If you had a 300 f/2.8 in the Southeast for the weekend...

<p>If you had the opportunity to get a 300mm f/2.8 IS USM lens for the weekend, what would you shoot?</p>

<p>I have a 70-200 f/2.8 IS2 Canon lens and shoot a lot of local sports for a rec adult sports league, but I just got the opportunity to take the 300mm USM IS lens out for a weekend.</p>

<p>I live in Atlanta, and am not opposed to a little travel (within a 4 hour drive). So... if you were in this situation, what would you choose to shoot?</p>

<p>I suspect most people would suggest a sports event or wildlife (zoo?). Why not just take it to the places you normally would go shooting, and see if you capture anything "extra" with it? You could go somewhere special, I suppose, where you might get some interesting shots, but then you would get interesting shots with your current kit in that situation too, which might confuse you as to its utility for your photography.</p>

The southeast of where? England? ;)

 

Since 300/2.8 is such a popular sports lens, and you shoot sports already, I'd suggest just using it to shoot your local sports and, as Robin suggests, see if it offers you anything over the 70-200/2.8 you're already used to. If it doesn't, fine. If it does, start saving! No need for any 4-hour drives, just to try out a lens.

<p>If I had a 300/2.8 for a day ...</p>

<p>I'd use it to exploit the shallow depth of field and perspective compression for street scenes (people). 300 mm is on the short side for wildlife (animals) except in a park or near a bird feeder. Perhaps the most common professional use is for fashion or sports. A 300 is also good for closeups (using extension tubes), because it controls the background with its narrow field of view.</p>

<p>I have a 300/4, which is very nice but seldom used, largely because it does not have image stabilization. Instead, I use a 70-200/2.8 VR with a 1.4x tele-extender. That may change, because I can use it, hand-held, with my Sony A7ii, which has in-body image stabilization, as slow as 1/30 second and still get reasonable sharpness.</p>

Having been stationed at Dobbins AFB in Marietta, a suburb of Atlanta, I would shoot anything that got me back to Seattle

post haste.

<p>You can use it for landscape type photos (not same lens, but a Pentax M* 300 f/4):<br>

http://www.photo.net/photo/17832741<br>

http://www.photo.net/photo/17828556<br>

http://www.photo.net/photo/17828557<br>

http://www.photo.net/photo/17837779<br>

http://www.photo.net/photo/17830739</p>

<p>A friend has one (Nikon) that I borrow occasionally and am thinking of getting one myself. For me it's the ultimate street lens. If gives me some distance from my subjects (usually people riding bicycles) and has great DoF. </p>