Canon 75-300 Upgrade

topcatproduction

topcatproduction

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Well, I'm still most definately an amateur and am slowly building a collection of lenses that have decent reputations and work for me. When I got my camera last christmas I also got a 75-300 with it and whilst it takes ok pictures, the AF and zoom are just horrible to use. The AF has a mind of its own and the zoom is both sticky and sloppy!!!

I would like IS as I dont have the most stable hands in the world and it would be nice to be able to take longer exposure pics with it. The lens I am thinking of replacing it with is the Canon 70-300 IS USM, what is the reputation like? I dont want an "L" lens (not that I could afford one!) as I dont like the attention and would feel too conspicuous in a crowd.

My new main lens is a Sigma 17-70 which has my praise (apart from the really annoying AF (does anyone else find it infuriating sometimes?!)), and it would be mainly for motorsports, and of course the occasional "anything". Because I already have a 300 I know I need the length before some of you suggest 200's!

Sorry for the long post but I'm happy to take any and all advice!! By the way, budget would be around the £350 mark, and if a lens has a good history I dont mind second hand (and being slightly tight I would rather!)
 
I moved from the Canon 75-300 to the 70-300 IS. I find it fine for most situations and the IS is handy especially as you can pan with mode 2 selected.

Trouble is I have hired a couple of L series for some events, and you can certainly see the difference, as the 70-300 just isn't fast enough for some motorsport shots.

So I'd buy the 70-300 and hire a better lens when you really need it.

Bob
 
I had a list from Ian Kerso, regularly recommended on here but I have not bought from him yet, and I believe the 70-300IS was £349 new.

I bought one second hand a month or so ago. Not had much use yet, but I can feel and see the difference compared to my 75-300.
 
Depends on how good you want to get.
The 70-300 IS is meant to be a decent bit better than the 75 version.
I have the 70-300 IS , and have recently upgraded to the 100-400L. This is a great lens. Longer focal length, so you won't just be thinking you have upgraded your usability.
The cost of this lens though, around £1k second hand.
 
Lol yes I bet the 100-400L is fantastic glass, but way out of my budget and I dont want to stick out like a sore thumb at events and be scared or theft or damage! It is also a hinderance as I like to get my mits grubby in the pits etc sometimes!

There may be times I would want to use a TC as well, not for motorsport or fast action shots but the IS should help with having to use slightly longer exposures to cope with the effective smaller aperture?
 
Longer exposures, with motorsport, are not going to be helped with IS I think (the 70-300 IS does have mode 2, which is for panning, but, think about how much longer you would have to have accurate panning too).
The 70-300 IS did just about autofocus on my 400d with a 1.4 TC (a tamron which pretends it isn't there). If the camera knows that the TC is there, it will not autofocus. For me, I found that above ISO 400 was not really usable on my 400d.
The IS on the 70-300 is very good though, it is definitely a bonus.
(and yes, I got the mick taken out of me by the in-laws when they saw the 100-400L)
Unfortunately, I believe that these are the most popular lenses (or maybe the only zooms) at the 300 length, from Canon.
There is the sigma x50-500, but my understanding is that these are even larger than the 100-400
An alternative, if you can save for it, would be a 300 prime. I think, that the f/4 should still autofocus with the 1.4TC, and the quality of the picture would be a lot better I am lead to believe than the 70-300.
 
I've got a 70-300 IS, however I'm in the process of replacing it with a 70-200 f/2.8 (now got) and a 100-400 L (a LONG way down the road!). It's an awesome piece of glass, however it won't take too kindly to teleconverters and you'll lose the ability to autofocus on anything other than a 1 series body. TCs are mostly designed for decent primes, on zooms they usually make the image noticably softer.

I'd seriously recommend it, it's a beauty of a lens and I wouldn't be selling mine if I wasn't replacing it with something better (and a LOT more expensive :'( )
 
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