MrPatate's Full Review: Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III USM Lens
The 75-300 does the job and that's all. It has no features that make you say WOW!
Construction: poor... It has a "cheap" feeling. The rings are not tight, so the controls are not precise. You can hear some pieces ratteling when you shake the lens... Being constructed so loose, the lens is prone to be infiltered by sand or water. When you focus, the front elements turn and move forward. That is not a good thing if you use a lot of filtering. When you zoom to 300mm, the lens's lenght almost doubles. The only advantage of such a lens is it's light weight.
optics: You pay for what you get. For sure it is not pro, but you can manage to get very acceptable results if you are not as perfectionnist as me... It is not suited to shoot slidefilm: with slide film, you see even more the inacuracies of you equipment. But for most people, for most situations, this lens will do the job you want it to do.
At 300mm, the photos are soft. Contrast is poor, and you will notice some vignetting. Dont shoot wide open, stop down at f8 or f11 so you will get better results. But if you can, don't go over 200mm.
At the short end, the results are better. Still, stop down if you can. As you need to stop down, you will need a tripod, even in bright daylight. Remember that when you shoot handheld, you have to keep the speed at least 1/focal lenght. That means that at 300mm, it is suggested that you shoot at about 1/250 or even 1/350. At f11, you need a very fast film. So get a good tripod, you will manage to shoot at 1/30...
That also means that this lens is not suited for action photo: you need to stop down to get sharper images, and stopping down means lower speed. Even wide open, it is not a fast lens and certainly not a sharp one. So it's uses are limited.
Autofocus is very slow. On the non-usm version, it is even worst. In fact, I don't think I ever used AF on this lens, I prefer to focus manually. Focusing manually with such a lens is not a problem and here's why: it does'nt have a large aperture so very precise focusing is not as important as with limited depth-of-field faster lenses. The deep DOF of small aperture compensate for focus inacuracies. You don't need to have an eagle's eye to manually focus such a lens.
I cannot say that I noticed a lot of distortion on the photos I took with this lens, but the subjects I photograph are not the best to notice distortion. As for flare, it can be very annoying especially if you like night photography.
So. When you read this review, you will probably say that you'll never buy this lens. As surprising as it may seem, I still recommend you to buy it. It is cheap. In this review, I compare it to a pro lens, a 1500$ one. You get what you pay for. The 75-300 is an amateur lens, and it gives amateur results. But between you and me, most people wont see the difference between a photo taken with a pro lens and one taken with an amateur one. If your goal is to have images and souvenirs, go with a cheap lens. If you plan to sell your photos, to have enlargements made of your images, or if you are a perfectionnist, pay for quality. You will notice the differences if you pay attention to the details, and most people don't.
The 75-300 was my first telephoto, when I bought my ElanII back in '96. I didn't have the money to buy something more expensive. It gave me two years of good service before I bought an high-end 70-200 2.8. I give it two stars mainly because of it's inexpensive price tag: I still use it when I go some places where I would'nt bring the 70-200...
Front and Rear Caps.The optical system, construction, and exterior are the same as the EF 75-300 mm f/4-5.6 III USM's. The difference is that it uses ...More at Adorama
Compact and lightweight 4x telephoto zoom lens ideal for shooting sports, portraits, and wildlife. The newly developed Micro USM makes autofocusing qu...More at J&R Music and Computer World
Y oure bidding on a brand new in box, never been used Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III lens . In perfect condition, no scratches, dings, or dents; clear ...More at eBay
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