calbirder

When handholding a lens at 300mm my shots really benefit from the IS. This is my long lens for travel since I prefer to be less obvious than the white zooms make me. I tried the 70-200 f/4 and while it took nice pictures it was just too big to carry around for a day. The 70-300 DO IS fits neatly into my small camera bag and makes it possible to have a long lens along without carrying 20 pounds of gear. I don't use it for birds (that's what I use the 500mm for) but it works great for zooming in on details and people at a distance when I travel. The main complaint I have with it isn't flare, though there is a bit of that, but the slow focusing. I was shooting "frisbee dogs" at the State Fair and had a lot of trouble getting the focus to keep up with a fast moving pup. Guess that's what the 70-200 IS 2.8 is for, but I won't be carrying one of those monsters around any time soon!