Canon EF 300mm lens

The EF 300mm lens refers to five telephoto prime lenses made by Canon. The lenses have an EF type mount which fits the Canon EOS line of cameras.

When used on a digital EOS body with a field of view compensation factor of 1.3x, such as the Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, it provides a narrow field of view, equivalent to a 390 mm lens mounted on a 35mm frame body. With a 1.6x body such as the Canon EOS 650D, it provides a narrower field of view, equivalent to a 480 mm lens mounted on a 35mm frame body.

This lens is most commonly used by sports and wildlife photographers, but is short enough to be use for extreme close-up portraits. Because of its rather high native magnification, it can be used for some macro type photography.^[1]

Technical information

The EF 300mm is a L series lens. This lens is constructed with a metal body and mount, and with plastic extremities and switches. Features of this lens are: a wide rubber focus ring that is damped, a distance window, the ability to limit the focus range, and an image stabilizer (on the IS versions). The maximum aperture of f/2.8 or f/4 gives this lens the ability to create shallow depth of field effects, while the eight- or nine-blade diaphragm produces smooth background blur. The optical construction of this lens contains 15 lens elements, including two UD (Ultra low dispersion) lens elements for the f4 IS USM (for other configurations see chart). This lens uses an inner focusing system, powered by a ring type USM motor. The front of the lens does not rotate nor extend when focusing. This lens is compatible with the Canon Extender EF teleconverters.^[2]^[3]^[4]

Versions

Attribute	f/2.8L USM	f/2.8L IS USM	f/2.8L IS II USM^[5]^[6]	f/4L USM	f/4L IS USM
Image
Image stabilizer	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Ring USM	Yes
L-series	Yes
Diffractive Optics	No
Ultra-low dispersion glass element	Yes
Macro	No
Short back focus	No
Maximum aperture	f/2.8			f/4
Minimum aperture	f/32
Weight	2.855 kg	2.550 kg	2.400 kg	1.165 kg	1.190 kg
Max. Diameter x Length	12.8 cm x 25.2 cm		12.8 cm x 24.8 cm	9.0 cm x 22.1 cm
Filter diameter	48 mm drop-in	52 mm drop-in		77 mm
Horizontal viewing angle	6° 50'
Vertical viewing angle	4° 35'
Diagonal viewing angle;	8° 15'
Groups/elements	8/10	13/17	12/16	7/8	11/15
# of diaphragm blades	8		9	8
Closest focusing distance	3 m	2.5 m	2 m	2.5 m	1.5 m
Release date	November 1987	July 1999	September 2010	December 1991	March 1997
MSRP $	$3,499	$4,879	$6,099	$1,199	$1,349

References

Canon EF/EF-S/EF-M lenses

EF-S zoom	EF-S 10–18mm EF-S 10–22mm EF-S 15–85mm EF-S 17–55mm EF-S 17–85mm EF-S 18–55mm EF-S 18–135mm EF-S 18–200mm EF-S 55–250mm

Ultra-wide zoom	EF 11-24mm EF 16–35mm EF 17–40mm

Standard zoom	EF 24–70mm EF 24–105mm EF 28–135mm EF 28–300mm

Telephoto zoom	EF 70–200mm EF 70–300mm EF 100–400mm EF 200–400mm

Wide-angle prime	EF 14mm EF 20mm EF 24mm EF-S 24mm EF 28mm EF 35mm

Standard prime	EF 40mm EF 50mm

Telephoto prime	EF 85mm EF 100mm EF 135mm EF 200mm

Super telephoto prime	EF 300mm EF 400mm EF 500mm EF 600mm EF 800mm

Distorting lenses	EF 8–15mm Fisheye EF 135mm with Softfocus

Tilt-shift	TS-E 17mm TS-E 24mm TS-E 45mm TS-E 90mm

Macro	EF 50mm Compact Macro EF-S 60mm Macro MP-E 65mm 1–5x Macro EF 100mm Macro EF 180mm Macro

EF-M zoom	EF-M 11–22mm EF-M 18–55mm EF-M 55-200mm

EF-M prime	EF-M 22mm

Lens accessories	Extender EF

Discontinued zoom	EF 17–35mm EF 20–35mm EF 22–55mm EF 24–85mm EF 28–70mm EF 28–80mm EF 28–90mm EF 28–105mm EF 28–200mm EF 35–80mm EF 35–105mm EF 35–350mm EF 55–200mm EF 70–210mm EF 75–300mm EF 80–200mm EF 90–300mm EF 100–200mm EF 100–300mm

Discontinued prime	EF 15mm Fisheye EF 1200mm