Used Canon 300 f/2.8... recommended?/comments?

[marxz]

A local newspaper is upgrading their gear and are selling of a large number of older Canon lenses. I've already picked up a 70-200 f/2.8 L which while not IS at less than 1/6th the price of a new 70-200 f/2.8 IS that was a trade off I was more than willing to accept. I had to return the first copy as it was damaged (front element assembly out of alignment - had been dropped pretty hard I guess) but the replacement copy was every bit as good, and then some, as what I hoped for - a huge step up image quality wise from my 70-300 IS consumer lens and noticeably sharper (and of course much faster) than my Sigma 50-500.


They also have a few 300mm f 2.8 L lenses which I'm interested in, again non IS, selling at about 1/3 to 1/4 of the street price of the new IS version.

I'm guessing because the introduction of the IS version of this lens predated the popular usage of the internet there's not a lot of information about it out there (almost none in fact - lots on the IS version).



Anyone have any experience with, and opinions about, the older non IS version of this model?

Expect to used exclusively on a tripod and mostly for animal & sports shots both by its self and with a 1.4x and 2x Canon teleconverter.

thanks.

[dougj]

I don't have any experience with the lens, but here is a completed auction for one on ebay. It sold for $2,644, might be helpful to guesstimate market price. I'm surprised there was only one sold recently.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Canon-300mm-f2-8-US ... dZViewItem

[marxz]

I don't have any experience with the lens, but here is a completed auction for one on ebay. It sold for $2,644, might be helpful to guesstimate market price. I'm surprised there was only one sold recently.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Canon-300mm-f2-8-US ... dZViewItem

OK wow... um in that case that makes the ones I'm looking at absolute bargains - some of them are not as cosmetically good as that one but there's one that's certainly very tidy for its age....

.... unlike the EOS 1D (MK I's) that they're selling which are almost three times what they go for on e-bay - and you can pretty much guaranty being photo journalist (and mostly sports photo journalist at that knowing the newspaper in question) they have extremely high shutter activation counts on them.

[dougj]

I bet you're right about the bodies. The 1D series embeds the shutter count in the photo metadata. There's a website you can upload either an image or the EXIF file to and it'll decode the shutter count field. Let me know if you're interested, although it sounds like the price is high and the Mk1 is a bit dated.

[pdbolton]

Try the following:

http://www.lensplay.com/lenses/lens_list.php

They have a listing of all current and discontinued Canon EF lenses plus current 3rd party lenses.

[marxz]

ah well it's as good as a done deal... my D60 packed it in on Sunday... OK it was cheap when I bought it used and I got almost 4 great years out of it ... in the last year and a half mainly as my backup camera but still got used about 30% of my shots and shooting without a spare body felt like shooting without my left arm... possible, but damn awkward.


So I just put in an order for a 40D and this lens with a 1.4x and 2x TC (could have stretched for the 5D without the lens or TC but I'll hold off for a while... glass first bodies later). The shop is a pro photo trade shop which for some reason means "we don't carry stock except for display and hire and some used gear" so I need to wait for a week or so for the body to arrive from Japan.

[dirtyol]

I bet you're right about the bodies. The 1D series embeds the shutter count in the photo metadata. There's a website you can upload either an image or the EXIF file to and it'll decode the shutter count field. Let me know if you're interested, although it sounds like the price is high and the Mk1 is a bit dated.

You can do the following in CS2 onwards
Click on File>FileInfo
Click on Advanced
Click on http://ns.adobe.com/exif/1.0/aux
and you should see "aux:ImageNumber: #####" (this is shutter actuations)

[marxz]

OK picked it up a couple of days ago (still waiting for new camera body to arrive but just wacked it on the 20D anyway).

Difficult lens to work with (at least at first). even managed to get of a few hand held shots but definitely one for the tripod/monopod.


haven't had time to take it out for a shoot yet but shot these off on the way home from work on Friday (thankfully I remembered I had a spare tripod in the car):

From about 500 meters away with 2x TC

http://www.pbase.com/marxz/image/93567105/original
this was hand held (on a bridge shaking with peak hour traffic) - and it shows

From about 150 meters away with 2x TC (tripod mounted this time about 90 minutes later when the subject decided to wake up and "shake a leg")

http://www.pbase.com/marxz/image/93560484/original

http://www.pbase.com/marxz/image/93560884/original

http://www.pbase.com/marxz/image/93561040/original

- been wanting to get a shot of these guys for years but both my Sigma 50-500 and Canon 70-300IS gave disappointing results, not much above snap shot quality.