Great Lens, bicep curls required

I bought this lens for my Canon D30 digital camera. I wanted a zoom lens to take wildlife photos without having to sneak up on animals. This lens is terrific for that kind of work and several other applications.

One review mentioned that the non-rotating zoom was a "con" It's not if you use any kind of polarizing filter on your lens. If the lens were to rotate then the filter rotates with it and you don't get the benefit of the filter.

The lens is a monster to carry though. It's a heavy sucker. It does come with a tripod collar, but I can't use this most of the time with my subjects unless I want to lie around for hours waiting for the animals to come to me. The USM motor and the image stabilization make this a must have for anyone who doesn't want to have to use a tripod all the time when photographing.

With the IS you can set your shutter to a slower speed and still capture shots as tack sharp as you would with the faster speed. You can get away with much slower speeds though only if you have some stability when hand-holding your camera. If all your non-tripod shots are blurry, then I'd say test the lens out first before buying if you're doing it to get rid of your tripod most of the time.

I love this lens and use it all the time.