Isaac Online

Now that I’m working again, its easier for me to find a few bucks for some new photo gear (which is a lot more expensive than new fishing gear – at least up front). This week I found that Citizen’s Photo had an older Canon 100-300 f/4.5-5.6 on their used rack for a scant $50. Thats perfect, I told myself, and went down to take a look. I know its not the best lens in the world, but I have a GIANT hole in my lens lineup for anything over 105mm.

So I ran on down to take a look.

I got there only to find out the 100-300 was gone. However, they did have a 75-300mm USM on the rack. Now, it wasn’t as cheap as the 100-300, but it still was a decent price – about half of new. It was in the original Canon box and even had the original warranty card as well. Those two things don’t particularly excite me, but does give clues that the original owner was either fairly protective and careful with their gear, or the original owner was a fanatical pack rat.

I have not yet been able to get a whole lot of use out of the new lens, but I did get to spend the rest of the day with it. I spent a couple hours (in the 90F day) at Smith & Bybee Lakes refuge, where most animals were hiding out trying to keep away from the sun. I couldn’t blame them. I did find a few that came out though.

I finished the day off shooting a kickball game for the Ruby Receptionists team known as “Ruby Death Squad.” This put my gear in a tough situation. The game was played in the deep shade of some OLD maple trees. With the slow f/5.6 this means I was shooting at ISO400. For most this isn’t a problem, but I do NOT like my 20D at ISO400. I think it’s incredibly noisy (I suppose its time for me to check out Noise Ninja and some other noise reduction software). At ISO400 and f/5.6 I found most of the shots around 1/320s. Not a bad speed for the action and the 300mm length I was going to be shooting at. The images, however, weren’t all that great.

Focus on the lens is slow at best, even with USM. In the shade it was hunting quite a bit. I shot handheld and mounted on my Trek Pod, and didn’t notice a difference in image quality – or lack there of – so it seems that handshake wasn’t an issue, so the lack of Image Stabilization didn’t make a difference either, other than the fact that I’d be able to step down. I wish I could have done that.

We’ll have to see how things go from here, but I’m at least happy to have a lens that has some reach. Even if I have to struggle to get a better image…