100-400L Learning Curve?

On the one I got you definitely hear the IS motor working whereas on my 17-85 it is almost impossible to hear. Is this loud IS normal for the 100-400?

Mine is very silent & virtually impossible to hear outdoors unless everything is dead still.
Its the image stablized in viewfinder which tells me IS kicked up.

On the other hand, the sample which I tested in store was very loud !

From my experience with this lens, the learning curve is to do with the amount of light you need to get sharp photos with the very limited DOF of 300-400mm. If you can't stop the lens down sufficiently, subjects can be OOF depending on where the focus point is - and with larger apertures you do not have a lot of error margin. IS helps with shake, but can't compensate for lack of light and shallow DOF IMO.

The lens handles different than the other Canon zoom lenses. If you use any of the twist zoom lenses a lot, the push pull will be a different feel. Getting the tension ring adjusted so it's comfortable for you to push pull during use will take a bit of play... I found that at the right tension for me, it's lose enough that it will fully extend on it's own when it is hanging down on my camera neck strap. I'd rather it stayed closed or where I had it, but then I would have to tighten the tension ring.

I keep the IS off most of the time unless I'm shooting in conditions where I need it. If you are using a monopod, you can keep it on. If you put it on a tripod it will turn itself off. To tell if the IS is on, the lens will jerk a tiny bit when you press the shutter button to focus. This jerking will throw some people off at first. The lens does use a bit more battery but not a whole lot.

The one thing that I don't like is where the focusing ring is. It's up front where I rest it on the palm of my left hand. If I cup it with the edge of my hand, I'm ok, but if I rest it in my palm the heal of my hand rests on the focus ring and can change focus if I'm swinging around while shooting. This has caused a number of less than tack sharp images for me. I try to remember to rest the tripod collar in the palm of my hand, but when I'm shooting a lot the tripod point isn't as balanced as holding it further out.

It's an excellent lens and I like the quality of the pictures it takes.

Mike

Now that I have put a few hours and a couple hundred shots through this lens I am getting the hang of it quite well. The push-pull zoom is just fine. I can adjust the tension now after a bit of practice with on hand.

The IS works great, there is a slight clunk sound when it stops and starts, while running it is very quiet. Raj, does yours (or anyone elses) act like this.

Mike, I can see you would have to be aware of not messing with the focus ring if you were to rest the lens on you palm. I do find I do this to, especially ofter holding it for a bit. I think if you hit the focus button just before you shoot all should be fine.

I guess to answer the OP's original question I would say that the learning curve to using this lens is very easy. Sure I will have to play with different shutter speeds, combined with the different IS settings, to see what limits I can get away with and still keep a sharp focus. I will have to try out the monopod and tripod with it now.

Here is one shot I took, the 5th one with this lens. It was a gloomy day. I shot it at 400mm, f6.3, 1/125s, ISO 200

yup, it does so. However this clunk is just a vibration I feel in my palm when the IS kicks in. I cant hear it at all unless I deliberately bring my eye close to lens & half-press.
Thats what made me initially fear my IS wont be working, but thats not the case. Its just quite.

I havent used this lens more than twice since I brought.

here is a bird shot

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Thanks for all the input. I hope to buy my first d-slr later this year and the 100-400L is one of the lenses I had on my wish list. I had read in several different threads about a learning curve with this lens and I thought maybe there was something unsual about the lens that made it difficult to use. It appears the so called learning curve is really nothing out of the ordinary.

Agree.... I over estimated how much IS would help. Once I started increasing my shutter speed I started getting much clearer pics.

I still wish I hadn't sold my 400 f5.6, but this Yellowstone trip has given me more of an appreciation of this lens. There is rarely time to set up a tripod taking wildlife shots out here---you see a bear/moose/eagle/whate​ver, jump out of the car with camera in hand and take a couple dozen shots before the animal leaves. If you have time for a tripod, it's either an animal that there are way too many of to be interesting (elk or bison) or the animal is too far away to take a good shot.
The 100-400 has proven to be a great lens for hand-holding in these situations, or when combined with a monopod.

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