Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 L IS USM Review

March 30, 2011 | Matt Grayson | Rating star Rating star Rating star Rating star Half rating star

Sharpness

Sharpness at 70mm

All the test pictures were taken at the same time using a Manfrotto Tripod. As with any zoom lens, it's always sharpest in the middle of the zoom range. Go out to either end of the range and sharpness drops off. This does happen with the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 L IS USM, especially at the telephoto end. For this test, the lens was attached to a Canon EOS 5D MkII which was on a short self timer with mirror lock up enabled.

The full frameThe full frame at 9mm

Once your wallet has recovered from buying an L lens, you can get to see exactly why they're priced as they are. Sharpness is consistent throughout all apertures at all focal settings.  In fact, at 70mm, we can't see any variation in sharpness in any of the photographs. Edge definition is less consistent showing more variation in sharpness.

Aperture Centre Crop Edge Crop
f/4
f/5.6
f/8
f/11
f/16
f/22
f/32