Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II review (a steal for the money, Optical Limits)

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II at a glance:

• EF-Mount/Full-Frame Format
• Aperture Range: f/4 to f/45
• One Ultra Low Dispersion Element
• NANO USM Autofocus System
• Optical Image Stabilizer
• Lens Information Display
• Full-Time Manual Focus
• Rounded 9-Blade Diaphragm

The Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II lens is a good example of how skilled Canon’s engineers are when it comes to manufacturing lenses, even those usually categorised as consumer lenses.

Optical Limits (formerly known as photo zone.de) reviewed the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II, and it seems once more Canon was able to deliver in this price class (it’s $449). Please note that there is a typo in the conclusion: the lens is not a “L” grade lens.

Usually you can bank on Canon for delivering some of the best tele lenses across all classes and that also applies to the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 USM L IS II. Canon managed to improve the lens in many aspects compared to its predecessor. As far as the optical characstistic is concerned, Canon shifted the priority more to the long end of the zoom range – which is generally a good thing. The image quality doesn’t reach professional levels but for a consumer lens, it’s certainly impressive with a generally very good quality at 200mm and 300mm. At 70mm the image corners aren’t that hot (combined with a bit of field curvature) but from a real-life perspective that’s usually a lesser issue. Lateral CAs are very low. Image distortions and vignetting are about typical for such a lens.

[…] Given the sum of its qualities, the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 USM L IS II is a very obvious choice in this lens class. For the money, it’s a steal really and that’s quite a seldom occurrence these days.

Optical Limit’s review also comes with a set of sample images (full size files can be downloaded).

While the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II can not compete with the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS in terms of optical performance, it still delivers a lot of bang for the bucks.

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II:

America: B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA
Europe & UK: Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon IT, Canon IT, WEX Photographic, Canon FR, Canon UK, Canon DE