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4x Zoom Lens variably extends from 100mm to 400mm focal length / For use with Canon 35mm SLR Cameras / EF-Mount / USA more info
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Canon EF 100400mm f4.55.6L IS USM Telephoto Zoom
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Great tele zoom
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I am an enthusiast shooting on Canon 40D and 5D.
Pro:
1. Surprisingly hand-heldable, considering the weight. IS helps a GREAT DEAL.
2. Zoom is extremely smooth, way better than the twist and zoom on my Sigma 170-500. And it doesn’t creek! (amazing engineering. In comparison, my old Tamron 18-250 and Sigma 170-500 immediately extend to the full length with a loud thunk when pointing downwards, while my new 18-270 is so tight it’s hard to zoom in and out). This is my first push-pull zoom and there is no learning curve at all. I love it!
3. No issue with so called dust pump problem – actually the Sigma and the much smaller Tamron 18-250 suck in more air than this one – you can easily tell by put you hand at the back of the lens and zoom back the lens and feel the air flow for yourself.
4. The lens balances extremely well on 40D and 5D without grip. The Sigma feels significally top heavy in comparison.
5. The color and contrast is L lens at its best, thanks to its quality glasses.
6. The length is quite managable actually, but a very thick lens nevertheless. The Sigma 170-500 is quite slim in comparison.
7. The AF is very responsible and assuring, even in modest indoor light (blinders partially closed). There is no comparison between the Canon L ring type USM and the regular Sigma AF.
8. IS works SEAMLESSLY. No noise, no ify in-between states. It works its magic without my awareness. Tamron and cheaper Canon like 70-300 announce their IS effects in distinctive and sometimes unnerving noises.
9. Background blur is milky smooth if you give enough distance between your subject and the background. My 70-200/F4L has a much more nervous blur in comparison.
10. Very LOW CA (color fringe, purple ring etc) at the long end. This is another nice surprise to me since I’ve heard many saying otherwise about this lens.
11. Everything about this lens is top quality, hood, collar, fit and finish.
Neutral:
1. Not the sharpest lens when pixel peeks, especially wide open. But the wide open shots are way more than ‘acceptable’ to me as an enthusiast. Here I am talking about hand held shots. I am sure the sharpness will improve on a tripod.
2. This is a very fat lens, white, not light weight, not fast, not cheap, no surprise. Putting this in perspective, this is a rather “cheap” and light weight tele comparing to the other fast tele primes/zooms. I tried out the Bigma in a Tokyo store several years ago and I didn’t like the feel of it, the zoom, balance, IQ – didn’t use it on tripod at the time.
Con:
None so far.
Bottom line:
A very hand-heldable tele zoom with great overall IQ. This is perhaps in the same vein as the Canon 70-200/F4L, 24-105L and 17-40L, relatively affordable with all the L lens advantages with great convenience and assured consistent IQ (AF speed and accuracy, weight balance in hand, mechanical quality all contributes to the end results of course) But they are certainly not the fastest or the sharpest lens on the market. But add convenience to the equation, these are certainly at the top of the game.
Worth the cash!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This lens is the best lens I’ve ever put on my camera, hands down. There are, however, some considerations for anyone interested in purchasing this lens. Firstly, it is very heavy. There are 17 lens elements inside the casing, which really makes it much heavier than any other lens I’ve held. Secondly, personally, I love the push pull zoom, but it does take some getting used to, and some people may not like it as much. With the push-pull zoom, however, zooming is faster than with a ring zoom. Thirdly, the IS on this lens does not work on a very stable tripod. Of course, it’s not necessary to use the IS on a stable tripod, but the IS is an older generation IS that gets a little haywire when tripod mounted.
Even with all these considerations, the image quality of this lens is outstanding. Even at 400mm and wide open, the lens is quite sharp. In the 100-300mm range, the lens is absolutely razor sharp with amazing color contrast. Granted that this lens is not as fast or sharp as the Canon prime super telephoto lenses, it is still very sharp and quite fast and offers a lot of versatility being a zoom lens. Furthermore, the IS has two modes. Mode 1 is for both vertical and horizontal camera shake/movement. Mode 2 is for panning shots and locks vertically, but not horizontally. Having two modes of IS is very convenient for wildlife and bird photography, and I can see how it would also be useful for outdoor sporting photography. The IS works very well (to about 2 stops) and gets you off the tripod making this lens wonderful for carrying about.
I cannot say enough about the image quality with this lens. It is absolutely fantastic. As others have noted, and I also have observed, in the 100-300mm range, this lens is a 5-star performer even wide open. In the 300-400mm range, the sharpness does decline, but the lens is no slouch by any means in this range. Stopping the lens down a bit to at least f/7.1 in the 300-400mm range fixes this problem. The color contrast and bokeh on this lens is just stunning no matter what the focal length or aperture setting.
Autofocusing is very fast for a lens in this focal range and the USM motor is extremely quiet, a necessity for wildlife photographers. The included tripod ring and very sturdy carry/storage bag are both big nice bonuses to be included with the lens. As some others have said, this lens should be tested out in person first to make sure that you, the buyer, will be happy with the weight and unconventional zoom mechanism.
Overall, the lens is well worth the price. As with all Canon L lenses, the build quality is excellent and durable. I have no worries about taking this lens out with me on a hike, bike ride, or even off the beaten path. This is a lens that will be with me for a very long time to come.
Wonderful
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I recently used this lens (handheld) to shoot a high school golf match. The shots were incredible! This lens is fantastic. The shots turned out great, superb colors, great clarity, great sharpness. It did get a bit tiring after lugging it around nine holes without using a tripod. The IS worked great and the length was amazing. I would recommend this lens to any photographer wanting a great zoom. Once I get the money I will spend it on this bad boy (as the one I used was loaned to me by my uncle). Chapeau Canon!
Excellent outdoor sports lens and wild life lens
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have been using this lens for about two years now. The first thing you must realize about this lens is it is not made for low light conditions without a heavy duty tripod. As many people have stated it is pretty heavy lens. Shooting wide open can leave pictures soft (be careful and bracket).HDR will help with most captures that are soft and/or CS4 unsharp mask command ,but this is not a guarantee. What I do love about this lens is the 400 zoom, up close and personal to wild life and sports action. Another fact a person must remember, is the Cannon 400 prime lens sells for over five thousand more than this lens.This is the professional lens you see at big time games. That puts most of us at a financial level we can’t comprehend. Once you really get to know this lens and it’s expectations,, I am sure you will be happy with this lens,,, I am!!
New Lense
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Outstanding product very well constructed and easy to use, can’t wait to use it this summer.
Awesome Lens
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I’m extremely happy with this lens. It’s all that I hoped for, and love the image stabilization. What a difference from lenses without it.I would definitely recommend this lens.
Long Range Shots
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I’ve used the 100-400 with great success. The reason I purchased this lens was to try the really long shots with a 2x extender on a tripod with my 40D & 5D Mark II. I’ve been very pleased with the results with very long range as well as without having used the extender.
Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Very good sharpness, bokeh, and superfast autofocus. I am very pleased with my purchase of this product.
Expensive, but great photos
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Having gone through the Canon 75-300mm and 70-300 IS lenses, I decided to finally bite the bullet and pick up the 100-400mm to replace the others. I have not been disappointed in the quality of the lens and resulting photos. The push-pull takes a little getting used to, and I still don’t particularly like the way the locking ring works, but those are minor annoyances to achieve the results this lens has delivered.
CJB-AZ
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon SLR CamerasI am a photo enthusiast and I have really been enjoying this new lens. I’ve been taking a lot of photos of birds in and around where I live and so for it has lived up to all my expectations.
And I don’t mind the manual focus at all, I’m used to the manual lenses, as that is what I had on my old Canon AE1 camera. I get good sharp pictures, even when I use the 1.4 extender and tripod of course.
I would recommend this lens to friends, and anyone who would ask about it.
Excellent lens, extremely useful even with a glitch or two
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I just purchased this lense at B&H about 3 weeks ago for $1,500.00 and as of toay Amazon has it for $1459.00 which is the cheapest price around. I’ve seen the same lens at other websites for as much as $1,650.00. Well I just returned today from being at Indianapolis for the 2009 MotoGP event. I purchased this lense to specifically get close up shots of the riders and their machines. I own a Canon EOS Rebel T1i and wanted to take advantage of the 15.1 megapixels and get close up shots in order to enlarge the prints.
This lense was fantastic. The quality is amazing, exactly what an ‘L’ series lense should be. To focus you either push the lense out or pull it back in, this lense does not use the circular motion used to focus other lenses but it posed no problem. As a matter of fact I rather enjoyed the ability to focus this was as I could pull in or push out extremely quickly when needed (a must at sporting events).
The lense is a bit on the heavy side but only when used for very long periods of time. I used it for 5 hours straight and was a bit sore afterwards. The lense hood that comes with it worked very effectively, I had no problems with it coming loose or falling off so no need to purchase any other type. I did purchase Hoya filters (ultra violet, a polarizer, and a circular combination UV/Polairzer filter) and they not only protect the lens but even helped improve shot quality.
The quality of pictures were amazing and the lense is EXTREMELY fast. The autofocus is lightning quick and this was terrific as MotoGP is one of the fastest if not fastes motor sport events around.
It did have a glitch twice throughout the entire weekend. When focused at the full 400mm range, twice it failed to focus regardless of hitting the autofocus button. In order to fix this, all I did was pull the lense back in to 100mm and click the autofocus button and presto I could resume taking photos at all ranges.
I would say overall this is an excellent buy. Mostly because the range and price point are key. You can’t find another quality lense at this price with a range of 100-400mm. Once you go higher than 500mm you can expect to be in the couple or few thousand club. Lens is made of sturdy construction and very well finished. I do not regret the purchase at all and would highly recommend it.
Gixxer55
The Canon EF 100-400 is a great lens.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This lens a great clarity. I have had it for two weeks and have taken some great wildlife pictures. Everyone mentions the weight of this lense. It is large and weighs a little more,but it has not affected hand held pictures that I have taken. I was able to hand hold a 10 picture panorama with not major issues. The stablizer works well also.
This is definitely going with me wherever I go.
This lens delivers…
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I read 100’s of reviews on the Canon EF 100-400mm IS USM zoom lens before taking the plunge. Most reviews were glowing, and from reviewers who advised “just do it”. But there were also some from people who had a “less than expected” experience. I really needed the variable reach and at least 400mm of it at times, and also really needed fast and accurate AF for sports, so this seemed like the one to try. I’ve now logged over 3000 shots, and only wound up with about 20 that weren’t properly focused (most of these were my fault since I was using ONE SHOT focusing mode on my camera).
I now have to say – absolutely amazing results.
When I got the lens, I played around with the Canon 50D lens micro focusing adjustment for an entire evening in low light, and with the LCD moire test pattern approach, and couldn’t find a better setting than the default “+/- 0″ for BOTH 100mm & 400mm zoom points. Then, on the soccer field, this lens blew me away with its clarity. And while I know that several people have complained about its bokeh, I couldn’t disagree more – what I got was beautiful. Background spectators, coaches, tree’s, and sky were all very nicely blurred – no artifacts and nothing strange at all, and this made each image subject stand out brilliantly.
I shot sunshine one day, and pouring rain the next. Both gave me excellent results. I shot ISO400, F8 (bright day) and ISO500, F7.1 (overcast) on a monopod with the focus range limited on the lens to 6.5m and IS mode 2 (allows for panning). Based on all of the reviews, and my own experimenting between F5.6 and F8 indoors, I opted to shoot at F8 or F7.1 to extend the DOF a bit, and get the crispest images possible.
I used ONE SHOT AF with center focus set on the camera. The results were fast, accurate, and as I said – left me with amazing images that were tack sharp. The Canon 50D also does a great job outdoors with ISO400 & 500, so no real sacrifice there to shoot stopped down a bit.
Push-pull zoom? I wondered about this too from all the negative press in some of the reviews. I found the push-pull action (with adjustable friction) to be PERFECT for shooting on a pod. One other advantage point not made by others, that I discovered in the pouring rain – when you’re outfitted with a rain bonnet over the lens and camera, it’s trivial to push-pull the zoom in and out with your wet “free” hand with the camera and lens completely protected. This would NEVER have worked with a rotating zoom ring on the lens, as I was constantly going from 100mm to 400mm and all points in between as the action moved around quickly on the field.
I would like to try the 1.4 extender with this lens and birds/wildlife, but think it would be a waste of time for sports, with baseball being the possible exception, since you lose AF capability with this lens. That would never have worked for me shooting soccer. As an experiment, I was also able to shoot about half a soccer game hand held, without the monopod, using IS mode 1 in bright sun, and got VERY good results as well, but did notice the camera/lens weight after a while. Fatigued arms tend to shake more, and controlled breathing won’t help this, so I’d recommend a monopod or tripod for extended shooting. The lens mount for this leaves a very nicely balanced set-up that isn’t always trying to fall forwards or backwards on your mount.
In closing, I have to second everyone else who’s written “just do it, you won’t be sorry” on this lens. And if you are sorry, you’ve probably gotten a bad copy and I’d recommend returning it or sending it in to Canon for a tune-up. This lens CAN really deliver – I now have lots of proof. One other thing – I have been watching the rumor mill for Canon to release its F4 update version of this lens. Like others, I figured as soon as I bought the F4.5-5.6, they’d announce the new one a day later. Couple of points on that – (1) you might still be sitting, waiting, this time next year, and have missed some great shots, (2) if Canon rolls out a fixed F4, you KNOW it’s going to cost a lot more, and (3) I believe Canon has steadily and quietly been making improvements to their 100mm-400mm all along; you can see a lot more “recent buyers” really, really happy with the copy they got, and older versions (especially those bought used) as the ones people complain most about. Now I can’t wait for the rain to stop so I can go hunting some birds…Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras
Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L is a Phenomenal Lens!!!!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This was my first Canon “L” glass that I purchased and I’m extremely delighted with it’s versatility and sharpness. So far, it’s just as sharp as my Canon 16-35 f/2.8L and my images are crisp and full of contrast/color. Although it’s not as fast as some of the other “L” lenses (300 f/2.8L or 70-200 f/2.8L), this lens does very well. We visited Baltimore on back-to-back weekends (Zoo & Aquarium Dolphin show)and every photo (handheld) was sharp, sharp, sharp!!! Indoors, I cranked up the ISO to around 800 and there are a few photos where I could actually see the water beads on the dolphins skin!!! Outside, it’s great around ISO of 100-200. I would definitely recommend this lens to anyone & mine stays in my bag 100% of the time!!!!
Fast Becoming My Favorite Lens
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have several Canon “L” lenses, but this one beats them all in sharpness. I’ve taken this lens to the zoo (could be the perfect zoo lens) and even 70-100 ft. away images are tack sharp and bokeh is beautiful. It’s true that is not a fast lens with its max aperture of 4.5-5.6 but in sunny conditions you can safely hand-hold and still get great sharpness thanks to the really good IS. In close-ups of the animals even at quite some distance, you can clearly see every strand of hair.
It was between this lens and the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras since I had budgeted a set amount. I sacrificed in speed and gained in range. The 400mm range is great, especially on a full-frame camera like my 5D.
The push-pull zoom design was new to me, but now I actually like it better than zoom rings. It’s a lot faster & operates very smoothly, I wish all my zooms were like this. I have not experienced the dust issues some people say you get with push-pull design. It is a touch softer at 400mm than it is at 380mm as another reviewer pointed out, so I just zoom all the way and pull back a notch for perfect sharpness.
This lens is money well spent and if it had a faster aperture, I’d keep it on the camera all the time.