Canon 28 300 Lens
Unlike many of the Canon 28 300 Lens reviewers you can read here, photography is not my job. I am a scout helicopter mechanic in the US Army. Photography is my hobby and passion, keeping our pilots safe in the air is my job, which I thoroughly enjoy. I have more than a few deployments under my belt, and on a previous trip overseas with my comrades in arms, I was depressed at how little photos there were of us doing our jobs, and well, being ourselves. I took it upon myself tho document everything through the lens of my shiny new point-and-shoot. Terrible I know, but it was a beginning. Making a very long story short, I fast forward three years, three cameras, and a deployment or two.
Working a full time job in harsh conditions is very few peoples preferred "photo-shoot", but it's mine everyday! A perfect example is how I keep hearing people talk and write about lens changes in the "field", doing this in the constantly dusty deserts of the middle east is not only in-advisable, but disastrous. Remember the three previous cameras? one suffered that fate. To tell the truth, even indoors might as well be considered the "field" here. The first thing I noticed after I attached it to my T1i body was the great amounts of air whistling in and out of the cracks in the camera body and viewfinder, when you slid the lens through it's zoom range. This is what happens when you attach a weather and dust sealed lens to a body that is anything but!
Right away the enormous zoom range let me do things like catch pilots pre-flighting the aircraft from afar, really showing what an Army aviators life is like, to lens-scratching-the-windscreen close up wide angle shots of the pilots doing there thing, all while wondering what I am doing. Pilots aren't the only ones that catch the love, the lens's IS and zoom range let all sorts of photographic opportunities (my hypersonic kids for example) turn into quality photographs.
In closing (and no particular order):
Heavy - Change of command and promotion ceremonies almost break my lens supporting hand's wrist after an hour or two. On the flip side, the weight ballasted my camera when I had it slung to my side, so it hung lens-down and tucked in, nice and safe.
Solid - not only is the actual structure of the lens durable, so is the paint finish. I can not believe that after 6 months of hard use it is still flawless.
Funky Lens Hood - I think all lens hoods are awkward, but due to the weight of the lens I usually keep it off and stored away unless I plan on shooting into the sun. The lining is made of black velvet however, which is nice.
Stiffness Ring - It fails as a infinitely adjustable stiffness adjustment, as certain portions of the range "grab" more than others, so I wound up using it as a barrel lock only. However I could disengage the stiffness with one hand, gripping the focus in an overhand manner with my fingers and spinning the lock ring with my thumb counter-clockwise. I do have big basketball-player hands, so you may or may not be able to do the same.
Auto Focus (one-shot)- Both my retired T1i and my current 7D will hunt if the starting focus is way off at the opposite end of the scale. A few half-presses of the shutter or a manual spin of the focusing ring gets everything peachy again however.
Auto Focus (AI Servo) - When it comes to following aircraft or people, this lens is flawless. In fact I wound up preferring to shoot in this mode due to the quality.
Zoom Range - Easily the most valuable feature of this lens. Where before I missed shots (worst feeling in the world) because I could not compose the frame properly, this lens made it all possible, without carrying other lenses, which I would not change outdoors here anyway.
Image Stabilization - A huge plus and a tiny minus in my book. The plus is it's unparalleled ability and range of stabilization. Photos of a MI-24 while being buffeted by rotorwash? No problem. The tiny minus is the slight lag time it induces if it has been off for a while, you hear a clunk, and feel the lens jerk, then all is good.
Slide Zoom - The first time I used the lens around my co-workers the "compensating for something?" jokes began. But snapping to 300mm in less than a fraction of a second is mighty convenient when you have little time to capture a moment.
Enormo-Giganto-Huge-Ness - It's big. Realllly big. Not as big as the sports photographer Hubble telescope knockoffs, but when I raise it to my eye, people notice, and it's big enough that they tell their friends, and then candids are a no-go.
Cost - That's the best part, I got it for FREE. I'm essentially borrowing it for a year. I'm actually considering buying one, which is equivalent to a months wages for me.
I hope you enjoyed my unique perspective on this high quality and un-inexpensive lens! If you feel my review is leaving out a critical factor, feel free to comment and I will share!
Canon 28 300 Lens
