Canon EF 70-300 f4.5-5.6 DO IS USM review

I got this lens (used) for a good price here in Amazon, after returning the 70-300L which was an attention hogging brick that was way too heavy to carry around. I was a little worried because people complained about it being soft and not as sharp as other zoom lenses of lesser price. After chasing my dog around and shooting some great shots of flying birds I'm convinced that I made the right choice. The lens is indeed sharp and produces great photos, I compared the pictures to those I took with the big white L lens and the quality was better in most pictures and overall better than expected. The best part of this lens is its size and weight, not to mention its great construction and feel. I can take zoomed range photos without that obvious white barrel sticking out of my camera. I do have some negatives about it: 1st, the lens creeps often when not locked at 70mm, when i carry it on my neck srtap, or when shooting over-head or pointing down, you must have a close hold on the zoom ring to maintain the range desired. 2nd, it is not weather sealed, for a lens this expensive i would expect L caliber type of weather protection... Not there. Lastly, the lens hood it comes with looks odd and I never really use it because it defeats the purpose of having a compact size lens. I've had the lens now for a few months and I'm pleased, I was told that the 70-200 f4L IS would be a better bang for my buck, since it produces such sharp images, and although I would like to see that, I think about carrying that lens versus this one and being mobile sound better to me. Even if the other L lens produces a bit more sharpness. Moral of the story, if you want to move around, shoot hand held, carry other lenses and still be able to have a good zoom lens in your bag, then this one is for you. UPDATE 11/17/2011: To satify my curiosity, after reading reviews from the "professionals" at dpreview, I went ahead and rented the 70-200 F4-L, which is known to be the "king of image quality" for L class lenses, and guess what? The difference in IQ between the DO and the L lens is not significant at all, though there is SOME difference, it's nothing that cannot be easily tweaked in post-production. This is not the first time that I confirm that "pro" reviews are slanted and you must do YOUR OWN testing to see if the product generates the results YOU expect. And so, NEW MORAL OF THE STORY: (if you can) Do your own testing, Do not be satisfied with the opinions of others, even if they swear that they are "pros". I love my DO lens now more than ever.

The lens does well for outdoor shots. It was shipped by UPS and requires a signature for release. The lens comes with a hood and a protective leather draw string pouch. The zoom lens does indeed creep out when held in a downward position. The locking mechanism on the lens resolves this problem when it's not in use.

This is my main lens for a lot of situations. Going to a concert or sport event, and don't want to stick out? Sightseeing in Europe this summer?

If I know I'll be at least a few feet from potential subjects, this lens will do a lot of great work for me. I even take it bike riding at the lake. (With a proper shoulder strap of course) It's about the same size as most of the general purpose lenses, so traveling with this guy is a piece of cake. This, along with a 15-85 in a Stealth Reporter D100AW is my "personal bag" when I'm traveling.

I think the 70-to-something focal range is almost-and-barely-less important than a general purpose lens. Canon has a whole bunch of them, and they all perform very well. I chose this one because of it's size, and I'd recommend it to anyone as their second lens.

This is my main lens for a lot of situations. Going to a concert or sport event, and don't want to stick out? Sightseeing in Europe this summer? If I know I'll be at least a few feet from potential subjects, this lens will do a lot of great work for me. I even take it bike riding at the lake. (With a proper shoulder strap of course) It's about the same size as most of the general purpose lenses, so traveling with this guy is a piece of cake. This, along with a 15-85 in a Stealth Reporter D100AW is my "personal bag" when I'm traveling. I think the 70-to-something focal range is almost-and-barely-less important than a general purpose lens. Canon has a whole bunch of them, and they all perform very well. I chose this one because of it's size, and I'd recommend it to anyone as their second lens.

I was so excited when I finally bought this lens-300mm focal length in this small a package-awesome. But after taking about 300-400 shots with it and looking at them on the computer at 100%-NOT AWESOME! SOFT, SOFT, SOFT! This lens really struggles to produce a sharp image and I have been using it mounted on a tripod, shooting with the mirror locked up, and the aperture stopped down from F8.0-F22.0. I'm not sure this lens is even producing an image as sharp as the Canon 70-300mm in the $550 range. However, the IS seems to work well because my handheld shots were almost as sharp as the tripod shots (which is to say not much softer). For the price of this lens I expected much better. I finally gave up on this one and just got the 70-300mm L-WOW, what a difference! The L lens is much, much sharper-even handheld. Yes, the L is a little bigger and heavier, but what's the point of having an easy to carry lens if it won't get you sharp images? My advice-spend the extra $170 and get the L.