What happened to 70-300mm lenses? I’ve ecstatically shot countless rolls of 35mm film with them in the past, capturing wildlife while living in Africa for a couple of years, focusing on the thrills and spills of motorsport around the UK, and even taking long-shot portraits at weddings and events. But towards the end of the DSLR era, they became increasingly difficult to find. To name but a couple of manufacturers, Sigma and Tamron stopped making them altogether.
My personal latest and greatest of the genre was the Nikon AF-P 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E ED VR which is now obsolete. In the mirrorless age, there seems to have been a shift to 100-400mm zooms, or thereabouts, but I still hanker after a really good 70-300mm. Canon recently repurposed an old lens for EOS R-system mirrorless cameras, but I think the resulting Canon RF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 is hugely unimpressive, based on one of the worst Canon lenses of all time. I really wish they’d used the vastly superior Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II USM as a starting point.
