I would like to know information about a 75-300 zoom for a Canon Eos rebel 2000. I am on a limited budget so the canon with IS is a little bit above my range. I am looking at the Tamron 100-300 and the canon 75-300. Any ideas?

-- Paul Muccino (p-v@msn.com), January 25, 2000

Answers

One lens that I would recommend is the Canon 100-300F5.6L. It is typically available used well within your price range and is significantly sharper than the Canon 75-300.

Frankly, I'm as likely to choose this lens as my 300F4LIS - it is lighter, only a bit slower and more flexible. Any difference in absolute image quality is typically less than other factors affecting the shot

The drawbacks: it is a bit noisy and, if you care, it is a push-pull zoom.

-- Mike Milton (mike.milton@sympatico.ca), January 25, 2000.

I don't know what your budget is, but the Tamron 70-300 LD f/4-5.6 is a very nice lens with decent optics and build quality. Street price is a little under $200 now. I've run about 12 rolls behind mine, and so far I'm impressed with what it can do. Keep in mind, though, that these xx-300 zoom are not a cheap way to get to 300mm. If you're going to use 'em as a zoom, they're quite useful; if you're going to use 'em as a 300mm lens, you'd be better off getting a fixed 300.

-- John Kuraoka (kuraoka@home.com), January 26, 2000.

Concerning the Canon lens, there are several versions. The regular (non-USM) one in version 1 & 2. The USM, in four versions I think, and the IS. They all have the same optical design (the IS just adds IS optics). The USM offers slightly faster and much quieter focusing. They all have front lens movement during focusing

Canon's 100-300 f:4-5.6 USM is regarded as being a better lens for a bit more money. The 100-300 USM handles better, looks better, feels better and is a bit sharper. It also uses the better ring type USM (The 75-300 uses a micro motor USM). This allows the 100-300 USM to use Full Time Manual focusing (FTM) even while in auto focus mode. It also doesn't rotate the filter ring like the 75-300 does while focusing.

There were/are two other 100-300 f:5.6's put out by Canon, the "L" version mentioned above is actually quite a bit more money new, and used it is still more than any of the others, new. It is however the sharpest of the lot. The older 100-300 f:5.6 used a similar optical formula to the "L", but lacks a UD element in the front group so it's not quite as sharp as the "L". It is, however, sharper than any of the others in this discussion. But it's not made any more and like the "L" it doesn't handle as well and focuses rather slow & loud.

Other than these last two, all the other Canon's in this range are sharp from 70 (or 100) to about 200, and then get a bit soft unless you stop them down quite a bit. This is typical of most other brands as well. One other option, if you care about is optical quality is the Sigma 75-300 f:4-5.6 APO. It is regarded as somewhat better & sharper.

-- Jim Strutz (jimstrutz@juno.com), January 26, 2000.

Regarding the Canon zooms: The 100-300 USM does have FTM, but with the Rebel 2000 that's not really going to help much because the lens will refocus anyway when you push the shutter button again...see http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000cqR&topic_id= photo%2enet&topic= for more info.

The 100-300 does have a distance scale and a non-rotating front element, though, both of which could come in handy. The 75-300 doesn't have either of these features.

I got the 75-300 for Christmas, and I've only run a couple of rolls with it, but I have been favorably impressed. It seemes really sharp in the 80-100-200 range, and definitely good enough (for me) near 300. If we had more money to spend I probably would have gotten the 100- 300, but as it is I'm very happy.

Just my 2 cents.

-- Tamara Snyder (tsnyder@comp.uark.edu), January 28, 2000.

I can see the focusing speed on the 100-300 USM being faster than the 75-300 USM because it is a ring-type USM. My question is how do the third party lense makers compare on the low end cannon 75-300 USM or non-USM vs. comparable 3rd party? are the Canons better for low end buyer(faster AF or what?

By the Way I am considering buying Rebel 2000 50mm f1.8 II 75-300 (or maybe the 100-300) f4-5.6 III USM (canon or 3rd party) (going on safari :^) bp-200 (vertical grip) does this sound like a good <$600 setup? if not what would be better? (please don't tell me high end "L" $tuff used cause it isn't available where I'm from {midwest})

Thanks

-- Jeremy Wright (wright_jeremy_m@juno.com), November 13, 2000.