Canon EF 75-300/4.5-5.6 USM

I bought this lens with my first Canon body and had used it for a number years. In those times it was one of the very few affordable long-focus lenses for me. It was the new, just released version with USM drive and seemed to work nicely with my Canon. Last but not least, it was the original Canon lens what, I believed, should guarantee at least good quality; after years of use, I would rather say now that it was acceptable. Still, it did its job and I never had any problem with it. As far as I know, the new owner still uses it happily.

The AF and aperture motor drive works very smoothly, as you would expect from the USM drive. The lens is extremely lightweight for a 300 mm. Unfortunately, the optical quality is not the highest (well, could I expect the highest quality for such an inexpensive lens?), and you probably would not like to use this lens at its largest apertures. At f 8 - 11 the photographs were just fine for reasonable enlargements. The problem is that in my work, which frequently means hunting for animals in forests or meadows, this requirement is not easy to meet. If you stick to low-grain films, you do not use anything above ISO 100; when you use the lens at its longest focal length, which you usually do photographing animals, you would like to use at least 1/250 s; as the animals run away, you cannot use your tripod very freqently... and so on. Finally you end-up with an undoable: if this not a sunny day in savannah, you don't even need to take the lens off your camera bag! This was getting more and more annoying to me. Theoretically I had a reasonable 'telephoto' lens, but I could use it only very rarely, in exceptional situations.

My advice? If you can only afford it, buy something better. Unfortunately, this does not mean some 50 - 100 bucks more, but MUCH more. "Something better" starts at around 500 USD, and "something really good" in these focal ranges will cost you a few thousand dollars. As photography is not what I do for life, I went for "something better" and I am happy with my choice (although not completely without complaints). If you definitely cannot afford anything more than some 200 USD, the EF 75-300 will do with some restrictions. You will just need to use high-speed films, be prepared to use your tripod more frequently that you would like to. It is fine lens, just not perfect and certainly not for professionals who need huge blowups from their films.