Digital Camera: Canon EF 75300mm f4056 III Lens

There seems to be a few listing for this lens on amazon (at least 4!). It is not clear if this one is USM or not as there is two versions of this lens. The one at this link is definitively USM: Canon EF 75-300mm F/4.0-5.6 USM III Telephoto Zoom Lens. It makes a huge difference for the autofocus function.

Almost as Good as a Tokina 80-400mm Lens! posted on 2010-02-04

I bought my Canon EF 75-300mm f4.0-5.6 III lens from an Amazon seller late last year. Used it on my Canon 1000D to take many photos of just about everything. It is surprisingly good. Yes it does "hunt" for focus in poor light (but so my much more expensive Tokina 400mm lens!). The lens isn't image stabilised (neither is the Tokina). My example has a nice smooth zooming action, and manual/auto focus. There is no focus lock on the barrel, so the lens does tend to "creep" open to it's full extent when being carried. It is a nice lightweight lens. I can carry the Canon all day with this lens fitted and hardly notice it. Photos with the Canon lens are crisp, with great colour rendition. I have not noticed any chromatic abberations yet. I find it takes clearest photos when at f8 to f16 range. (in otherwords, in summertime!). I will try and post some examples with this review. For the money, it is great value - and being a Canon lens, it is of good quality.

Regards,

Phil Edwards.
North Wales.

Good buy for a beginner on a budget posted on 2009-05-28

Good budget lens. You must use a tripod at night to get an average photo out of it. The auto-focus is a bit slow however I would recomment if you were on a budget.

Good but not great posted on 2009-02-03

It's exactly what it says on the tin.
It's cheap, and has a good focal range.

You're probably looking at this lens instead of the IS version on the grounds of price. If you can afford it I would go with the IS version.

The standard focus doesn't exactly lend itself to wildlife photography.
But hey the price is fantastic!

Great budget starter lens for the amatuer/hobbyist posted on 2007-11-14

I bought this lens about eight months ago for my Canon 350D. If like me you bought the kit that comes bundled with the 18-55mm lens you'll notice there is a big gap when it comes to zoom/telephoto shots, this is a great budget tele-photo zoom lens that does what it says on the tin, and fills the gap nicely.

I am an amateur photographer at best and still learning, but after using the lens for a while I was disappointed to learn that the f stop values really do make a big difference - the widest aperture you will be able to set this lens to is 4.0 at 75mm and only 5.6 at 300mm, if your really serious you need a fast lens like f/2.8, and definitely with IS (image stabilisation) - the lens is not that heavy (for me), but during a long shoot it starts to feel like a cannon (pardon the pun), the lens really protrudes out at towards the 300mm end, and if you hold the camera pointing straight down, expect lens creep. Add an external flash onto the hot shoe and expect a real workout!

My wife complains its way too heavy - especially with a speedlite mounted on top, just carry a tripod if you expect to be on a long shoot, or mount the external flash on a tripod (you'll need something like a speedlite wireless remote for this, expensive, but its tiny and weighs next to nothing and gets the speedlite off the camera).

Having said all that, I have got some really great shots with this, and overall for the price you pay for this lens it's a real good value for money. If I'm going to a function, like a party within a hall, I would almost always use this lens (not to good for mid range shots - 50mm better for this, which is why I carry another camera to save swapping lenses about), great for candid photography where you can position yourself at the other side of the hall and take shots without distracting or letting your subjects know they are being shot - just have a strong arm, and good light conditions/flash. For portrait shots, and shots where you slow the shutter speed use a tripod, or you get too much blur/softness. If you also intend to pan the shot, a tripod with a panning handle is also essential.

The other thing you need to bear in mind is the multiplication factor (of the focal length) of your camera. Unless your lucky enough to have a camera with the same focal length as a 35mm film camera, i.e. a full 35mm frame size, the camera may effectively crop the image to fit on the film sensor - the 350D has a factor of x1.6, this means this lens is effectively a 120mm - 480mm lens (!) This is great on the tele-photo side, you get more magnification than you pay for, but not so good for wide angle or down at the 75mm end, where you've actually got 120mm. (Because of this factor, if you want a wide-angle lens and you have a 350/400D then you'd be better off going for ultra wide 14mm).

Bottom line, it's a heavy lens, and no IS, but for the price of the lens very good value for money! I haven't regretted buying this, and unless you're a really serious photographer, and shoot within the limits of this lens you wont either.

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