Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM

The Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM lens was released back in 2004 as a smaller, lighter alternative to Canon's L-series telephoto lenses, yet still offering superb image quality thanks to its Diffractive Optical (DO) element. With the recent release of the 70-300mm L series lens, which we enthusiastically reviewed last week, is the slightly cheaper 70-300mm DO lens still worth considering? Read our Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM review to find out.

Dramatically compact, satisfyingly sharp, unusually designed, and optically stabilized. This full-framer is for Canon shooters who want it all in one lens.

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Find out what 15 readers thought of the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM in our review.

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II USM Review | Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a review of Canon's newly released affordable telephoto zoom - 70-300 IS II.

The Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM is a very compact telezoom for full-frame Canon SLRs, but its image quality is lacking.

A compact, high-magnification zoom lens with few aberrations and effective image stabilisation.The EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM is Canon's second lens with three-layer type Diffractive Optics (DO). It can be used with both 'APS-C' (where it covers angles of view equivalent to 112mm to 480mm) and 35mm-sized image sensors. Using three layers of diffraction gratings enables lens designers to almost completely cancel out chromatic aberration and subdue spherical aberration to a near-negligible point. The resulting lenses are smaller and lighter and can out-perform other zoom lenses with equivalent focal lengths and aperture ranges that use fluorite, ED or aspherical glass elements to controls these aberrations.

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM DO IS Review