Equipment Compatability question

I have an offer of a EF 100-300mm f/5.6 AF D at £55 so a couple of questions.

Is it compatible with my EOS 1100D?
Is it worth £55?

EDIT: Think I have answered my first question.

Any Canon EOS camera with both a red dot and a white square on the lens mount can take both EF lenses and EF-S lenses

 

It will work just fine with your camera, like you say it's EF and EF-S compatable.

As for price, that's about right for second hand, £200 ish new.

Good round up of the lens here http://kenrockwell.com/canon/lenses/100-300mm.htm

 

Cheers mate, very useful.

 

Personally I'd not bother with a lens that zooms to 300mm that doesn't have some form of image stabilisation (which that one doesn't) as you'll have to hold it ridiculously still for it to be usable. Just my 2p

 

Not 2p's worth George I was unaware of that being a real noobig as far as DSLR and lenses are concerned. So I will give it a miss. Thanks.

 

It all depends on what you are shooting and in what light - 300 mm with no stabilisation is not an issue in good light, nor if you use a tripod.
Image stabilisation will gain you an f-stop, where as on 300 mm anything faster than 1/250 should be ok for handheld, 1/500 and faster will be sharp.

 

Have to agree with above poster, I definitely wouldn't rule it out due to no IS. Raise your ISO slightly to keep your shutter speed up if needs be and if you're using a tripod it isn't an issue anyhow. Not sure what second hands lenses in the range with IS sell for but guessing it's maybe a fair bit more than £55 though.

 

Regular or L version ?

 

I have no idea, as I mentioned I am a total noobie here. But I will ask the question.

 

I thought the Canons had image stabilisation buit into the body, not the lens? (just the other way round as Nikon)

 

That's Olympus micro4/3 cameras, Canon need expensive lenses for image stabilisation.

As long as you can keep shutter speed faster than 1/450s, I don't see any problem with that lens. I've been to many airshows using the £100 (when new) Tamron 70-300.

 

Pentax (and Sony IIRC) also have in body stabilisation.

 

The L version is Canon's premium range with improved optics and build quality, they also carry a premium price tag.
Externally most have a red ring around the outer edge.

With lenses, price and quality don't tend to rise in a linear scale, you will often find the L version to be some 3 to 4 times the cost.

 

At £55 it is unlikely to be the premium range methinks. Still considering whether to take it or not as nothing posted here really says that it would be a bad buy.

 

Or up the shutter speed.

There's a rule of thumb along the lines of "choose a shutter speed with a denominator that is larger than the focal length of the lens" so on a traditional non-IS 35mm camera a lens with a focal length of 300mm would require a shutter speed of at least 1/300s.

It is argued that with APS-C because the focal length is effectively multiplied due to sensor size difference then this has to be taken into account. So 300mm on 35mm is 450mm equivalent on my camera body so for shake free non-IS images I'm going to need 1/500s. At least.

 

You may also consider the EF 100-300mm f4.5-5.6 USM, in the same range of price.

 

At the same (ish) price of £55?

 

I just assumed it was the f4.5-5.6 USM, yeah this would be a slightly better option, and likely to be a bit newer too.
At 100 mm you could open up at f4.5, and the USM is quieter - not that is makes much difference