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My Husband and I purchased the lens to go to Mexico and it worked wonderful. We ended up taking almost 1000 pictures and look forward to taking pictures of my son playing baseball.
Sometimes I forget to change the lens settings on the lens (mode 1 or 2, AF on or off). I just have to decide what wide angle zoom to get, now (probably the 17-40L).
When using the IS, remember to keep the shutter half-way pushed for about a second before shooting, which allows the IS to kick in. On my 40D, I felt this lens was a bit tight due to the crop factor.
This is a great upgrade lens from any kit lens; the optical quality is quite good, and the IS helps. This will do just fine.
I picked up a 5D (original version) and the lens came to life. I really like the combination and have decided to put off getting a 70-200L for a while.
My gripes with this lens are minimal; the lens does extend when it zooms; the rotating focus element is not a problem for me. It's just something I have to learn.
The role of aperture is not key anymore because depth of field (DOF) isn't what matters most. Not only as a zoom-in lens that allows you to approach distant subjects but also I find it suitable for portrait photography. This lens is heavy and too large for transportation. With other lower focal distance lenses I have noticed that people, and especially children, get bored or uncomfortable.
If you hold it for some time in your hands while it is attached to the camera body, you start feeling tiredness. Besides, it's extremely easy to achieve a significant "bokeh" (diffused background) given the amplification factor that a large focal distance produces. Taking portrait pictures at 300mm the background starts to get out of focus just a few feet behind your subject. This lens is very useful for different purposes. Under low light conditions (for example, bulb lights) the lens might find it difficult to get a subject into focus. Now the flip side.
Definitively it's not a good choice for traveling or if you are concerned for your safety. The lens is expensive and easily catches people's attention.
If that happens the focusing barrel goes back and forward till it gets something into focus. In fact, you can say this is a non-intrusive lens -so to speak, when it comes to taking face close-ups.
Due to the weight and size the gravity balance point of the camera shifts from to body to some point along the lens so I tend to grab hold of the latter instead of the camera body, as usually happens with any other lens. The IS works great and the sound it makes isn't too noisy.
I have achieved very sharp images even in middle or low light conditions, thanks to this feature. When it comes to focusing, the process is a bit slow though I think it's a normal behavior.
Over all: good lens.
I've been using this lens for a week and love it. My flickr name is bfmersereau and the photos were uploaded on January 4th, 2010. I've taken some great pictures of my twin boys and some great photos of sunsets from my backyard. I uploaded three photos to flickr to show some samples. I'm your average photographer and I'm using a Canon T1i. I highly recommend this lens.
I use this lens when I don't want to travel with a heavier/more valuable one. Given its range and the image quality for the cost, I highly recommend it.
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