Canon EOS EF 300/2.8 L

by Don Baccus; created 1996

I'm a big fan of 300/2.8 lenses. Short enough to be useful when shooting landscapes, long enough to shoot larger mammal species, they're also fast and sharp enough to use with 2x teleconverters. The resulting 600/5.6 is an excellent choice for photographing birds and smaller mammals. Though somewhat heavy and chunky, they are surprisingly compact and will fit in many camera bags. Extremely easy to use on a monopod, it is the largest lens I can handle on a shoulder stock.

This is my favorite lens for photographing birds in flight. I do so using my $2, homemade shoulder stock. The f2.8 aperture enables both the vertical and horizontal elements of my EOS 1n's center autofocus sensor, assuring quick and accurate focus on birds which aren't strongly patterned. This fast lens allows me to shoot fine-grained slide film at reasonably high shutter speeds, yielding sharp results even when tracking quick-moving birds.

In theory, a 400/2.8 lens would be even better for shooting birds in flight, but that extra 100mm doubles the weight and I, at least, can't manage a twelve pound lens on a shoulder stock!

Physical construction

Like the other fast telephotos in Canon's L series of lenses, the EF 300/2.8 L is ruggedly constructed, with its metal lens barrel finished in white. The non-removable, rotating tripod mount has detents at the vertical and horizontal positions, and is threaded for 1/4" screws. I wish this lens had a second bushing for 3/8" screws. This minor shortcoming is my only complaint about the lens.

The plastic lenshood is removable, and can be reversed on the lens for storage. It comes with a soft cover that slips over the reversed lenshood and serves as a lens cap while protecting the lenshood from being scratched.

The lenses in this series take 48mm gelatin filters, which are placed in a filter holder which is inserted into a slot between the lens mount and the autofocus motor control module. Since they all take the same drop-in filters, only one of each need be purchased.

I've accidently tested the ruggedness of this lens by dropping it twice, once about seven feet onto a gravel highway shoulder, the other time knocking over my tripod with the lens attached. Other than slightly scratching the lenshood and the paint on the barrel, there was no damage in either case.

Focus Module

One of the nice features of this series of telephoto lenses (which includes the 200/1.8, 300/2.8, 400/2.8, 500/4.5, 600/4, and 1200/5.6) is that they share a common autofocus motor control module. The ring USM motor focuses the lens very quickly, and the 30,000 Hz sound it makes while rotating is silent to our ears, though some animals hear and react to it. The module provides manual or autofocus selection, autofocus range limiting, a choice of three manual focus speeds, a pre-focus capability, and like all of Canon's ring USM lenses, the ability to freely switch between manual and autofocus without switching the lens from AF to MF.

The autofocus range limiting feature allows the user to optionally limit the range to 3m-6m or 6m-infinity. The pre-focus capability allows the user to lock in the current focus position by moving a spring-loaded, sliding switch. If set, the lens will return to that spot whenever the metal, notched ring near the focus ring is slightly turned in either direction. This feature can be used to return quickly to a fixed location after following a subject elsewhere.

Being able to chose focus speeds is less useful with this lens than with its 600/4 cousin. This is primarily because the faster aperture of the 300/2.8 makes it easier to focus manually. This feature certainly doesn't detract from the lens, though, and it's convenient to have a single user interface and feature set for the entire family of fast telephotos.

Since there is no physical connection between the focus ring and the USM motor, the designers were free to damp the manual focus action without regard to drag on the motor. The focus rings of the telephotos which incorporate this module have the best feel of any autofocus lens I've had the opportunity to use.

Optical Quality

Some reviewers have called this lens the sharpest 300/2.8 made. While I have not directly compared this lens with those offered by competitors, it is as sharp as one could hope for. It is capable of producing professional-quality images when used with the EF 2x teleconverter. This autofocusing 600/5.6 combination was my standard lens for bird photography until I bought my 600/4 in August, 1994. When combined with the EF 1.4x teleconverter, the resulting 420/4 combination is fast and very sharp.

Though you can't judge sharpness by viewing compressed jpeg images, they do give you a hint of the capabilities of this lens. The snowy egrets in flight were taken with the lens mounted on my homemade shoulder stock, on Velvia. The American avocet was taken with the EF 2x teleconverter, with the combination mounted on a tripod, on Velvia. The sage grouse was taken with the lens resting on a bean bag, on Lumiere 100x.

Summary

If you can only afford one fast, high quality telephoto and expect to shoot a variety of subjects, give serious consideration to buying this lens and the EF 1.4x and 2.0x teleconverters. If you are looking for a lens specifically for bird or small mammal photography, the EF 500/4.5 is perhaps more suitable, and weighs about half as much as either the 600/4 or 400/2.8. Compared to the current (mid-1996) prices of these lenses, the 300/2.8 is almost cheap at $4600.