Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II USM Review

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II USM Performance

The resolution graphs reveal a complex performance. Starting at 70mm, centrally sharpness is excellent from f/4 through to f/16, after which it drops away significantly. It is still good at f/22 but soft at f/32. At the edges, performance is good at f/4 and f/5.6, but perks up well to become very good at f/8 to f/16. Edges are fair at f/22 and soft at f/32.

100mm sees excellent central sharpness from f/4.5 to f/8 and it remains very good at f/11 and f/16. Sharpness is still good at f/22, but soft beyond that at f/32. The edges are fair at f/4.5, good at f/5.6 and f/8, very good at f/11 and f/16, fair at f/22 and soft at f/32.

200mm sees excellent sharpness centrally at f/5.6 and f/8, very good at f/11 and f/16, good at f/22 but soft at f/32 and f/45. The edges are excellent at f/5.6 and f/8, very good at f/11 and f/16, good at f/22 and soft at f/32 and f/45.

Sharpness at 300mm is very good centrally at f/5.6 to f/11, good at f/16, only fair at f/22 and soft at f/32 and f/45. The edges are very good from f/5.6 to f/11, good at f/16, fair at f/22 and soft at f/32 and f/45.

Overall, the sharpness can be considered to be very satisfactory and certainly, images are crisp and vibrant. The very small apertures are of course also very soft, but that is to be expected because of diffraction and I suspect not many users employ telephoto zooms at apertures much beyond f/8 anyway.

CA (Chromatic Aberration) shows up as colour fringing, and in some circumstances can be clearly seen at the edges. Centrally, the lens is highly corrected at all focal lengths, in fact impressively so. The edges show CA, mostly at either end and less so at middle focal lengths, but in any event, this can be tackled in software and not all subjects will reveal the fringing.

Distortion is very well controlled for a zoom lens. There is -1.83% barrel distortion at 70mm, visible but not excessively so. Thereafter we move to pincushion distortion, measuring +0.11% at 100mm (near perfect drawing), +1.66% at 200mm and +1.89% at 300mm. For the sort of subjects likely to be shot at the longer lengths, much of the time this may not need correction, but if necessary we can deal with it in software.

Having commented on the lack of a lens hood, the saving grace is that the lens is not susceptible to flare. However, a hood is still desirable, both for extreme lighting conditions and also to help shield the lens against knocks.

Bokeh is very pleasant, aided by the telephoto nature of the lens and also by the rounded diaphragm blades. Lenses have an indefinable “look” that cannot really be measured, but aesthetically speaking the results from this lens really do have that certain something that offers attractive looking images.

The IS (Image Stabilisation) system is claimed to offer 4 stops advantage. Obviously, that will depend on the individual photographer, and that even varies day to day. Taking the “rule of thumb” that would suggest at 300mm a shutter speed of 1/300 second would be needed to avoid camera shake, it was found that sharp images could be reliably obtained at 1/30 second. This is almost exactly the 4 stops claimed.

Value For Money

The Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II USM lens is priced at £449. There are a variety of alternatives in the Canon range. The EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 L IS USM is priced at £1279 and the EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM costs £1379.

Lower cost alternatives are the EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM III (£259), the EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III (£115) and the Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 SP Di VC USD (£299). The new lens does seem to offer a fair balance between cost and performance. For more options have a look at the Top 15 Best Canon EOS lenses.

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