Still one of the best

This is still one of the fastest focusing Lenses available. It is still one of the sharpest optics available in the Canon line. Yes the newer 400, and 300, and 200 might be faster, and have hair of an advantage in image quality, but you better have a lot of time, and some very good measuring equipment to see it. I use it on a 1DX and it is the fastest lens I own, I also used it on the old 10D and this lens makes that cameras AF unbelievable. If your not using this lens to compete for jobs, it is definitely the better option than dumping 4 times what these can be bought for and you will never see the difference in the final product! I will work with a little more weight for the savings, and the newer IS on the IS II does little for you when these lenses are used on tripods or monopods most of the time! If you have a chance to pick up a clean copy of this lens don't hesitate, you won't believe the capability and the images it will produce!

I agree, yes I just wanted to put an updated review to to this lens, to assure those wondering why this lens is so cheap today, and is it really worth it, that there is no way they would be disappointed in performance. Like you said it sure would be nice to have the lighter and better IS, slightly better balance but they are not giving up performance using this older 300mm F2.8. On a good gimble head the balance is always perfect. So if the primary use is on a tripod, their is little advantage once set up and properly balanced.

I like you have used the newer version on loan in my case, and on my budget, I am very happy this old lens is available, but if this was a lens to support my family and used frequently to provide my income, I agree the newer lens is a worthy value.

One thing I failed to mention is the one gamble one takes buying this lens, is Canon no longer offers parts for repair on this lens. But the fact that it so tank like built, and with the highest quality components, most failures will most like be user inflicted. But they have proven to take a lot of abuse that most amateur's seldom introduce to their equipment,,,, just a heads up.

Thanks for posting this. Before it was stolen I used a pre-IS 300/2.8 for sports and found it was very sharp. Am now looking at getting a replacement but even used, the MkII is around £4k - whereas I can get a decent MkI for less than half that. I think that if a MkI is  an optical improvement over the old lens, I'd probably be happy with it.

Chris.

Got one at a pretty good price - almost the same as my pre-IS one did back in 2000 - and its superb. No problems hand holding it for the ice hockey and the sharpness is outstanding.

Chris.

I had a lend of one of these back in 2009. Blew me away on how ridiculously sharp it was. Also destroyed my back, as I hand held it!
I still lust for that lens to this day.