Canon EF 100-300 mm f/4.5-5.6 USM review - Summary

Have you rated your lenses yet?

Canon EF 100-300 mm f/4.5-5.6 USM

22 September 2007

Arkadiusz Olech

11. Summary

Pros:

very good picture quality at 100 mm in the center as well as at the edges of the frame.
chromatic aberration almost invisible at 100 mm and below for the 200 mm focal length
low distortion
very small coma
well controlled astigmatism
very small vignetting
fast and quiet autofocus

Cons:

the picture resolution at the edges of the frame for 200-300 mm focal lengths should be better
big chromatic aberration at 300 mm
tendency to create artifacts when working in bright light

The Canon 100-300 mm could be a good alternative for the very popular Sigma 70-300 mm APO DG Macro because of its good quality and price. Both lenses are similar as far as resolution, chromatic aberration, distortion, coma and working in bright light are concerned. The Sigma wins by having a better focal length range, better aperture and lower price. The Canon, on the other hand, has better astigmatism correction, smaller vignetting and which is probably the most important – good autofocus work, which is not very good in the Sigma.

There is no one winner. If someone cannot afford the Canon, he will be happy with the Sigma. If you can spend an extra 400 Polish zloty, we think that the good autofocus work and good picture results will ease the pain of spending the extra money.

Sample shots:

Please Support Us

If you enjoy our reviews and articles, and you want us to continue our work please, support our website by donating through PayPal. The funds are going to be used for paying our editorial team, renting servers, and equipping our testing studio; only that way we will be able to continue providing you interesting content for free.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - advertisement - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


Camera: Canon 300D Parameters: 300 mm, f/5.6, exp. 1/500 sec, ISO 100 File: JPG, 3072 x 2048 pix, 2.5 MB	Camera: Canon 20D Parameters: 100 mm, f/4.5, exp. 1/4000 sec, ISO 400 File: JPG, 3504x2336 pix, 2.3 MB	Camera: Canon 20D Parameters: 100 mm, f/4.5, exp. 1/250 sec, ISO 800 File: JPG, 3504x2336 pix, 2.9 MB

Camera: Canon 20D Parameters: 100 mm, f/7.1, exp. 1/200 sec, ISO 400 File: JPG, 3504x2336 pix, 3.6 MB	Camera: Canon 20D Parameters: 205 mm, f/6.3, exp. 1/400 sec, ISO 400 File: JPG, 3504x2336 pix, 3.1 MB	Camera: Canon 20D Parameters: 100 mm, f/4.5, exp. 1/25 sec, ISO 100 File: JPG, 3504x2336 pix, 2.4 MB