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Reviewed by
Ben_Morrissey
, Expert
Price Paid
$0.00
at N/A
Photography Experience
0-1 years
, Other
Summary
This lens is not technically mine, rather my Father's lens which I use. The price paid and purchased at are marked as N/A as these lenses were given to him by his brother.
This is one of the first SLR lenses I ever used, i remember handling it when I was about 12 and thinking that it was a giant thing, and quite heavy as well (I used the smaller film cameras, so the weight took me by surprise).
It's a relatively long lens, and extends quite a distance when zoomed fully. The exterior of the lens is not the highest quality plastic I've ever seen used, but it definitely feels like it could take a drop or two. The portion of the lens that extends seems a little loose, which isn't very good, though I expect that the age of the lens may have a part to play in this.
This lens does have a zoom creeping problem. This is where (for the uneducated) the friction of the lens is not enough to stop the extending portion of the barrel from moving by itself. Thus, when you aim the camera upwards or downwards, the lens will zoom in (when aiming downards) or zoom out (when aiming upwards). The lens I have demonstrates this very well. When aiming about 45 degrees downward or upward, the lens barrel will move, changing the focal length. The easiest way to counter this problem is to hold onto the zoom ring at all times.
In terms of sharpness and quality, I find nothing to fault with my copy of the lens. It seems very sharp up to around 250mm, where it starts deteriorating slightly. In terms of contrast, it could be better, but for what I use it for (Landscapes, or, more accurately, sunsets), it seems fairly good. Distortion isn't very noticeable (for me anyway), though a little bit of pincushion can be observed at 300mm.
This was Canon's first Image Stabilized lens, and thus represents the introduction of the technology. As you can expect, it's not very refined. It works well, and I can observe its effects at 300mm with 10x zoom in live view. However, it makes one hell of a noise when activated. First it 'bluntly' 'clunks' then a relatively loud whirring noise is heard. It is VERY noticeable. It gives me around 2-3 stops when handheld, so I can't really complain. Though, it does let me know when it's working, which I find a plus.
The autofocus mechanism (Micro USM, not Ring USM) is very accurate and relatively fast for me. It hunts very little at 70mm, and seems to Hunt the whole range at 300mm for objects I would consider easy to focus on. This is a little irritating for me. I used it at my first airshow, and it locked focus very quickly and continued tracking very well. The only times I was let down was when tracking a Eurofighter typhoon (This was very close to the beach front, and the Typhoon was approaching the speed of sound). I couldn't track it fast enough (it would appear) and it lost focus completely. The relatively short amount of time it was there didn't help much either.
It has no focus limiter, which was quite irksome during the airshow. As I was sitting on the beach, the groynes and people would make the lens focus on them, quite irritating for the low passing maneuvers. It would have been nice to have one, but then, this is not a professional lens, so I can't really complain.
Surprisingly, it has a nice 8 bladed aperture, which produces nice bokeh, and makes near-circles with out of focus bright light sources (though, the blades in this camera are not rounded, unfortunately).
This lens, while once heavy in my opinion, is now quite light, in my opinion. I have a sigma 10-20mm, which feels like a solid piece of glass, while this feels about the same weight, though much longer. So, it isn't too much of a hassle to be carrying around.
While I think this lens is good, I could not recommend it above the 70-200mm F4L lens. While that lens does not reach as far, it is much sharper, has better contrast, opens wider at the long end and it just built better.
Some examples of photographs I have taken with this lens are available here (Full size images are available from the gallery links that are below the 'thumbnail versions):
'Backlit':
http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/8910/tmpphpckztei.jpg
http://gallery.photographyreview.com/showphoto.php?photo=147670&cat=500&ppuser=285879
'Brighton West Pier':
http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/24/img7115.jpg
http://gallery.photographyreview.com/showphoto.php?photo=147671&cat=500&ppuser=285879
Apart from size reduction in Photoshop, these have all been unedited.
Strengths
Price. While it's not cheap, The price is costs versus the images it can produce makes me consider it pretty good value for money.
Sub-300mm Image Quality. At 300mm, your images will suffer from decreased sharpness. It's always handy to have, but I rarely use it over 250mm, and have produced some brilliant pictures from this.
Image Stabilization. While a very early example of Image stabilization, it works well and effectively, though sacrifices in discreetness should be noted.
Aperture. 8 Blades provide good bokeh. Not the best, but better than a 7 bladed or 6 bladed aperture.
Weaknesses
300mm Image Quality. Quite poor even in the center. Though strangely it's sharpness improves in the corners at 300mm than lengths below 300mm.
Zoom Creeping. Has the potential to rather annoy people. It did annoy me for a while, but I've learned to live with it.
Price. This is both a Strength and a weakness, in my opinion. It's price puts it too close to the much better EF 70-200mm F4L, which for all intents and purposes (minus 'reach') is a better lens (though, it doesn't have IS, which may be a concern).
No focus limiter. Can be annoying for low passing planes on a beach front. Other than that, not really a problem for me.
Similar Products Used
70-200mm F4L
70-200mm F2.8L IS
Customer Service
N/A
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