I need to get a zoom lense for my eos 300, and am stuck between the 75-300 mk3 usm and the 100-300 usm. I've searched numerous pages, and they keep telling me the same 'canon' response. I'll be using it for sports photography, which according the the 'canon' response would be favoured by the 75-300, but, the 100-300 retails at more, so surely this the the better one to go for ??

-- Steven Angell (spangel@asda.co.uk), July 04, 2001

Answers

I've used both the 75-300 Mk II and the 100-300 4.5-5.6 USM. I sold the former to buy the latter, but then latter was then stolen, so right now I have neither. But I felt the USM version was slightly sharper and had slightly better contrast, though frankly it wasn't a stunning difference.

The main difference is that the 100-300 model is nice to handle, is sturdier and has fast, silent and precise USM focusing. The 75-300 is cheaply built, lacks a distance scale, has a rotating end and so is a nuisance for polarizing filters and is generally less fun. Note that there are USM versions of the 75-300, but they're the cheap USM motor and so they don't offer full-time manual focusing the way the 100-300 does.

There's also the old 100-300 5.6L lens to consider. It's much bigger than the others and is really quite clunky - rotating end, slow and noisy focusing that hunts a lot - but is an L lens and therefore has fluorite glass. It's said to be much sharper, so you're sacrificing convenience for image quality. It's also recently been discontinued and therefore can be bought for about as much as the 100-300 4.5-5.6 USM.

My take is if you want the cheapest xx-300 zoom possible, get the 75-300. If you want the fastest focusing speed possible, get the 100-300 USM. And if you want the highest optical quality, get the 5.6L.

Bob Atkins has written up a bit on the subject also.

http://www.photo.net/photo/nature/x-300.html

-- NK Guy (tela@tela.bc.ca), July 04, 2001.

What do you all think about the 75-300 IS lens? I'm pondering the same choices for a medium/long zoom.

Paul

-- paul@columbusoft.com (paul@columbusoft.com), September 02, 2001.

Paul,

the 75-300 IS has the exact same optics of the non-IS versions. As such, if you are satisfied with the optics of those lenses you should very much enjoy the addition of IS. I strongly considered it. I didn't like the fact that it didn't have a panning function for the IS, like it's more expensive cousins. And, the fact that I can get the 100-300 f/5.6L for $330 (it will soon go the way of the dinosaurs) has pushed me towards the latter. The optics are first class (with fluourite elements) but the AF motor and lens design are somewhat archaic.

-- Hung James Wasson (HJWasson@aol.com), September 02, 2001.