Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM

Hood and "leather hosen" lens cap are off shaped and not very practical in use

After shooting with a range of Canon L zoom lenses, the time came for me to invest in "primes". The 300 f/2.8L IS USM offers rock solid canon build and incredible glass quality. This is by far one of the sharpest Canon lenses ever bilt, even used wide open at f/2.8.
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/37273/0#309307

Mounting collar could move smoother

Of all the lenses I own, the 300mm f/2.8 is likely my favorite. It's very fast, sharp, and light enough to hand hold (though I would not want to do so for an extended period of time). It works very well with the 1.4x converter (420mm f/4) and works ok with the 2x converter (600mm f/5.6) so long as the subject is very large in the frame.

This lens is very sharp through the aperture range, though I do notice a slight drop in contrast wide open. The amazing thing is that the loss of contrast clears up with 1/3 of a stop! At f/3.2, it has nearly the same sharpness as at f/8. When using teleconverters, I would recommend stopping down 2/3 to 1 full stop for maximum sharpness.

This is a great lens for both outdoor and indoor sports. I use it to shoot basketball and tennis without any teleconverters, and I add the 1.4x or the 2x for baseball.

With regard to the size --- it's a big lens, but it's not huge by any means. When the hood is removed or reversed, it will fit in just about any reasonable camera bag.

I highly recommend this lens --- if you are shooting sports, this is a must-have lens.
lens.

The sharpest lens in Canons lineup?(or the 200 1.8 perhaps?). Very very sharp. With a digital camera that has a 1.4x FOV and combined with the use of the 1.4x and 2x extenders this lens is all you will really need for wildlife work(accept for birders perhaps).

The contrast and color rendition is superb and wide open this lens produces very smooth and finely textured backrgound blur(bokeh I guess its called).It is expensive but worth every penny.

DOF difficult to manage

Beautiful color and exceptional detail. You can use the 1.4 TC with it and the detail loss is minimal. Incredible background blur can be achieved with this lens. All in all a superior lens. A monopod is advised as it is heavy.
I rate this lens at 4.7 on a 5 scale
LM