CANON 300mm /2.8 IS VERSIONS

[Bill McCrystyn]

I have a friend looking at a used 300/2.8. How many versions of this IS lens has there been. What would be the top price to pay for a clean one?

[LeeOtsubo]

You can get a lot of info about Canon lenses at the Canon Museum (http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/camera/lens/index.html). There have only been 2 versions of the 300/2.8. The earlier model w/o IS and the model released in 1999 w/ IS.

On FM, I see 300/2.8L IS going for around $3300-$3400. The highest I've seen was $3900 for a NIB unit so the only thing the buyer saved was shipping. The lowest I've seen is $3000. It was snapped up quickly.

[Robert O'Toole]

Actually I picked up a 300/2,8 years ago in Tokyo at yodobashi (when the yen was 135-145 or so) and learned some info that is not widely know.
All of the used Canon 300F2.8 non-IS had specific type I, II, or III designations and prices and the new Is version had more than one version also. The camera guy told me what the changes were but i forgot the specifics, some were AF related, I would assume the newer were better.

Dont think this helps the OP but thought the info might be of interest.

Oh yeah at the time the used 200F1.8s were going for less than $2000, I think about $1600 or so.

Robert

[cjmchch]

Another avenue you can use to determine the model is to find out the year of manufacture. The following site has all the details of how to date them. You may be surprised.

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Canon-Lenses/Canon-Lens-Aging.aspx