Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Well, all I have to say is that I got what I paid for. I spent a long time researching this lens and read a lot of negative reviews about it, but decided what the hell and got it. There are a few things to keep in mind with this lens: There are NO other lenses produced for this focal range (650-2600 [with teleconverter]), so it's absolutely incredible at pulling in objects from a long distance. However, there IS a reason why manufacturers /don/'t make such lenses - it becomes VERY difficult to reduce aberrations at such specifications. At 650mm f/8, the lens is...decent. It's a fair distance to zoom, and f/8 isn't that dark. The bokeh looks pretty nice. However, at longer focal lengths (1300mm, 2600mm), there is some serious chromatic aberration. Colour fringing is to be expected, and image sharpness/quality is seriously degraded beyond 1300mm. Also, at that point, you're shooting at apertures of f/16 and above, the smallest being f/32. Which brings me to another point. It's VERY hard to hold this lens. I was barely able to handhold it fully retracted, although it did alright when put on a tripod. One thing to note is that it still is wobbly even on a decent tripod, so it might actually be a good idea to get your hands on a remote shutter. Also, at f/8 and above, it becomes increasingly difficult to shoot at fast enough shutter speeds. The rule is supposed to be "Shoot at a shutter speed reciprocal to your focal length" (i.e., 800mm - 1/800th of a second). But, the fastest I could get for 1300mm on a sunny day was around 1/500. It's not bad, but can make a difference in sharpness. Also, it's basically impossible to work with at all (tripod or not) when you decide to extend the "zoom tube". It's quite bendable and is extremely awkward to handhold or support on a tripod. The weight distribution is just ridiculous. Also, everything is manual with this lens. Not like that would be a big deal, but it's pretty hard to even manually focus. At its extended state? Forget about it. The only real good things about this lens are its quite pleasant bokeh, its unbelievable zooming distance, and its pricepoint. Its build is pretty sturdy, but is obviously made to look like a professional Canon L lens. Here are the basic pros and cons, in summary: Cons: - Extremely cumbersome to handle, tripod or not. - Zoom tube makes handling and composing pictures more a thing of chance than anything. - Manually focusing is very sensitive and gets even more sensitive once you decide to zoom in. - It's not sharp at all. The pictures at 100% crop are an eyesore; only 800x600 crops look decent. - Its aperture ranges from f/8 to f/32 (with teleconverter). You will get very slow shutter speeds (relative to the focal length) even on bright days. - Chromatic aberration (colour fringing) is somewhat severe. It's quite noticeable and can distract from the subject. Pros: - It has an excellent zoom and range - farther than any other consumer lens ever manufactured. - Its bokeh is rather pleasant and, when used properly, can create some truly beautiful pictures. - When images are resized (down to about 800x600 or so), aberrations are less noticeable and look much more pleasing than fullsize photos. You can basically still get some use out of it. - Saturation and contrast actually aren't that bad; if you want, you can change such settings in image editors. - Videos don't look bad at all when taken through this lens. - Finally, it's only $270. There are no lenses that have focal lengths as long as this, and those that come close are priced in the thousands. With all that said, I'll leave you with this final note: If you're just an amateur or hobbyist who isn't really looking into selling pictures taken with this lens, go for it. Having such a focal length at your disposal will give you a lot of ideas for photos and enable you to capture things from a different perspective. However...this lens is definitely NOT up to par with Canon L lenses, although their focal lengths (at most around 500mm) are not truly comparable. But they don't have any aberrations - this lens has overwhelming colour fringing which is really distracting. If you're a professional looking for a professional look, this lens isn't going to cut it for you. If you're just looking to explore what the world of photography can offer, go for it. It's not that expensive and this lens might come in handy some day. So have some fun, and explore. But this lens won't get anything more than 2 stars from me.