Customer Reviews: Read 130 more reviews...
 Not a bad lens. Better than the old 75-300mm IS, but get the 70-200 f/4L instead. January 29, 2006
Deluxe (worldwide)
325 out of 351 found this review helpful
I owned this lens' predecessor, the 75-300mm IS. That lens was horrible. When I read many good things about this new 70-300mm IS lens, I thought it was time to upgrade. But, it was difficult to decide whether buy this lens or Canon's 70-200mm f/4L professional lens. I bought this lens and it was my mistake.
While it has numerous improvements over the 75-300mm IS, there are still some shortcomings with this lens that keep it from competing with the similar-priced 70-200mm f/4L.
First, starting at around 150mm-200mm and getting worse as you approach 300mm, this lens gives images that look soft (no, I'm not using any filters!). This is not an issue of focus, but of low-cost consumer-grade optics. You can stop the lens down and get some improvement, but then you lose your depth of field. (EDIT: The sharpness problem with my lens was the result of using it in portrait-orientation, a defect among the first batches of this lens. Canon repaired the lens for free and it became sharper, no matter the orientation, but still not as good as the 70-200mm f/4L).
Second, the focusing speed is slow. New in this lens is variable-speed focusing; as the zoom passes 200mm, the focusing speed slows. I assume this is to prevent the missed-focus hunting common with its predecessor. But, this makes it harder to track moving objects and keep them in focus.
Third, this lens suffers from very ugly purple chromatic aberration. This lens really shows this problem too, in that even small bright objects develop purple halos.
Finally, the lens gets larger as you zoom, the lens gets larger when you focus, the front of the lens moves when focusing, the focus ring moves when auto-focusing, the zoom retracts by itself when pointed upward (EDIT: last item was fixed by Canon during the above-mentioned service), and I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting... But none of these problems exist with the 70-200mm f/4L.
This is not "the hidden L lens" as one reviewer said, it is nothing but a common consumer lens with a big price tag. The IS feature is the single sole benefit. If you have very shaky hands you might just need this lens. If you have very steady hands, with IS you can use this lens in the dark of night (assuming you have a very still subject). The 200-300mm range is nice in theory, but a tack-sharp photo from the 70-200mm f/4L at 200mm is going to look better cropped than a 300mm full-frame photo from this lens.
If what you want is a very high quality lens that will give you sharp photos in daylight; buy the 70-200mm f/4L lens instead, it even comes with a hood. The hood for the 70-300mm IS lens is another $40, making the 70-200mm f/4L a lower priced lens (and it even comes with a bag!).
 My first image stabilizing lens October 12, 2005
B. GILLING (GERMANY)
168 out of 181 found this review helpful
Well today I was like a kid with a new toy just got my new 70-300 mm this is my first image stabilizing lens so I was excited to try it out
so i took off my 70-200 4 L probably a good lens to compare with.
Well first thing is the weight it's light and inconspicuous compared to my 70-200 L with its black finish ,
it feels very nice and its fast to focus, image stabilizion is excellent (Featuring the latest 3-stop Image Stabilizer for camera shake reduction) and the range is great 112mm to 480 mm on my XT Rebel.
Colours and sharpnesss are a not nice as my 70-200 f4 L
but image stabilization and weight and extra range make it very attractive , I am happy with it would liked a pouch and hood for the money come on canon it's only a piece of plastic!
see some picture unedited and some edited on my site
p.s I am not a professional.
http://www.pbase.com/2bruce/gallery/canon_70-300_usm_is_
 Quite happy with the lens March 22, 2006
pveman (New York)
88 out of 90 found this review helpful
After debating between this and the 70-200 L series I decided to purchase this lens. I have been pleasantly surprised by the results. I also own the 17-85 and the 50mm 1.8 lenses and I have found that I have gotten the "most pleasing" results from this lens. The pictures have been very sharp from my 20D - even in the 200mm - 300mm range. I've also been happy with the quality of the bokeh.
The primary drawback I see is that the AF tends to hunt a fair amount when confronted with low contrast images. That being said, I used it for some flying bird shooting at the wildlife refuge and was surprised to see how many of the shots were in sharp focus. However, it was a little bit of all or nothing. Several shots were also wildly out of focus. Since the lens is fairly slow to focus, you never know what you're gonna get with such a fast moving object against the distant sky.
I had much more consistent results when shooting soccer, softball and football in the park. The AF speed did not present an issue for any of these activities and the results were excellent.
I wish the lens were a little less expensive but I the prints I have gotten from my 13 X 19 printer have been worth the extra money.
Impressive lens November 8, 2005
Kevin F. Giannini (New Hope, Pa USA)
57 out of 58 found this review helpful
I bought this lens as a replacement for the earlier 75-300mm IS lens. I was generally happy with that lens, but it had definite limitations - I needed to shoot at f8 or f11 and bump up the ISO to get a decent shutter speed.
This new version seems sharp at full zoom even wide open, allowing me to use a lower ISO setting. Size is similar to older version, but the IS seems more effective - looking through the lens when it kicks in you can actually see the image become more stable and less shaky. I got this over the Canon 70-200 f4 L because of the extra reach, smaller size (slightly) and the images I've seen from both are very similar.
UPDATE: There have been reports of soft images when using this lens in a verticle orientation - however I have not experienced this on my copy. I'm happy to say that after months of using this lens, I still consider it great.
Superior Image Stabilizer Telephoto Zoom from Canon May 11, 2006
John Kwok (New York, NY USA)
55 out of 56 found this review helpful
The Canon EF 70-300mm f4-5.6 IS USM telephoto zoom lens replaces the first Image Stabilizer lens of its kind, the Canon 75-300mm f4-5.6 telephoto zoom lens. It offers now up to three - as opposed to two - apertures in image stabilizing mode, as well as slightly wider focal length. The current June 2006 Popular Photography issue has a fine test report on this lens, showing that it is capable of excellent contrast and resolution in the range from 70mm to 200mm; at 300mm, both contrast and resolution decline slightly to very good, but still an excellent result for a zoom lens in this class. It is also fully compatible with Canon's digital SLR cameras (112-480mm equivalent), with improved lens coatings optimised for digital sensors. Without question this is an excellent lens for the Canon photographer interested in excellent nature and landscape photography, without resorting to a sturdy tripod to hold both the camera and lens; thus it is also quite suitable for handhold panning shots at most outdoor sporting events held under good weather conditions.
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