS optical elements. If you peek through the front optical elements, you can see the incredibly quick counter-responses of the IS elements to your handshake. It shifts in the same direction as your disturbance in two degrees of freedom, with minimal time lag. Optically, I never expect too much from it as I used to have the cheap non-IS version. It is not fully corrected in aberrations. Very noticetable pincushion distortion at the edges particularly at 300mm. It's strength lies in the low light application and in miserable overcast weather( as we get often here in the UK). The slow F5.6 max aperture becomes not a problem. Under bright weather conditions, IS also enables you to stop down the aperture so the image sharpness and contrast improve greatly. It is very portable lens at a reasonable price. The construction is far more solid than its non-IS brother. If I really want high quality telephoto images I would have to stick to my several Carl Zeiss telephoto primes which are much bulkier and heavier. If you want ultimate optics, you will have to pay a lot.... the price of the Carl Zeiss 75-300 zoom equivalence is $2100!!

Similar Products Used:

Mainly Carl Zeiss optics.

IS

Sharpness (or lack there of), focusing lag time, price vs optical quality, lack of looking professional

I thought this would be a perfect lens for me. I was wrong. It was not a bad lens and for the average person it would be great. I bought it originally to stay inexpensive for shooting low light but the focus to so long I could have found a tripod to put it on before it would have found my subject. I could have manually focused it if enough light came through the lens to actually see my subject. I thought I should have just bought the bigger and better lens but my finances didn't support buying a 70-200 f2.8 lens for a backup camera so I tested out a Sigma 70-300 on the same roll of film and processed it myself. The sigma lens was sharper by far out doors but the canon lens seemed just a touch sharper indoors (IS) but overall I saw very very little difference that I went with the sigma. Colleagues still ask me what lens I use.

Customer Service

Canon gets the job done but it takes them a long long time. I am still waiting for a rebate from 3 1/2 months ago.

Similar Products Used:

70-200 2.8 , 70-300 usm sigma 70-300

Quiet efficient Image stabilization, light weight, handy 58mm filter size, good zoom range, no where near as bad as expected

Lens end rotates when focussing, no FT-M Focus, no focus guide window, Slower than most DC lenses at AF, Contrast could be better.

I looked into this lens as a general use superzoom with IS as I only tend to use relatively short range lenses for my usual brochure and product shot work.. I was expecting a real turkey after reading the reviews but as my dealer let me take it on trial (an Ex demo lens anyway), I thought I`d give it a shot.. The first things you notice are that it is no were near as flimsily built as it`s non-IS cousin, Despite being USM, it AFs VERY slow, the front element rotates when it focusses unlike my 10-15 year old DC motor primes! and is a pain for polarizers, there is no distance window for guiding manual focus by and the IS system clunks just like a Pro-90 / C2100UZ ;-).. To be honest, I didn`t expect much from this lens and when the tests resulted in bang on focussed pretty well sharp shots at full zoom indoors (low light) wide open I was gobsmacked!. Outdoors it`s no slouch either though it does share the lack of contrast issue with the 28-135IS, this is no problem if you have the lens stuck on a D60 as you have Photoshop to sort things out but could be a pain with film, it`s not MASSIVELY bad, just lower than I`m used to with the primes. Vignetting and distortion seem minimal and the IS system works as expected, the Gyros are very quiet indeed.. So is it worth the money? - Well the problem with slow glass (F4-5.6) is that you really need them to perform wide open and the problem with cheap glass is that they rarely do (in fact some L`s don`t either) so the combination of slow cheap glass means a VERY fair weather lens.. This is where IS comes in, you gain a good 2 stops of handholdability, couple this with the fact that a GOOD EXAMPLE of this lens isn`t too bad wide open you end up with a quirky lens which isn`t as bad as it`s touted to be and worth the cash.. All I can say is that there must be some seriously awful examples floating around as I`ve used good and bad and this definately isn`t BAD. I get the feeling that Canon may have improved this lens over the years

Customer Service

N/A

Similar Products Used:

28-135IS, 20-35, 50mm, 80mm, 28-70L, 35-135USM

Strengths are the IS built into the camera.

Focus hunting even when focused on subject that maybe moving a little, and this happens even in bright sunlight with the largest aperture you can select.

Purchase price is in Australian $$$'s I have read the other reviews posted here and to some degree I agree with the other posters. Given that this lens is supposed to be in a similar class as the 28-135 IS lens, it comes no where close to it, being of similar price. I have percivered with this lens and have found that it does take reasonable good, clear images at both ends of the scale. Mine has lens creep when I point the camera down and have discussed that with Canon Service directly and was told that they do it normally, I thought differently. The constant hunting of the lens to focus even when you have been focused on your subject is disturbing, to the point that I change over to my 28-135 IS lens and move closer to the subject than I would like, loosing all that candid effect I look for when taking images, especially of children, who see you and then hide (my children mainly). I would suggest to anyone thinking of purchasing this lens, to put it on their camera and just do some focusing with it, maybe even take images with the lens and see what results you get. The IS side of the lens is great but the focusing is terrible. I will be looking at selling this lens and moving to something different, to get the range I want to keep taking candid photos.

Customer Service

Friendly, fix problems quickly and at times free of charge.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 28-135 IS lens.

Easy to tote, works well. IS feature is awesome!

No locking barrel, slow focus, soft at distance.

I have used this lense for many outdoor applications. I do admit, at 300 MM using this for wildlife shots is not ideal. But at 300 for nature shots (Flowers waterfalls) this lense has been great. The IS works flawlessly everytime! I have significantly better shot selections with the IS on. A good lense, used almost as an everyday lense.

Customer Service

Not needed

Similar Products Used:

Other Canon

- Image Stabilization - light weight - small filter size (58mm) - sharp - nice contrast

- noticable pin cushion distortion - rotating barrel (would greatly benefit from internal focusing) - moderately slow focus; can hunt in low light or with monochromatic/low contrast subjects

I have hesitated getting this lens because of the mixed reviews I've read about it. My nephew, who is quite a novice at photography, has this lens. I have to say I've been convinced by what he's been getting from this lens that it is of good quality and I should try it out. I disagree with the comments I've read re: sharpness. I find the lens to be quite crisp. The ability to get a sharply focused shot is truly enhanced by Image Stabilization. I.S. is an amazing techonology that lives up to its claim. I have been tired of shots taken at 300mm that are just not-quite-sharp-enough. I think that I.S. goes a long way to help those of us who tend not to lug a tripod with us everywhere we go. I.S. can really help snare that grab shot that you may have missed otherwise. The lens has a drawback, though, that can offset this benefit. Although it is a USM lens, I find that it focuses more slowly than virtually everyone of my other lenses (Sigma and Tamron). It is not painfully slow, but slow enough (particularly in low contrast settings) that it will hunt excessively. And on those grab shots - it can mean missing it. Overall I am pleased. It is lightweight. It uses a small filter size (58mm). Image Stabilization can only be termed "fantastic." It is a nice size. It produces sharp photos with nice contrast and good color rendition.

Customer Service

Have had no need for customer service.

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 70-300 Tamron 28-300 Canon 100-400 L I.S.