CANON EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II USM

An ideal blend of lightweight build and solid full-frame performance, at a keen price

The Mark II edition of this lens could barely be any more different to its predecessor. As well as a redesigned and upgraded optical path featuring new specialized UD elements, the exterior has a more modern look and feel and the internals are overhauled. The old version of this lens contained a dated AF system that was audible and sluggish in operation. The front element also rotated during focusing, which impaired handling and made the use of filters like circular polarizers and ND grads a chore.

The new lens features a revolutionary Nano USM AF system, which is incredibly rapid for stills, while enabling smooth focus transitions as a stepping motor system for video capture, as well as being almost completely silent in operation. Focusing is now fully internal, so there’s no more rotation of the front element.

The manual focus ring is electronically coupled and there’s no focus distance scale. However, the lens features a digital info display, with alternative modes for focal length, focus distance and severity of camera shake. You can cycle through these by pressing the Mode button. The image stabilizer also gets a revamp, boasting four-stop effectiveness and excellent auto panning detection.

Performance

As advertised, AF performance is blazing fast and accurate. Overall performance and image quality are impressive, the only exception being that corner-sharpness is poor at the short end of the zoom range. It’s a great option for APS-C format and full-frame DSLRS, as well as for EOS R full-frame mirrorless cameras via a mount adapter.