EF 300/4 IS

This was my first ever L lens, bought at the end of 2006 with the matching Canon EF MkII 1.4x and 2x converters. I have used this pretty exclusively until acquiring the 500/4L IS USM in June 2011. The 300/4L IS USM lens is razor sharp, the IS is a God-send in low light when handholding and the lens takes each of the Canon EF converters well, only autofocusing with the 1.4x on anything other than a 1D body. I believe that adding the 1.4x is still capable of making razor sharp images and slightly softer when using the 2x. I would only use the 2x in good light and at times would successfully stack both converters to get some mega magnification. Not often, but it can produce very acceptable image quality with the right technique.

Overall the lens is fantastic and the MFD (minimum focusing distance) of 1.5 meters makes it a very capable macro lens for larger insects like butterflies, dragonflies etc.

I highly recommend this lens.

I have this lens and love it with or without the Sigma 1.4X TC I use it with. I wish Canon would put IS on the 400 5.6 .............we cannot all afford to drop 6-12K on super-lenses.

Bare lens focus very fast. You can track almost everything. But with 1.4 TC; tracking fast flying little birds is hard. Other than that, the lens is awesome. Sharp with or without tc. IS is very effective. I have tack sharp photos handheld at 1/30 with 1.4 TC
Close up ability is wonderfull. From 1,5 meter you can get 0,33 magnification with tc. On a 1.6 crop camera this is a lot more than that.
The lens is sharper then 70-200 f4, tammy 28-75 etc ... Only canon 100 f/2.8 macro is sharper than 300 IS between the lens I use. This makes 300 IS a good macro lens. And with beeing less sharper than canon 100 macro, better portrait lens.
This is the most affordable versatile prime lens with IS.

For a 300mm with IS this lens is really good and works well with a 1.4tc although the af is slower and a slight fall off in sharpness is aparent that said this combo can give very good results and moreso at the lower shutter speed that IS alows therefor i would rate this higher than the 400f5.6L because of the UK weather and the gray days we get, if you live were its bright the 400f5.6 may well be the better choice for birding as its sharper.
Rob.

Since March 2006 I use this lens and I am very happy with it.Almost all my pictures on my site are taken with this lens.If you realy want to photograph without tripod and you don\\\'t want a heavy 2,8 lens,this is your lens.Only this white colour......Canon lease...!

The EF 300/4 IS is my only birding lens. I use it with my 300D (Digital Rebel) which has a 1.6X cropping factor. It may seem a bit short by itself but I almost always use this lens with an EF 1.4X TC II which turns it into a 420/5.6 IS.

My 300D will autofocus with this lens just fine at f/5.6. I am able to hand hold this lens even with a 2X TC II (effective 600/8 IS) and have gotten very sharp images, thanks to image stabilization. You will lose autofocusing completely at f/8 though.

The lens has IS Modes #1 and #2. Mode #1 is for stationary objects. Mode #2 is for panning moving object such as a bird in flight. Check out my Gallery to see the results. The close focus on this lens yields a magnification of 1/4X life size without teleconverters making it great for butterflies and flowers. Autofocus is fast at 300mm making it a good flight-lens with my D-SLR. Even with a 1.4X TC II the autofocus is reasonably fast.

It is hard to find any faults with this lens. I recommend it highly but you will need a 1.4X TC for bird photography. See my Bird Forum Gallery at: http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/8092