subject: Discover The 70-300 Canon Lens - Super Quality Without The Hype [print this page] I love surprises, especially if they are like finding a golden nugget where you thought there was junk.
In fact, it could be the best kept secret among photographers. You rarely hear anyone proclaiming the greatness of this little lens. Merely looking at the lens, you get the feeling that there is nothing extraordinary about it. But, when you take a closer look at the reviews and comments, and at the lens itself, you begin to see something special.
Possibly it's because the lens is not impressive to look at, and "real" photographers want an attention-getter on the front of their prized digital SLR.
Perhaps it's even because there is nothing special about the price. It's not too high or too low, it's just right.
No matter the reason, the 70-300mm Canon lens is well worth taking a look at.
When you get past all the glitz of some other lenses and look for impressive, the first thing that draws attention is the image quality. This should be the number one consideration for any lens. And this one is rated as good, or nearly as good, as the Canon "L" lenses.
But that is not what you find when you start looking for reviews and forum comments about the lens. Instead, you see that at first sight, the lens looked rather unimposing. You may observe comments such as, "I thought it was a toy." These are more likely to express the first impressions of many first-time users.
The old saying, "First impressions are lasting impressions," is not usually true with this lens. Once they shoot a few frames, their opinion changes. This is because the features include IS (image stabilization) and USM (ultrasonic motor) added to the fantastic image quality already alluded to.
Photographers who don't like to use a tripod will like these two features.
My favorite story about the 70-300mm Canon lens comes from a guy who found his lens at a garage sale. Having no experience or knowledge of the lens, he thought he would just pick it up for a young relative who had just begun experimenting with a digital SLR camera. He did not get any feedback from the seller as to the performance of the lens. So, the photographer buys the lens.
Upon arriving home, he put it on his Canon 5D to see if it even worked. Took a few shots. There is a bit more to the story, but the result is that the unsuspecting relative never took possession of the lens. This buyer was so impressed with its performance, he stated that it was too good of a lens to waste on someone else.
I can only dream that something like this would happen to me. There are so many surprises hiding at garage sales, thrift stores, and liquidation sales. Wouldn't you like to be surprised like this?
