I bought this lens mostly to photograph wildlife and I have taken some great shots with it in the short time I have had it. The lens is light weight and easy to carry around in the field for long periods of time without causing fatigue.

Consistent Output; Easily Interchangeable; Lightweight; Rugged; Strong Construction

I bought this lens after a lot of thought and spent a lot of time looking around and found one on Amazon "used" and got one at a very good price which I couldn't ignore! The lens was as new and came with a UV filter. I am absolutely delighted with the lens and has exceeded my expectations.

I use this lens for birds in flight photography and nighttime owl photography. It has really impressed me as compared to my Canon 400 f/5.6L lens. 90% of the time I use the 300 mm with a Canon 1.4X III extender. I love the combination for wildlife photography. Fast focusing and super sharp images.

With a closest focusing distance of 1. 5m/4. 9ft, you can get in as close to the subject as possible in that unique way only possible with a macro lens. The image stabilizer also functions when using the extender ef1. 4xii and extender ef2xii to provide that elusive 600mm shooting capability.

I purchased this lens for my wildlife shots after looking what Canon had available. It is lightweight extremely sharp and very affordable. when you are walking around for hours taking shots it can be handheld without too much problem.

Superior build quality; Super-sharp images; Fast auto-focus

I found my copy of this lens unacceptable...Soft wide open. The imaging stabilizing was very clunky as well (IS) -- I use to use these lenses back when I was shooting news and they were always decent...

I've shot with a 30D for about 7 years and recently switched to a 7D. All my digital SLR experience has been with these APS-C cameras. I purchased the 300mm IS f4L as a way to get a little more magnification than the 70-200mm IS f4L that I already had.

Fast auto-focus; Superior build quality; image stabilization; size and weight; close-up capability; case tripod mount & built-in lens shade

Semi-sharp images, i.s; noise (clunking

Having gotten by with bird photgraphy with cheaper zoom lenses I bought this Prime Telephoto lens knowing I would be paying a lot for a minor gain by comparison. The cost/image quality curve makes each little improvement very expensive; but it is necessary if you want consistantly good results.

I can say nothing bad about it, colour, sharpness, bokeh. If you have a need for the distance, it is well worth considering. I use it for closeup shots as well as racing and simply love to use it. It's not overly heavy, I hand hold and use a monopod.

This article covers both the old (non-image stabilized) and new (IS) versions of the Canon EOS 300/4. The photos are by Philip Greenspun and were taken with a Canon EOS 5D , ( compare prices ) ( review ) for the Africa articles in our Travel section .