02-17-2013, 03:33 AM
Just picked up a CANON EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM and thought I'd ask what others think about it. First impressions are the IS is very noisy - can anybody explain why this should be? For example, the 18-55 IS is silent. Is there something about the 70-300 that makes it noisy, and what is it?
Otherwise for a lens in this price bracket (going for £200-250 on ebay) it is quite impressive. Sharp even at 300mm. AF in low-light is pretty useless though at this range. Guess you have to pay over 1000 to overcome this.
Doing a few test shots with IS on and off, can't say I see the difference until you get to something silly like a 1 second exposure, hand-held in very low light. The difference then is very noticeable, so clearly it is working, but who does that with a 300mm lens? Maybe I have steady hands, but at the moment I'm not seeing the point of IS on this lens. Using it mainly for wildlife where a fast shutter speed is needed anyway (unless you can tie the animal down) I'm thinking they could have made a lens with the same optics without IS for less money, probably more durable, and sold a lot more of them.
Anybody else impressed or not with this lens, I'm curious to know <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='
' />
Otherwise for a lens in this price bracket (going for £200-250 on ebay) it is quite impressive. Sharp even at 300mm. AF in low-light is pretty useless though at this range. Guess you have to pay over 1000 to overcome this.
Doing a few test shots with IS on and off, can't say I see the difference until you get to something silly like a 1 second exposure, hand-held in very low light. The difference then is very noticeable, so clearly it is working, but who does that with a 300mm lens? Maybe I have steady hands, but at the moment I'm not seeing the point of IS on this lens. Using it mainly for wildlife where a fast shutter speed is needed anyway (unless you can tie the animal down) I'm thinking they could have made a lens with the same optics without IS for less money, probably more durable, and sold a lot more of them.
Anybody else impressed or not with this lens, I'm curious to know <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='
' />