Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM

Great shot! I always find it interesting to see what the birds get in their beeks.

Candor wrote in post #16007135
Bringing this thread back from the dead with a recent shot.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.mikeswildli​fe.com …808166&k=8SBjc8​T&lb=1&s=A

Nice looking Common Snapping Turtle. Wise indeed to use a 500mm lens on this denizen of the deep. They can move surprisingly quickly.

Time to wake this thread back up...

Here are a few model jets.
I'm actually not very impressed of the sharpness of my copy. My 100-400 is sharper than the 500, even when the focus hits it's target. It's at Canon now for a check up.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/larshkj/8997858​620/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/larshkj/8997856​830/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/larshkj/8996655​423/

You're joking, yes?

Those are all tack sharp (and very impressive models to boot)

FlyingPhotog wrote in post #16041283
You're joking, yes?

Those are all tack sharp (and very impressive models to boot)

Nope, not joking
Those are 1024 pixels long side. Look at them at 100%, and they are not as sharp as the ones @ 400 mm from my 100-400.
I expect Canon to look at the lens today. Absolute sharpness aside, the image quality from this lens is amazing!

BTW. I may have a very sharp version of the 100-400. Anybody else who has both and have compared the two?
Yes these are impressive models! The 3 models above are high end model jets.

I have both lenses and my 500 makes my 100-400 look like crap...

Jay - do you have a MKI or MKII 500?

larshkj wrote in post #16041278
Here are a few model jets.
I'm actually not very impressed of the sharpness of my copy. My 100-400 is sharper than the 500, even when the focus hits it's target. It's at Canon now for a check up.

Lars

I'm not getting off to a great start with my new-to-me 500 either...FedEx seems to have misplaced it. I don't know how sharp my 500 will be, but FedEx isn't looking very sharp at this point. Grrr.

Lars, your photos look great to me.

Hollywood1053 wrote in post #16041700
Jay - do you have a MKI or MKII 500?

No need to ask: This is the EF 500mm f/4L IS USM (version I) thread; there is a separate lens thread for the EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM: https://photography-on-the.net …?t=922581&highl​ight=500mm Any image you see posted in this thread is (should be) from the version 1.

I was kind of hoping there would be a brown bear in this shot, but this is all I've got to show for three 14hr nights in a hide. Those are some big spiders' webs. (Of course the night after I left, two bears, two wolverines, five wolves and a lynx showed up...:rolleyes

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/scottgrubb/9070​858158/

larshkj wrote in post #16041292
Nope, not joking
Those are 1024 pixels long side. Look at them at 100%, and they are not as sharp as the ones @ 400 mm from my 100-400.
I expect Canon to look at the lens today. Absolute sharpness aside, the image quality from this lens is amazing!

BTW. I may have a very sharp version of the 100-400. Anybody else who has both and have compared the two?
Yes these are impressive models! The 3 models above are high end model jets.

I have both the 100-400 and the the 500. The 500 is considerably sharper than the 100-400 with my 1D Mk IV and Mk II. My 100-400 is what I consider to be a sharp copy but the 500 beats it. Have you micro adjusted your 500 and camera? My sharpness improved quite a bit after micro adjustment.

Nice to see this thread revived, thanks Jay. Great shots everyone.

Here's a few from this spring.

larshkj wrote in post #16041292
Nope, not joking
Those are 1024 pixels long side. Look at them at 100%, and they are not as sharp as the ones @ 400 mm from my 100-400.
I expect Canon to look at the lens today. Absolute sharpness aside, the image quality from this lens is amazing!

BTW. I may have a very sharp version of the 100-400. Anybody else who has both and have compared the two?
Yes these are impressive models! The 3 models above are high end model jets.

Like the good majority, my 500 eats my 100-400 for breakfast when it comes to sharpness.

I did find it a bit awkward to get used to at first though and initially focus was a bit hit and miss.

One thing I noticed was that while on the 100-400 I used to leave the stabilizer on and always get very good results even if I was shooting moving subjects. I know you're not supposed to do this, but it was one of those things that I found worked quite well for me. On the 500mm in similar scenarios though, I absolutely had to switch it off as results were a significantly poorer than what I was getting on the 100-400.

Playing with the camera's focus settings also increased my sharpness (particularly when tracking moving subjects). I also noticed that at 500mm Heat haze also has a significantly bigger effect than I expected when compared to my 100-400.

Lovely shots, by the way.

Nighthound wrote in post #16042953
Nice to see this thread revived, thanks Jay. Great shots everyone.

Here's a few from this spring.

These are awesome...

@ Steve Ellwood
Amazing pictures.

I've used this lens on a 7D and nowadays on a 1D markIV.
Once I've done some micro adjustments this lens really increased it's sharpness.
The red on the head looks almost 3D.
Awesome lens.

IMAGE LINK: http://s1072.photobuck​et.com …44-2_zpse3015402.jpg.html