Camera Labs

Have just bought this lens from "Castle Cameras" in Bournemouth a bit pricey at £829 but did have a bit of help in the way of a cheque as a retirement present from work so did not have to fork out so much from my own pocket
Anyway to get down to a couple of questions
1) Does anyone else on here have this lens and what do they think of it, will it make me or have yet to try out the lens will do so later today.
2) Gordon have you any plans to do a review on this lens + video tour and if you are can I make a request that you put it on a 400D.

I did consider getting the cheaper 75-300mm IS USM lens but the build quality was not as good as this one and also looked at the white lenses but they were a lot heavier and in my opinion stood out like a sore thumb sort of shouting look at me come and steal me.
Any comments and/or tips would be welcome.

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Roy
EOS 350D, 40D + BG-E2N, EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM, EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM, EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM, 430 EX Speedlite




My Fotopic

Hi Roy,

I look forward to your feedback about this lens. The size definitely appeals but up to now I have been a little put off by the unusual bokeh and lack of sharpness reported in some reviews.

At the price level of the EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM I would far rather have had Canon offer a (black!) "L IS USM" zoom with a 300mm maximum focal length. I can't persuade myself to invest in a wallet busting and back-breaking EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM and the EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L IS USM doesn't buy me a huge increase in focal length over my EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM lens so it isn't very cost effective.

Still, one has to accept what's on offer so it will be interesting to see how you get on in the real world with the DO lens.

Bob.

Hi Roy, Hi Bob, as luck would have it, I have indeed tested the Canon 70-300mm DO lens and have a full review of it on both the 400D and 5D bodies planned for the future...

Here are some brief impressions!

1: Build quality of L standard - and discreet non-white barrel.

2: Very quick and quite focusing.

3: Effective IS.

4: DO optics allow short barrel, but it is quite fat. Still a good option for travelling though.

5: DO optics result in strange bokeh effect which isn't very attractive. I have a great example of this with a puffin photo I'll post later on... On the upside, I had to actually hunt for a situation which would illustrate this effect, so it wasn't really a problem for most shots.

Ultimately it's a great lens, but it is expensive, and if you can put up with a longer barrel and a shorter range, I think the 70-200mm L would give better quality. The non-IS version is cheaper, but I think the IS version may be more expensive...

If I were to compare the 70-300mm DO against two other Canon telephoto zoom lenses, which would you like them to be?

One should almost certainly be the bog standard 70-300mm IS, but should the other be a 70-200mm L (IS or non IS), or maybe the 100-400 L?

Let me know what you think and I'll get to work!

In the meantime Roy, let us know what you think! By the way I love your train photos... have you considered cropping any of them into a widescreen shape to cut out some sky and ground and accentuate the train's shape and length? Sometimes this can be really effective for that kind of subject.

Gordon

Hi Gordon,

Thanks for the heads up on the forthcoming group test and your initial thoughts about the 70-300mm DO lens.

As you say, the "bog standard 70-300mm IS" should certainly included in the group test. If the readership mostly owned full frame cameras then my guess is that the 100-400 L would be a good choice for inclusion. Despite my own slight preference for this lens as a complement to my own kit I think it likely that a review of the 70-200mm f4L IS USM would be more useful for most users.

Bob

Thanks to Gordon and Bob for your replies, have not had a chance to use the DO lens yet but when I do will report back.
Being a bit of a novice with DSLR's, but did own a film SLR some years ago but did not do a lot with it, but about 2 years ago bought a Konica Minolta Dimage Z5 and got the bug for photography again and have now moved on with the purchase of my 400D and absolutely love it. As gordon knows I ditched the kit lens for the EF-S 17-85 IS USM Lens but I wanted to compliment that with a longer focal length lens so last Wednesday went into London Camera Exchange in Reading to have a look at some of these lenses, tried the "White" lens 70 - 200 IS USM but found that this was too heavy for me as most of the shooting I do is hand held so the assistant said maybe I should try the DO lens was struck straight away, it was light enough for me to be able to use did not stick out like a sore thumb like the "White" lens, could not try the 70-300 IS USM lens as he did not have any in stock and also did not buy the DO lens from them as they wanted a penny short of £900 but bought online from Castle Cameras for £829 a saving of £71 as the Tesco's advert says "Every little helps".
Now my main question now on this lens being a bit of a novice is, please Gordon what does the term "Bokeh" mean, please excuse my ignorance.

Gordon thank you for kind comments on my Train Photos, the ones that are posted there at the moment are just a few to get somethiing on the site, but have taken your advice on board and hopefully any future photos will be better once I have got my head around "Photoshop Elements 5.0".

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Roy
EOS 350D, 40D + BG-E2N, EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM, EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM, EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM, 430 EX Speedlite




My Fotopic

Hi Roy, bokeh is a japanese word which refers to the look of the out-of-focus areas. Believe it or not, some lenses produce nicer-looking bokehs than others and pro portrait photograpehrs will pay for them.

Some lenses which employ other optical technologies have some odd bokeh artefacts - mirror lenses for example render out of focus points of light as donuts, while with DO lenses they can appear as discs with faint concentric rings in them. Here's an example I took below of some puffins on the Faroe Islands with points of light on the sea behind rendered into strange marks. You don't notice this on many shots though.

Gordon

Thank you Gordon, now I know, time now to see if I can make any sense of Photoshop Elements 5.0 which is something else that is new to me, ah well have now got plenty of time to sort it.

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Roy
EOS 350D, 40D + BG-E2N, EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM, EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM, EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM, 430 EX Speedlite




My Fotopic

Have now had time to try out the new DO lens and I am very impressed with it, will post a couple of photos taken with it when I have worked out how to insert them into a post on here without having to post on another site first.
P.S. when is the review on this lens going to be posted

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Roy
EOS 350D, 40D + BG-E2N, EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM, EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM, EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM, 430 EX Speedlite




My Fotopic

Hi Roy, I'm still deciding on lenses to compare it against and we also have a few products which are taking priority at the moment...!

So it's over to you for a user report!

Gordon

Used this lens quite a lot over the weekend as we were at the Caravan Club's National Rally at Blenheim Palace so here are a couple of photos I took of the Tug 'O War competition featuring one teams coach in full blood curdling cry of encouragement, Pull 1 jpg is at 250mm and Pull 2 jpg is at 300mm

http://ccnr.fotopic.net/p41777064.html


http://ccnr.fotopic.net/p41777065.html

Have not had any of this "Bokeh" yet, but then I have not been near any water yet apart from this last weekend when it pis..pid uhm poured down all weekend
This is not a very in depth review as I am still trying it out only to say I am very pleased with what I have shot so far.
A quick summary: Black lens not so conspicuous as the White lenses, not so heavy as the White, Shorter Barrel than some when at 70mm also can be locked at this position when slung over your shoulder (no barrel creep) Bought the lens online with Castle Cameras Bournemouth for £829 after a bit of price comparisons with the Canon Dealers Jessops being the dearest at £999.49 and Warehouse Express the cheapest but they did not have lens in stock but looking in the EOS Magazine Canon have it marked up at a SRP of £1049.99 so I am looking at it that I saved just over £220.

Off now to Twyford Station to see what the lens is like shooting Trains ( I know I am an Anorak)

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Roy
EOS 350D, 40D + BG-E2N, EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM, EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM, EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM, 430 EX Speedlite




My Fotopic

Nice shots Roy!

It's a pretty powerful lens, especially mounted on a cropped-frame body...

Out of curiousity, what ISO were you using and also what shutter speed?

Cheers!

Gordon

Hello Defiant,

unfortunately I cannot access the links!?
Have not even got to ccnr.fotopic.net! What's up there?

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Might be worth trying again later Thomas - they worked fine from where we are and that's the other side of the planet!

Alternatively, Roy, have you considered the mighty flickr?

Gordon,
Pull 1 ISO 400, Shutter 1/400, Apeture f5.6
Pull 2 ISO 400, Shutter 1/500, Apeture f5.6
High ISO as it was a very grey,overcast,windy cold day 7 degrees C when it should be more like 16.

Have not thought about flickr, but will take a look

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Roy
EOS 350D, 40D + BG-E2N, EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM, EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM, EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM, 430 EX Speedlite




My Fotopic

Here are three more photos to peruse over taken with this lens
http://roy-matthews.fotopic.net/p41915370.html

http://roy-matthews.fotopic.net/p41915374.html

http://roy-matthews.fotopic.net/p41915367.html

Comments welcomed, but don't be too hard
Lets see if this works also







No it didn't, what am I doing wrong Gordon

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Roy
EOS 350D, 40D + BG-E2N, EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM, EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM, EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM, 430 EX Speedlite




My Fotopic