Review of Canon Zoom Lens EF 70-300mm 1: 4.5-5.6 DO (Diffractive Optics) IS USM

For the opportunity to review Canon Zoom Lens EF 70-300mm 1: 4.5-5.6 DO (Diffractive Optics) IS USM Many thanks to Alexander from the manual optics section.

Canon Zoom Lens EF 70-300mm 1: 4.5-5.6 DO (Diffractive Optics) IS USM

Review of Canon Zoom Lens EF 70-300mm 1: 4.5-5.6 DO (Diffractive Optics) IS USM

The letters 'DO' in the lens name stand for 'Diffractive Optics'. The lens uses a three-layer diffractive optical element. If you do not delve into the complex physical process of the operation of such an optical element, then we can say that DO refracts light rays more strongly and allows you to minimize aberrations. In practice from using DO the dimensions of the lens itself are reduced... Indeed, when I got my hands on the Canon 70-300mm DO IS USM, I was very surprised at its size - the lens is very short, but puffy.

Example photo on a Canon 70-300mm DO IS USM

Example photo on a Canon 70-300mm DO IS USM

In general, there are not so many Canon DO lenses, their distinguishing feature is the green ring on the lens housing near the front lens. If someone has experience with other DO lenses, add your impressions in the comments.

Switches on Canon 70-300mm DO IS USM

Switches on Canon 70-300mm DO IS USM

Focusing

The lens has internal focusing. When focusing, the front lens remains stationary. When zooming, the front lens does not rotate, and the trunk of the lens lengthens. The lens is nice fast auto focus. Responsible for focusing ultrasonic motor (USM), very quiet when working. The lens has an FTM mode - a constant manual focusing mode, which means that in one-shot focusing mode, you can immediately rotate the focusing ring without switching the lens to manual focusing mode. The minimum focusing distance is 1.4 meters.

In manual focus mode, the focus ring rotates a little more than 90 degrees. Manual focusing is pretty nice as the lens is 'chubby' and the focus ring rotates smoothly. The lens has a focusing distance scale and 3 marks for correcting focus when shooting in the infrared spectrum for 135, 100 and 70mm.

Example photo on a Canon 70-300mm DO IS USM

Example photo on a Canon 70-300mm DO IS USM. The violet color of the contrasting details is visible in droplets.

When zooming, the trunk of the lens is greatly lengthened, one of the problems of this lens just turned out to be spontaneous resizing, tilt the Canon 70-300mm DO IS USM just enough trunk slides down. But there is a lens zoom lock 70mm (Lock button), because we can assume that partly the developers took care of this ailment.

Important Note: when zooming and focusing the back lens remains motionless, this will help protect the camera from excess dust.

Enlightenment and view of the front and rear lens of the Canon 70-300mm DO IS USM

Enlightenment and view of the front and rear lens of the Canon 70-300mm DO IS USM

IS Stabilizer

The lens is equipped with an image stabilizer IS, which should compensate for 3 steps excerpts when shooting handheld. The stabilizer works fine. The presence of a stabilizer in the telephoto lens is very important, firstly, it makes it possible without any difficulties take off, and secondly, the 300mm image does not twitch in the viewfinder during sighting. There are two switches on the lens: 'Stabilizer ON OFF' and 'Stabilizer 1 2'. The first switches the stabilizer on and off, the second switch sets the stabilization type. 1 - suppresses horizontal and vertical shifts, 2 - only suppresses vertical shifts. The first mode is recommended for static scenes, the second - for dynamic scenes.

Canon 70-300mm DO IS USM Zoom Lock

Canon 70-300mm DO IS USM Zoom Lock

Performance

The lens is well assembled. Optical design 18 elements in 12 groups with one DO element (front). The number of aperture blades is 6 pieces, and the aperture operates in the range from F / 4.6-5.6 F / 32.0-40.0. The lens cannot boast of good aperture. The diameter of the front filter is small, only 58mm, and the lens itself weighs about 720 grams. The zoom and focus rings are rubberized.

View of the Canon 70-300mm DO IS USM with the ET-65B native hood clad back and forth

View of the Canon 70-300mm DO IS USM with the ET-65B native hood clad back and forth. In this position, access to the zoom focus rings is lost.

Personal impressions

If you look at the front lens, you can see different concentric patterns - this is exactly the work of DO. It seemed to me very uncomfortable zoom ring, which is located close to the camera body, and the zoom ring narrow in itself. I did not notice something outstanding on my APS-C camera with this lens. In general, all dark class 70-300 zooms have different light and heavy problems at 300mmCanon 70-300mm DO IS USM remained without exception. They say that sometimes you can get an unusual mesh pattern in the bokeh due to DO elements, I did not succeed, who has information about this - add it in the comments.

More information about the lens:

  1. Description on the official website
  2. Photozone.de this time without sample photos
  3. User reviews on club.foto.ru
  4. A brief overview from dpreview.com

Usually Canon EF 70-300mm f / 4.5-5.6 IS USM can act as an alternative to Canon EF 70-300mm f / 4-5.6 USM DO IS.

You can see the circles on the front lens of Canon Zoom Lens EF 70-300mm 1: 4.5-5.6 DO (Diffractive Optics) IS USM

Concentric circles are visible on the front lens of the Canon EF 70-300mm 1: 4.5-5.6 DO (Diffractive Optics) IS USM

Sample Photos

Shot on Canon 350D, reduced size and added line with EXIF data. On Canon APS-C cameras with EF-S mount EGF lens will match 112-480 mm. Removing birds is easy enough. The lens is a little afraid of backlight. Aberrations are also present, in particular, catching a freezing is not difficult. Vignetting and distortion on the APS-C camera are practically zero.


All 70-300 Class Full Frame Lenses with Stabilizer

Sigma

Tamron

Canon (EF, EF-S)

Nikon (F, FX)

Sony (E, FE)

The names of the lenses are indicated according to the inscription on their body.


Lens prices in popular stores can look at this link, or in the price block below:

Comments on this post do not require registration. Anyone can leave a comment. Many different photographic equipment can be found on AliExpress.

Conclusions:

Canon EF 70-300mm f / 4.5-5.6 USM DO IS is a very compact telezoom lens (10 centimeters long). Has an image stabilizer, fast auto focus. The question of image quality for such a price remains open.

Material prepared Arkady Shapoval. Training/Consultations | Youtube | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Telegram

Add a comment: Maksim

 

 

Comments: 21, on the topic: Canon Zoom Lens EF 70-300mm 1 review: 4.5-5.6 DO (Diffractive Optics) IS USM

  • Nina

    Cool drops !!!

  • anonym

    Hi Arkady, by the way, as always, thank you for your work. Please tell me the off-topic question for this article, I have a Nikon D 5100 camera bought Nikor 50 1.8g glass for it, but I encountered such a problem with an open aperture when I photograph a portrait with 1/4000 photo with overexposure is not enough for a good bokeh of a day of short exposure, advise which filter you can take so as not to run to close the diaphragm, I know that I need an ND (2x4x8x) series filter but I don’t know which and which company

    • Arkady Shapoval

      Usually, the more expensive the filters are, the better they are. What's the budget?

  • anonym

    somewhere around 400 UAH.

  • Ivan

    Shapoval dear let's test already Lki quickly a)))
    Enough of this cheap shit from Canon to multiply ...
    Of course I understand that you are a Nikonist and should kind of not like a competitor.
    But the boot on which the second half of the world takes off -))) - it is different well, you know the truth and it is called the L series !!!!
    Enlighten people pliz.

  • Alex

    I would especially like to see the tests of the Canon 24-70 f.2.8L of the second series (and it would be nice to compare also with the first)

  • Kostya

    It would be especially good if someone sent such lenses for review =) ...

  • leather styer

    Question to the author, and to 6d this glass will do. I rent sports, athletics.

  • Ivan

    Before yelling, Ege-ge, Arkady, test Elki, you think!) Will you give him these Elki? I love reading reviews of Arcadia, and I’d be glad to help with lenses for testing, but I live in the distant Astrakhan region of the Russian Federation! Arkady, thank you for your work!

  • Bomj

    Thank you for the interesting reviews. I would like to know your opinion about Canon 18- 135 is usm. Thanks.

  • Victor

    Arkady, how about taking a picture of the moon with such a lens?

  • Pastor

    Given the price, it’s very interesting why not take a much cheaper and also stable 55-250? Judging by the reviews and comparisons, he does not lose much to this 70-300, except for the plastic construct. And yet, almost for the price of this 70-300, you can take 70-200 4L, which, although more, is much better in the picture. In my opinion, as with Nikon it’s obvious that it’s better to take 70-300vr from cheap televisions, so with Canon this glass will be either 70-200 4l or completely cheap 55-250IS, which in my opinion is much better than 55-200 and 55-300 from Nikon.

    • Nikolay

      Because 55-250 is only for crops, it EFS is no longer suitable for me

  • Anton

    Based on the price and quality of the pictures, this is some kind of misunderstanding, because no one will give for more than $ 300

  • Maksim

    I have owned this lens for about a year and it is amazing working with it. I bought a used one. for symbolic $ 150 Only positive impressions from use: lightness, compactness - only 10 centimeters in length, and 750 grams of weight, does not attract increased attention when shooting street photography, unlike its long-focus L-series counterparts. The lens with diffraction lenses does not give any distortion of the images. Fast focusing due to the small distance between the lenses, even at 300mm. Tenacious autofocus, two stops of image stabilization, which allows you to take pictures at long focus and low shutter speed without blurring. The lens is close to the L-series in terms of sharpness and color rendition. Great for long distance portraits, sporting events, weddings, concerts, and long distance photography. Practically not afraid of backlight. Does not suck dust into the lens, and does not drive air into the camera.Metal mount, pleasant to the touch rubber focusing rings and focal length changes. Regarding the fact that it is “dark”, the luminosity has always been enough for me personally. To summarize what I have written: if you find a copy for a reasonable value, then you will not regret buying.

    • Anton

      Good afternoon, will it be better than the Canon EF 70-300mm f / 4.0-5.6 IS USM?

  • Alex

    First of all, this lens is pure APO chromat, it is a pity we did not take pictures of sun glare on water, metal or stars in the review. This is where such optics will plug many into the belt and will work quietly with an open aperture

  • Dmitriy

    Hello! Will this lens be better than the Canon EF 70-300mm f / 4.0-5.6 IS USM?

  • Andrei

    Tell me, is aperture 180 available at 200-4mm focal length?

    • Andrei

      Of course, he has the most open 4,5, which means 180-200 will easily be 4. Even 3,5.

      • B. R. P.

        )

Add a comment

Copyright © Radojuva.com. Blog author - Photographer in Kiev Arkady Shapoval. 2009-2023

English-version of this article https://radojuva.com/en/2013/04/canon-ef-70-300-4-5-5-6-do-is-usm/?replytocom=265821

Versión en español de este artículo https://radojuva.com/es/2013/04/canon-ef-70-300-4-5-5-6-do-is-usm/?replytocom=265821