Canon EF 70-300 f/4-5.6L IS USM

[Mt Spokane Photography]

That first one is certainly a great image, I'd submit it to something like birds and blooms.

[dr croubie]

Just gone over my shots i took of the butterfly house in Changi Airport.
Too lazy and tired to go over and rawprocess the (~300) colour ones i got during the day, this one's probably going to be my favourite anyway.
The auto-misting watering was going on at the time, spraying just near a light (it was nighttime) in the background of where this guy was hanging asleep.

7D, 70-300L, 140mm, f/5, ISO800, 1/30s, -1EV.

was kind of annoyed, this was the last shot i got when the CF was full, by the time i'd deleted a few blurry ones to make room, the misting had finished and the effect was gone, so this is the only one i got...

[chardinej]

I've had the lens for under a month and put it through its paces at Bonaventure Island. It is fantastic and has replaced my 70-200/4 for the time being.

[stahlhelms]

Still learning photography in general, but this lens helps a lot!
T2i camera....
It took a while to find what was making the sounds in the camo-frogged picture.

[Haydn1971]

Although I'm still happy with the output of this lens, I was using it today at the Imperial War Museum Duxford taking photos of aircraft flying overhead...   It was a nightmare, focus was all over the place, swapped to my 135mm and was getting much better results, even though the aircraft were smaller, they have rendered better with the shorter focal length. 

Overall, stil a great value lens, not that great for moving aircraft !

[awinphoto]

Canon CPS is sending me this lens in 2 weeks to play with for a little while.  I will post photos once I'm done with the lens for you guys... 

[camerabug]

Just a couple of shots by the ocean on a T2i cropped at f5.6

[awinphoto]

I just got the lens in from Canon CPS and I will begin testing this lens... Some first impressions/observations without playing with it too much... It is short and fat... After using the 70-200 F4 IS, this thing is shorter and fatter... very beefy lens... Those used to lets say the 70-200 F2.8 weight may not be in for as much of a shock, but compared to the F4, it's definitely a beast.  You may say "well look at the specs and you will know how much it weighs... well I did... but it's still something one is never looking forward to... It doesn't come with a lens ring... one may definitely consider it because if you are rough with your gear, it may give way...

Secondly, the focus ring and the zoom ring is a tad too close together... It doesnt help that the rings are reversed from other lenses to the zoom is closer to the hood.  I dont get the reason why this is.  If you have one hand on the zoom ring, your palm is on the focus ring... so that easily could knock off focus... Compared to any of the 70-200's, you have plenty of real estate between those two rings so that isn't an issue... Not a game breaker but something I will have to get use to... From a few informal shots, it is sharp, but I will do MA and run some real world shots and post later...

[iowafirebird]

I'm still loving this lens with my 7D.

[K-amps]

Very nice iowafirebird. How far were you form the subject and were these at 300mm (err 480mm )

Here's a shot I took a few days ago at a local sports practice... I reduced the RAW sharpness to zero (default = 25 in ACR)  and dialed up the NR, despite that, it's still pretty sharp. The sun filtering through the trees presents a nice circular bokeh that it not intense... but neutral / pleasing.

[iowafirebird]

Hi K-amps,
Yes they were at 300 mm and as close as I could get and still focus and not scare the butterfly away (within 2-3 ft? - I'm no good at judging distance!).   The cabbage white butterfly is pretty small.   These three were from the raw files -  sharpened up a bit, blurring the background more, and cropped.  I am posting the unprocessed (except for downsizing) jpgs of the first two that the camera spit out - just for comparison.
Thanks for your interest.  I hope you are enjoying this lens as much as I am.

[akiskev]

I took these photos of robins through my living room window with this lens (Canon EF 70-300 f/4-5.6L IS) on my 7D.  It's my first L lens and I love it.

Great catch!!! Excellent shots!

[awinphoto]

Well crap, I had the chance to test out this lens borrowed from Canon CPS at the Reno National Championship Air Races on thursday and spent most friday processing photos until the tragic plane crash at the races.  My thoughts and prayers goes towards those who died or were injured during the race.  (the plane crashed very near my seats I was in the day prior).  Out of respect for the event I'd doubting even showing the photos... what a terrible outcome...

[K-amps]

iowafirebird,

Amazing, gives me lots of hope

I love the way you blurred the cabbage white butterfly. Did you use CS4? How did you select the objects to blur? I love the PP you did to it.

[iowafirebird]

Hi K-amps,
I use CS5, and I still have a LOT to learn. Generally I select what I do not want to blur, refine the edge and then invert the selection to apply the blur. I use the quick selection tool and then use the lasso for fine-tuning.