Okay, I know I'm over-selling the crap out of this lens, and the 35-350L. And I know most readers have little or no interest in a super-zoom. Sorry to be beating this to death, but I'm still loving it, and the more I use it, the more I'm loving it. It's really helping to move me away from overly certain esoteric-type brands of lenses and back into what I find most useful for what I photograph. (Wow -- big apology! I guess I am in love! )
We had a nice brisk day with broken clouds, so I took the occasion to do a neighborhood tour, providing a limited landscape photography opportunity. I've gotten away from shooting outdoor scenes with a polarizing filter, so pulled out my 77mm B+W CPL and set the camera to ISO 100 and the rest is history.
While recently reading the Canon manual and Magic Lantern book on the 1D2/1Ds2 for on-camera flash, I got interested in trying "P" Program mode, which I haven't used in many, many years -- maybe early '90s. I'd shot mostly Manual mode until a couple years ago when I began trusting "Av" Aperture priority in Canon and Nikon. So this was a major eye-opener for me to shoot flash in P with the camera choosing the mix of ambient light and acceptable shutter speed -- it worked well! which surprise me quite a bit!
The last few outings with the 28-300L, I've been testing the P setting, and what I've found is some really good programming in the 1D-series bodies. I'd never have tried this with the old D60 or 20D -- or even the 5D (maybe I would try it now). But the 1Ds2 has been very predictable and along the lines of what I would have chosen for settings.
Many of these images are close to wide-open for the lens (f/5.6, 6.3, 7.1), just slightly closed down. Even 1/3 EV seems to be rewarding improvement, but even wide open the lens performs really well throughout its focal range. I hope this dispells any false idea that the lens is only good from f/8 to smaller apertures -- it's really pretty versatile and at lower ISO in good light, or powerful flash.
Oh! And it's basically spring here in Southern California, so enjoy, my European friends!
1Ds2, Program mode, RAW, ISO 100, B+W CPL, hand held, LR3 for all shots.
^^I enjoy my 28-300L as well on my 7D. I always wonder how many people who are critical of the lens have done more than simply write/read about it on forums. There are plenty of good examples out there of what the lens can do. I had a 24-105L, and after finding a bargain priced 28-300L on KEH, I picked it up and sold the 24-105. Between them, within the range they share (28-105, obviously) I found them to be very comparable, with any shortcomings easily corrected with nothing more than Adobe Photoshop.
If you can find one for a good price and get over the weight of the thing, I see no reason why this lens shouldn't get more credit than it does.
I shoot with this lens almost exclusively on my 1DsMIII and find it a great utility lens. There is some distortion on the wide end, however for the most part it clears up pretty much in LR. I have also used it with a 1.4 canon teleconverter which works well with it as long as your careful not to compress the lens in to it ( usually around 50mm). Just came back from a Carribean Cruise and used it for all of the photos except for a few. They can be seen at this link on my website. If i had baught it prior to buying several of my other lenses, I probably wouldn't have purchased them. However for indoor parties where i don't need 300mm, i still defer to either my 24-70 or my 24-105 to save weight. Link below: http://j-dcreativephotography.smugmug.com/CelebritySilhouetteSoCarib
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