EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM - Canon Promotional Photo

During my recent excursion to Palm Springs, I had an opportunity to play with the new Canon EF 70-300 f/4-5.6L IS lens which was first announced back in August of last year.  I had Canon send my an example of this lens though my membership in Canon Professional Services – a nice perk of the program.  After having spent 10 days with the lens, I think I can safely say I saved myself $1600.00

I originally had my eye on this lens because of it’s size – the form factor makes a much more attractive option to bring along on a travel assignment than my EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM.  It’s a very long, very heavy lens, and just doesn’t fit well in my Lowepro Slingshot 102 AW which is my preferred bag for travel.  My problem with the new EF 70-300 f/4-5.6L IS lens is that it’s darn near as heavy as my EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM.  My normal load out for my Slingshot 102 AW is the camera body, my EF 17-40mm f/4L and my EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS.  And I’ve usually got room to bring along a 2nd camera body, and a flash.  So while I could fit the new EF 70-300 f/4-5.6L IS in my camera bag, it would add an uncomfortable amount of weight for my preferences.  The cost in both weight and dollars is simply too high for what little I would use it.

When I travel, I find myself rarely needing more zoom that what my EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS – we’re talking less than 10% of the time.  I usually tend to shoot wide, landscape photos when i travel, “we were there” type portraits.  If I’m in a situation where I REALLY think zoom will be important, I can use my Lowepro Slingshot 300 AW and bring along my EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM.  That makes for a long day carrying that much weight, so I don’t do it often – but the capability is there.  And using my Canon 1.4x Extender, I can get essentially the same range with my current EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM as I can with the new EF 70-300 f/4-5.6L IS lens.

Certainly the new EF 70-300 f/4-5.6L IS lens is an excellent lens with fantastic image quality – let me point you to a nice review of the lens over on Canon Rumors.  For my purposes, I think a much better choice would be one of Canon’s non-L series zooms, of which there are several to choose from.  There’s the ultra-compact EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM at $1399.00, or the EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM at just $649.99 (a good friend of mine owns this lens and swears by it).  There’s also the dirt cheap Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III at just $199.00, or the EF 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM at just $470.00.  I think I’ll put a call in to Canon CPS and get several of these lenses to evaluate.