Canon EF 300 mm f/2.8 L IS II USM review - Introduction

Have you rated your lenses yet?

Canon EF 300 mm f/2.8 L IS II USM

3 February 2012

Arkadiusz Olech

1. Introduction

The Canon EF 300 mm f/2.8 L IS II USM, although it has the II Roman numeral in its name, is, in fact, the third generation of the EF 300 mm f/2.8 USM lens which was launched in 1987. In July 1999 a new version was shown, equipped with optical image stabilization. After more than a decade of its presence on the market it was substituted by the EF 300 mm f/2.8 L IS II USM model. Although in the meantime stabilization was added, the USM motor and the optical construction improved, every version of this lens was physically lighter than the previous one. Because of that the difference in weight between the first and the latest model amounts to almost half a kilo – quite a lot. This chart presents a summary of properties of all 300 mm lenses available in the Canon line-up and featuring the EF mount.

We would like to thank the Canon Poland company for providing the lens for testing purposes.

You are also invited to get acquainted with our test procedure, described in the article "How do we test lenses?" If you feel it’s still not enough, please go to our FAQ section where you can find some further explanation.

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