Canon zoom lens (1 Viewer)

I have a Canon EOS 300D with an old 70-300mm USM lens and I'm thinking of replacing the lens with a zoom lens with image stabilisation. I have my eye on Canon's 70-300 IS DO USM, principally because it is lighter and shorter than the equivalent non-DO lens. I have read a couple of reports of one or two problems with the optics on DO lenses, the problems mainly seem to be flare and possibly the structure of out of focus highlights. Does anyone have experience of this lens?

My bird photography is not that great - I tend to take as many shots of landscapes as of birds, so I don't think my camera skills and what I want out of my photos would justify an L series lens, and the size and weight of the lens are very important factors. If the lens was too heavy or bulky I would tend not to take it with me on daytrips. Having said that, I do get a little frustrated with the poor quality of many of my bird pics which are too blurry to be any good when they are cropped on the computer. I put that down largely to camera shake and the optics of the current lens, so would hope that this new IS lens would help on both fronts, but if there are other optical problems which would emerge when I used a DO lens I would like to know about them.

Any information anyone has on this lens would be much appreciated.

Many thanks

Kirsty

Hello Kirsty,

Try this link

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/lenses/Canon-70-300mm.shtml

Not too sure about the DO lens it seems to be getting mixed reviews.
some seem to get a good one others seem not too, but as I've no experience of the lens I cant say.

What I can say is the new 70-300 4/5.6 IS (replacing the old 75-300 IS) is getting remarkably good reviews across the board, see this link,

http://bobatkins.photo.net/photography/reviews/ef_70_300is_review.html

and good reviews at Fred Miranda too

http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=294&sort=7&cat=27&page=3

( FM has reviews for the DO lens too )

Hope the links work and its enough to go on.

Incidentally been checking prices of the non DO lens and Warehouse express seem to offer the best price, so much so that they are cheaper than some of the ebay shops in Hong Kong !!!!

Cheers

Kirsty said:

I have a Canon EOS 300D with an old 70-300mm USM lens and I'm thinking of replacing the lens with a zoom lens with image stabilisation. I have my eye on Canon's 70-300 IS DO USM, principally because it is lighter and shorter than the equivalent non-DO lens.

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Shorter, yes. Lighter, no. The Do lens is 720g, the non-DO is 630g.

Really I think there are only three major differences between these lenses -

1. The DO has Ring USM (which means slightly faster autofocus and Full-Time Manual focussing).

2. The DO is shorter. But a lot of that is lost when you attach the hood.

3. The DO is more than twice the price.

I own the DO, but I'd be hard pushed to justify getting over the non-DO if I were buying now.

Thank you both very much - very helpful links (I had come across the first two before but not fredmiranda) and thanks for pointing out the weight thing. After much humming and hawing at the weekend I decided to go for the new, non-DO lens, but am now having trouble getting hold of it - two websites have no stock until January - too late for my Ecuador and Galapagos trip next month! I am still searching but if anyone knows of someone with some stock I'd be very glad to know.

Kirsty

Kirsty,try mifsuds.com.I have just purchased this lens from them a week ago.It is nice and light ,a take anywhere lens.Good value.

Try Park Cameras .www.parkcameras.com.

christineredgate said:

Kirsty,try mifsuds.com.I have just purchased this lens from them a week ago.It is nice and light ,a take anywhere lens.Good value.

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Brilliant Christine, I've just spoken to them and ordered over the phone, price only a tad more than warehouseexpress and it'll be in my sticky paws on Tuesday. Thank you so much.

And thanks Ragna too.

Kirsty

glad to have been able to help Kirsty.Mifsuds are an excellent company.If you are not happy with the lens,they will give a full refund ,no questions asked.They also do very good part ex deals.

Hey Kristy - just have to put in my two cents worth about the quality of pictures and sing my old refrain about tripods. Until I started using a good tripod and head, even on warbler pictures (if you know warblers, you know what I mean), I was never excited about the results. With the tripod pictures are incredibly sharp - you'll be surprised how good your lenses are.