Good find at Goodwill

There's a well-worn path that I follow to the local Goodwill store a few times each week. Most days I don't find anything useful or significant. Occasionally, I come across a real gem like that Rollei 35 that didn't work, but for two bucks, who cares? I bought the Olympus OM1 and the XA2 there as well.

But yesterday, I found this:

Yep, a Canon 75-300mm lens for $50. The price is in the upper left corner. I took it out of the box and looked it over carefully, finding nothing wrong. But I don't have a Canon DSLR. The only Canons I have are an ancient rangefinder and that A590IS. But a friend has a Canon DSLR, so I sent him a text message about the lens.

He was only a few blocks away and he was definitely interested. He stopped by the house to pick up a camera body, then drove to the Goodwill where we tested the lens. Minutes later, he walked out with it.

A Google search said the lens is a "mediocre" performer. Remember, though, that this comes from people who probably don't have to pay for the lenses they use and test. So what may be a mid-level unit to them can be perfectly usable for us mere plebeians. Sure, it's not an f2.8 zoom, but then again, it's compact and lightweight.

Goodwill offers a seven day return policy, so I recommended running it through its paces for the next couple of days.

And if I get the chance, I'll borrow the camera for a few days to tinker with it myself!