EF 300/2.8L IS USM Review

I have owned and used this lens for a little more than a year. This optic is one of Canon's finest.

Portability: Size & Weight
Obviously the lens is "large". Not as large as the 400/2.8, 500/4, or the 600/4, of course, but it's going to take some space in your bag, and some wind out of your sails as you hike up the side of a mountain with it.

That being said, the body is magnesium alloy for very light weight, and the included hood is carbon fiber (weighs next to nothing). Canon has done some great work in making this lens as light as practically possible.

Sometimes "waiting for my quarry" with the optic held to my eye becomes tiresome for my supporting arm. But it's light enough that I can take this lens and shoot with it all day, handheld. I consider myself "average" strength for a male.

Portability: IS
The IS is virtually silent, and provides me with a little over the claimed 2 stops of sharpness. Depending on the day, my shooting position, wind, etc., I am able to use this optic handheld at 1/60-1/90, with little to no compromise in image quality. At 2.8 this means that I can shoot in morning or evening light, on cloudy days, just about whenever and whereever I need to, without having to use a tripod.

In any case, I frequently DO have a tripod with me when I shoot, and when I need to use it, the IS still helps with maintaining image sharpness from wind buffeting, and (reputedly) even dampens vibrations from the SLR mirror.

As an aside, I highly recommend the Wimberly Sidekick (www.tripodhead.com) as an accessory for tripod shooting with this lens. A superb combination (requires Arca-Swiss-compatible tripod head).

Image Quality: Sharpness
So sharp, your fingers will bleed after you handle the slide. A no-compromise optic. There's nothing more I can say about it.

Image Quality: Technical
This lens was obviously designed to be used wide open. I use this lens at 2.8 more than at any other apeture, and have no problems with falloff. Shooting skylines, architecture yield no visible pincushion/barrel distortion.
If you connect it to a machine, I'm sure you'll find barrel/pincushion distortion, and falloff wide open, but in real-world use, these are non-issues.

Image Quality: Bokeh
Not a topic ordinarily discussed with this lens, but you have to see the buttery smoothness to believe it. I own a stable full of very good L glass, and this lens' bokeh (out-of-focus blur) tops them all. The bokeh of this lens is one reason I use it wide open so frequently.

Construction
Like all Canon's telephoto lenses, built like a brick... Well, let's just say it's construction won't let you down. It's also weather-sealed (rubber gaskets) for use with the new teleconverters, the 1V and the 1D.

Accessories: EF 1.4x/1.4x-II Teleconverter
The 1.4x does little to degrade the image quality (the mark I and mark II versions of this teleconverter feature the same optical design). Recommended.

Accessories: EF 2.0x/2.0x-II Teleconverter
The image becomes perceptibly softer when used with an EF2.0 telecoverter. The mark II 2.0x teleconverter has an "improved optical design" over the mark I, but having owned both, I can't say that I've noticed a real-world difference. I expect my images to be a tad softer when using the 2.0x, but given the outstanding performance of this optic, I'm left with image quality in the neighbourhood of my L-class zooms (which is still very high).

Accessories: Filters
The front element is too large for screw on filters (no threads are provided), so this lens takes internal 52mm filters. One filter, the polarizer is special (since you need to be able to rotate the filter when it is in place), so you have only 1 choice-- buy Canon's polarizer for this optic. For the rest, I recommend Canon's Filter holder for this lens, which will allow you to buy the same UV filter you have on the rest of your glass for consistent colour balance. With the filter holder, you can use any 3rd party 52mm filters.

Applications: Portraiture
I've used this lens for portraiture, along with my 70-200L. I prefer the results of this lens, although it's less convenient to shoot with, given its size, the required working distance and that it's a prime lens. Nonetheless, it produces wonderful results (especially the bokeh), and the large working distance can work *for* you if you're trying to get candids.

Applications: Landscape
I use this lens for nature photography far less than I thought I would. (I'm primarily a nature photographer) Why? Because this focal length isolates elements of a scene, rather than showing them in harmony (together). Thus, I usually shoot at wider angles when doing nature photography.

This lens' focal length provides superb renditions of urban landscapes, isolating parts of buildings, individual street signs in a cluttered environment, etc. If you're a city shooter, you might consider this lens, for a different perspective.

Applicatons: Birding
Bird photographers are wooed by the portability of this lens. Although I don't shoot birds, birders tell me that "life begins at 500", so this optic may be too short for that application. Consider the 500/4 as your starting point-- it's actually almost the same weight as the 300/2.8.

If you shoot birds AND want the lower focal length/faster speed of the 300mm optic (and can't afford both lenses!), then you might consider this lens with a 1.4x teleconverter. You'd have an excellent quality 420/4 for birding (still a little short of the 500 mark, though) and a 300/2.8 for other applications (note that with the 1.4x, the 500/4 would be a 700/5.6-- a very nice optic for picking off the little critters).

(Note that the 300/2.8L IS, 400/2.8L IS, 500/4L IS, and 600/4L IS all use the same optical formula, with the groups spaced differently for the appropriate magnification (focal length). Thus, you can expect similar top-notch performance from any of these four lenses. Check out the (recently revised) EF lens section of Canon's website (www.usa.canon.com/eflenses) for more details on this.)

Performance: AF
This optic is one of Canon's fastest focusing lenses. If you connect it to an EOS-1D, EOS-1V (or *possibly* and EOS-3-- please verify this first), and the lens' AF speed increases over its already-impressive level of performance. This is of importance primarily to sports and action shooters.

Conclusion
Well I've written a glowing review of this lens, and when I read reviews I always look for what the reviewer *didn't* like, so I can learn about "real world" experiences with the lens.

I'm being very honest when I say the only things I can gripe about are in the cons section of this review: it's expensive, conspicuous, and can be heavy in certain shooting conditions. Otherwise, it really is a dream optic.