Canon EF 300 mm 1:2.8 L

Canon EF 300 mm 1:2.8 L, late first version, built at the Canon Utsunomija factory, Japan in Oktober 2003. I got it for a good price in the Jungmuro area in Seoul, a little paradise for used photo equipment, for finding any sort of film, for framing photos and any printing jobs.

This Canon lens got enthusiastic reviews from it's first entry on in 1988. For Nikon it took nearly 10 years to launch an equally fast 300 mm. 

This tele lens is my first lens, where I have to mount the camera to the lens, not the other way round. Quite a heavy photographic challenge and I took it serious. 


First real test in my most nearby surroundings. Mounted to the Canon EOS 1 Ds III as in the photos above. The shots are hand held, this combination is still great to hold. Although I do not want to carry it around more than about half a day.  

Nest building Magpie's, it seems that spring is coming. The above photo is a quite small crop from this one aside. The comparison shows the sharpness of the lens.

This 300 cm lens turned out to be as incredible sharp and has fast autofocus. Traditionally it is used for wildlife photography, birds, sports and even by Paparazzi. 

For the next field test on Nansam hill I combined the lens with an extender Canon EF 1.4x II, resulting in a 420 mm tele lens and mounted it to my EOS 5D III. To increase the picture quality I used a tripod. My Gitzo Series 2 Traveler seems not to be the right one for this weight and lenght, but turned out to be helpful anyway. 

Further reading:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/lenses/300mm-f28.htm