How do people rate the CANON EF 100-300 USM F4.5-5.6 Lense

Prophet · 14 Jan 2006 at 11:21

I've got the chance to get one of these for around £120-£150 depending on how it goes. Second hand but in very good condition. How would it rate to the Sigma 70-300 APO GG Macro etc in terms of picture quality etc? I also notice that its capable of full manual focus and the elements dont rotate when focusing?

Help aa noobie out please. I really need a nice telephoto lense and can't make my mind up!

Cheers,
OP

ranarama · 14 Jan 2006 at 13:31

I've always been quite happy with mine but I've never used the Sigma (or any other 300mm lens) to compare them. The focussing is really fast but it's my only USM lens so again I can't compare. The only annoyance, and it is just an annoyance, is that it suffers from lens creep. In fact it's more like lens gallop but you get used to it and it's not a deal breaker for me.

These probably aren't the best examples as it was my first day out with it but it's all that I have available at the moment. I think nearly all of them were with the canon but I can't access the Exif at work so hopefully you can work it out for yourself. I can put up some of the full size versions if you want to see them but not until I'm back from work.

Nelson's Flotilla along the Thames

London Zoo

BTW the layout's a bit off in Firefox but I haven't had a chance to fix it yet. It should still make sense though.

DizMatt · 14 Jan 2006 at 14:58

i;ve been looking at this instead of the 75-300 USM because of it's more rugged body
there are some good prices around

Prophet · 14 Jan 2006 at 15:03

Thanks for the post ranarama

If you can email me some of the full size pics I'd appreciate it (pm if thats OK)

There are so many to pick from its really starting to give me a headache!!!

ranarama · 14 Jan 2006 at 15:37

Orange Peel said:
Thanks for the post ranarama

If you can email me some of the full size pics I'd appreciate it (pm if thats OK)

There are so many to pick from its really starting to give me a headache!!!

I'll try and get a few sorted out tonight but may not get a chance. I'll do it tomorrow otherwise. £120 is a good price for that if you can get it. I picked mine up for £150 second hand and was told it was in excellent condition. I was a bit dissapointed that it had dust inside it but it doesn't seem to have affected the quality of any of the shots.

EDIT - pm is disabled at the moment. email me (in trust) and I'll reply with the attachments.

SDK^ · 14 Jan 2006 at 18:20

I owned the Canon 100-300mm for a short time and it was a pretty decent lens.
An example photo