This year I added a Canon EF 300mm f/4 lens to my photography arsenal. I spotted it as a reconditioned lens for a bargain price.
I’ve been disappointed with my budget Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II USM Lens. I’ve gotten some good shots with it but only under the right conditions like strong sunlight and shooting on a tripod.
When the 300mm bargain appeared I grabbed it and sold off my 70-300. A prime lens is going to be a lot sharper than a zoom and the fixed f/4 brings in a lot more light than the f/4-5.6 (which means the aperture can change as you zoom).
The Canon EF 300mm f/4 lens is built like a tank and its very heavy as I found carting it around San Diego a few months ago. But what you get with a 300mm is not just more reach but incredible background blur which really helps separate your subject from the background.
Here are some shots from San Diego for example. With 300mm I could take this shot of the painter from a distance and get some fantastic blur in the background (also known as bokeh).
For wildlife, using a long telephoto lens is a no brainer. You can’t get closer. Sometimes because of skittish animals, sometimes to stay out of danger and other times by law, so a long lens is needed.
Main Reasons to use a long telephoto lens
- Bring subjects closer
- Compress the scene
- Blur the background
Challenges with using a long telephoto lens
- These lenses can get heavy.
- The plane of focus is very shallow
- Stabilization – tough to hold the lens still without a monopod or tripod unless you use very fast shutter speeds.
- You might have to move far away from your subject.
My recent experiments with the 300 mm telephoto lens
Looking over my Nevada ghost town photographs from last summer I thinking it would have been nice to have blurred out the backgrounds on some of them. They were taken with a 35mm, a 24mm Tilt-Shift and a 24-70mm.
So I took my 300mm to a local spot with an old diner, a few old cars and farm equipment.
Blurring the background – The 300mm did a great job on this old tractor, nailing sharp focus on the front while blurring the background nicely. The tractor really stands out from the busy background.
Getting in close – I was able to capture this neat neon “Time To Eat” clock on the old diner from the parking lot with the 300mm.
Finding Details – I found the 300mm applied to a subject like a rusty old car to be a good way to compose shots of details. I’ve shot this old rusty farm truck before with lenses in the normal to wide range and usually end up with the full truck in the scene. The 300mm was good at getting in close and finding interesting details.