Is this lens sharp as a hand held lens?
372350
Absolutely! There is nothing sharper at 300mm under $5000. I use this all the time to photograph my daughter's soccer games and get amazing results. It is very light weight and easy to hand hold for the entire game. I also have taken it bird watching in the local wetlands for 2 hour walks and have not had problems hand holding the entire time. I use a high shutter speed to ensure that my shots are sharp. Kids and birds move so fast that 1/2000 or faster is necessary.
372351
I can hand hold and get sharp pictures, but it took me a while to adjust to the weight.
372352
The lens is absolutely sharp. I think the question you mean is, "Can you use it as a handheld lens without getting a lot of camera shake?" The answer to that depends of whether you have image stabilization turned on and what shutter speed you're using. For sports, IS is kind of useless. It chews up battery life and you need shutter speeds of at least 1/1000 to freeze the action, anyway. At that point, IS isn't a lot of help, but unless you're just swinging the camera around wildly, camera shake isn't much of an issue, either.
372353
I use this lens mostly handheld and it's the sharpest telephoto lens I've used in my life and I've used many. I don't even use IS during day time and at wide open its sharp. I also have canon 70-200 f2.8 non IS and that lens is sharp too. But I prefer 300mm on full frame rather than 70-200 on cropped frame to get even sharper pictures. Also this lens is much lighter than the zoom lens although it's slightly longer.
372354
I use it handheld almost all the time. It has IS, good for about 2 stops. If the light is really low, you still need to bump up the ISO, or use a support.
372355
This lens is very sharp hand held. I use it shooting my grandchildren playing sports a lot. U have to remember to shoot @ a high enough speed to stop the action. I usually have the camera set @ f4 and 1/640th of a second or higher. I shoot sports using available light. Hope this helps.
1250348
It is, better than the kit lens for sure. I also bought 35mm prime lens so I use that for portraits now.
720812
This lens is very hand holdable... Many people are using it for birds and birds in flight. You need to increase the shutter speed to compensate... its a game of give and take as increasing shutter can raise ISO a lot depending on conditions.
1287308
Mine works perfectly and I have no issues with sharpness. It's a very good walk-around lens when I don't want to carry a lot of gear.
1983279
Yes. It's a very sharp lens. Better range than the 16-50mm kit lens though certainly heftier.
49031
I haven't run into the sharpness issue using the lens first on a Panasonic GX1 and now on an Olympus EM-5. I try to keep the maximum focal length at less than 40mm. I prefer other Panny lenses if I am traveling heavy, but using that lens with either of the two bodies gives me a fine and very compact outfit.
194935
Not absolutely sure, but on this lens there are two VR setting, besides "off"! One called "normal" which is for normal hand held use... the other is called "active" which is supposed to work well for taking shots from a moving vehicle. Initially I thought it was for sports photography... duh!
396428
Yes, it is a manual lens but its not hard to use at all. You have to manually set the focus (easy enough) but you can still use the cameras internal meter to control exposure. Also, read your cameras owners manual. There are some neat tools available to make using this lens a little easier.
520677
It is manual focus. You can beat the price. The quality is good and it is a super-big zoom lens.
1696783
I like to use this as a standard lens on both my APS-C cameras. Its great for walk around use because you never worry about closeness to the subject. It is very sharp and focuses very quickly and quietly.
318650
Yes it is. I use it in manual setting with my 70-300mm lens. It does not work well with auto focus when the lens is opened fully to 300mm.
163537
Yes. Focus is pretty good but I would recommend stabilizing it on a tripod & with manual focus for the sharpest possible images.
2080930
No,the lens is solid from the time I got it. I had for a few years now and love it.
593944
No- This is a lens by itself. I do not recommend it ! You may get some good pictures if you use a tripod- if not forget about it !
1690525
No. This lens is a fixed focal length and you can only adjust the aperture and focus.
990600
yes I would say it is, the stiff focus is the one downside. I have to use one hand to hold and the other to focus.
2236257
Unfortunately it is not. If you are planning to buy it, I would recommend you to buy the DA-L 18-135mm WR, instead. It has much BETTER resolution, sharpness and quality.