Canon 70-210mm f/4

A few years old but working well. Little used now hence for sale

A lens very rare to find now. In good condition apart from it has some fugus inside its first front element, and some dust inside---nothing surprising for a lens this old.

Pick up from Browns Bay, North Shore or Nation wide postage at $12 ($7 for a rural address)

I won't do any lower offer after auction finished

This is Canon's first autofocus tele zoom, introduced May 1987. Mine is from December 1988. This EF 70-210mm f/4 was replaced by the also discontinued 70-210mm f/3.5-4.5 USM in June 1990.

Lenses exported from Japan of this vintage have gold JCII inspection stickers to the right of the focus window. These stickers usually have fallen off, but if you see one it's a sign of a well cared for lens.

Today they sell for about $150 used.

I found this Canon EF 70-210mm f/4 in the local classifieds for $100, so I picked it up for fun. At almost 20 years old it still works great.

Good News:

1.) Good Optics: Very sharp and few, if any, color fringes.

2.) Easy to zoom, slides in and out as if it's on ball bearings.

3.) Close focusing: 3.9 feet / 1.2m.

4.) Lightweight.

5.) Solid build quality.

6.) Constant f/4, a stop faster than any current inexpensive tele zoom at the long end.

Bad News:

1.) No Image Stabilization, critical for hand-held use.

2.) Manual focus requires a moving switch.

3.) Easy zooming means it's prone to the zoom sliding when pointed straight down.