Canon Zoom Telephoto EF 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM Autofocus Lens USA

Comments about Canon 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM Autofocus Lens:

I was borrowing a friend's Tamron 18-200 which was always slightly blurry, even stopped down. I thought perhaps all consumer-level zooms would be like this, but in fact this lens is quite sharp by comparison. Of course, it does not have any image stabilization and isn't terribly fast so a tripod is a must unless it is very bright outside. Don't expect to get great action-stopping shots. You can however, get great closeups of relatively still subjects. Wide open the bokeh is very nice, but as you stop down it looks uglier.

USM is just awesome! This thing focuses really fast. You can lock on to birds flying by in a split second (they might still come out blurry due to movement, but hey at least you had them in focus!). The focus ring is full-time manual and creamy smooth - a pleasure to twist.

This lens does suffer from chromatic aberration pretty badly, especially at 300mm. Considering the price this is to be expected, and you can always correct this problem in photoshop (though you will lose some clarity).

If you can live without IS and don't mind fixing CA, this lens is a pretty good buy. I'm certainly a happy camper. If however you demand higher speed and higher quality, you'll need to buy something more expensive.

Comments about Canon 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM Autofocus Lens:

This is a good lens and is good for it's used price. Though should have known better then to shoot outdoors, the image was extremely shaky when shooting for video.

Comments about Canon 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM Autofocus Lens:

This is a discontinued lens that frequently shows up in the used market, and as such it has some distinct advantages.

Frankly, for a telephoto lens, you're seldom going to find 300mm EOS mount zoom lens that performs as well as this does for the price it typically goes for (250USD or below). Its only true Canon-lens counterpart in the same price range is the Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III, which suffers from a much inferior build quality and terribly mediocre optical performance.

The build quality of the 100-300mm is good. It feels substantial in the hand without being too heavy, and features a metal mount. The wide zoom ring is smooth and effective, although it could stand to be firmer, the lens may extend by itself if left hanging downward. The focus ring is a little too thin, but perfectly workable, and full-time manual is an included feature. The front lens filter does not rotate, good for polarizers.

USM autofocus is relatively quick and quiet, though it may struggle in lower light. I have no bad things to say about the image quality overall; Sharp, contrasty, and full of detail.

This is a good lens for anyone starting out in the telephoto range, IF you understand its limitations. The major ones being it is not a particularly fast lens, and it has no stabilizer. Getting sharp shots at 300mm will require a tripod, or a steady hand with plenty of light to allow a quick shutter speed, and/or a camera that performs well with high ISO settings.

If you're on a budget, I would recommend this as a walkaround telephoto lens for use in the daylight.

Comments about Canon 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM Autofocus Lens:

I chose this lens of many others and other brands because of the fairly good speed and range for the price. I needed a lens fast and cheap for a trip out to California and it worked great.

Comments about Canon 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM Autofocus Lens:

I really love this lense because the quality of the images is great. It's very quiet and very precise. It does take a second to focus but that isn't an issue for me. It's a little bit on the heavy side, but well worth carrying it along.

Comments about Canon 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM Autofocus Lens:

I just purchased this lens for my Canon EOS camera and I was amazed at how easy it was to operate. The photos that I took of a bowl of grapefruits and pomegranites on my counter were so beautiful. The picture that I took of a red bird through my window was gorgeous. My daughter thought that I had gotten the picture from online. I love this lens!!

Comments about Canon 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM Autofocus Lens:

Our studio has both the EF 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM and the EF 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 III USM. Both lenses get constant use on set and on location. The slight lack of zoom is insignificant compared to the smoothness and speed of focus when using "one shot" center dot focus with "spot" metering. This lens couldn't possibly be expected snap into focus any faster without moving the price decimal point.

We also shoot an EF 50mm f/1.8 II and a EF 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro but the ability to step back from the model and give them more personal space and freedom of movement with a zoom lens lets us get a full body shot or a head shot without our model changing their composure. Nothing kills a moment like running up and getting in their face to take a head shot while they try to hold an expression because we were using a shorter prime lens.

The ability to close down this lens to f/38 allows us to get huge depth of field and keep backgrounds crisp or the control to blur out a background to only soft color with beautiful semi smooth bokeh.

The ET-65 III lens hood is a must outside but its spring clips leave much to be desired. Our EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM has a twist lock bayonet connector that is a much better design however this lens hood connection isn't enough of a hassle to have any complaint for this lens itself.

Flat out this lens is a top performer on our original Rebel, XSI or 5D. The only way we'd replace it is if it failed or we were upgrading to L glass.

Comments about Canon 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM Autofocus Lens:

I'm an amature photographer for more than 30 years and what I have seen of the last few years is a constant improvement in the equipment that is availble to everyone and the quality you recieve for the money is great. This lens fits a perfect niche from my 28-135 and I use it mostly for bird and wildlife photography. The overall sharpness and edge detail is amazing. I also like the wide zoon grip area it provides a nice support in my hand when I don't have a tripod. This is a very high quality lens that donesn't cover the full focal range as some of the newer super zooms do but this will be a main go to lens for may years for me. I highly recommend this lens to anyone looking for a very sound stable Canon quality lens.

Comments about Canon 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM Autofocus Lens:

Construction is very good. A good tele for the money. There are very few alternatives unless you are willing to spend many more dollars.

Comments about Canon 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM Autofocus Lens:

Beginners will struggle with this lens.
At 300mm the lens requires a lot of light without the IS feature to combat even a small amount of hand shake. Even with good lighting focusing is a hit and miss deal.
Wildlife photography is difficult.
But, for the price.....(shrug) not too bad I guess.

Comments about Canon 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM Autofocus Lens:

Works great. Easy to use.

Comments about Canon 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM Autofocus Lens:

I've used this lens to capture action I can't get close to... bike races and surfing mainly. It's not particularly fast, but in high light, and coupled with a CPol, it's a great lens. The lack of IS is really not that big a deal if you are taking pictures of things that are moving, as that fact will require fast shutter speeds anyway. Focusing is fast, and works decently well in low light, but honestly you're best off to keep this lens in good light.

Comments about Canon 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM Autofocus Lens:

I love the zoom at 300mm

Comments about Canon 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM Autofocus Lens:

I just got back into photography. I bought this lens because I missed being about to really zoom in..can't really do that with a basic point and shoot. I only bought one lens for my new camera. I love this large lens but would also like to get a smaller lens.

Comments about Canon 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM Autofocus Lens:

Very nice zoom lense with the expected Canon quality.

Comments about Canon 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM Autofocus Lens:

I tried this out for the first time at a dog competition. This gave me a little more zoom power and I use this more than my 75-100 mm lens.

Comments about Canon 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM Autofocus Lens:

I bought this lens in replacement of my old zoom telephoto lens and I can only say I am very satisfied.
I get clear pictures, the autofocus is very fast and quiet.

Comments about Canon 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM Autofocus Lens:

Bought this lens used in -97. Had a few dents in the lens front element. Worked well for several years even drowned it along with my Eos 5 (analog camera) in the beginning of -98. Worked well for another 9 years. As mentioned by the other users it´s a bit slow in low light situations and has trouble focusing accuratly. After all a descent lens for around 200 dollars. Stopped working with my eos 30D something broke inside the lens and just went dead.

Comments about Canon 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM Autofocus Lens:

This was the first tele lens I got with my 30D, and I still have it it my kit alongside my canon L series lenses, it's a great little lens especially for what it costs, focus is quick as in my experience precise, the zoom is easy to manipulate, the build quality is also good. the other thing I like about this lens is the fact that for a 100-300mm lens it's quite small and relatively lightweight, makes it a good travel lens. i still use this lens for casual use and for situations where I don't wanna risk breaking one of my more expensive tele lenses

Expertise: Semi professional

Problems Encountered: Of course nothing in life is perfect, I do have some gripes, (although minor ones) about this lens. It hunts a bit in low light, but as is expected with a lens of this price. the other gripe I have is that the lens hood is rather weak, it uses canon's older clip in style rather than the bayonet style of mount. so it's has a tendency to rattle in the wind and fall off if you knock it.

Items I Recommend: The lens hood, despite it's shortcomings it helps reeuce lens flare

Comments about Canon 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM Autofocus Lens:

I bought this lens off of the recommendation from otherProfessionals. I was able to shoot a series of softballgames with fair images but only when cropped and viewed at asmall size. Not pleased with the lens, images are not sharpenough, even at the 100mm end and I decided to sell it andupgrade to the 70-200mm f/4L. Although I am losing somedistance, this lens is a much better buy and worth paying$250 more.

Expertise: New Professional

Problems Encountered: Poor quality images, not sharp enough even at the lower end.