List Price: $4,300.00
Sale Price: $2,499.00
Today's Bonus: 42% Off
I was salivating for this lens for four months and finally bought one a few weeks ago from the Amazon. I was very excited and couldn't wait to put this glass on my 20D.
First impression I got was that this lens is not that heavy as 3.7 pounds may seem, but boy I was wrong about that. It feels solidly built and looks not that huge on the body. So there we go... After filling up my 1GB CF with shots (taken outside, inside with external flash and without, with different f-stops and all range of zooms) and closely examining the results I decided to write this review with which I did not try to downplay the qualities of this piece of art, just to share my humble opinion.
Pros:
All in one solution (well may be except super wide)
Under most light conditions the lens performs as expected which is very good
Great zoom range that converts to 45-460mm on APS-C bodies
Nice color saturation and contrast, gorgeous bokeh
Push pull zoom (for some may not) which allows lightning fast zoom change
Focusing distance only 0.7 meter for any zoom range!
IS is doing a great job on longer exposure times
Quiet and fast focusing, never had a hunting problem
Included lens case is of good quality
Cons:
Painfully heavy (you start to feel it after an hour or so)
Pricy the much more suitable price would be around $1700.00
Softness in pictures at the 28 and 300mm range with fully opened aperture.
Focusing ring is too close to tightening ring so when you trying to loosen the tension inadvertently you may change the focus.
Very inconvenient to loosen tightening ring with one hand almost always had to do it with both hands
Aperture falls fast to f/5.6 somewhere in the 85-100mm range.
200 and 300mm ranges are too close to each other which makes it hard to adjust to precise zoom and it's causing overshoot. At the very end (300mm) lens gets stuck and you have to use force to push it back, and that's prevents you from gradually and smoothly change the zoom in between 180-300mm. I heard it's because it's new and this will go away.
The lens hood is barely sufficient at 28mm and almost completely useless at 300mm.
The shoulder strap is very narrow and will definitely pinch a nerve if you carry the lens case around your neck or shoulder
Overall it's a great solution if you only want to carry one lens and if you want to travel "light" but really don't know what focal lengths are required. But still I decided to return mine back and replace it with EF 24-105 L IS USM f/4 and EF 70-200 L USM f/2.8. as it's performance did not live up to my expectations for such high price and inconvenience to carry such a heavy load on your shoulder all day around.
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