The Canon 100-400mm IS for Wildlife and Nature my Experiences

Hi Everyone,

This week I posted a mini review of the Canon 100-400mm L IS lens in my blog. I have been using this lens for nearly two years and, despite its drawbacks, looking through my photos and the galleries on my website it is definitely my most used lens! I will hopefully expand on this in the future but I thought people on this forum considering purchasing this lens might be interested in my experiences.

George

I just purchased mine in 2008. I love the 100-400 for outdoor work. It's so sharp. Gushing is okay here. Just makes people poorer.

100-400 is great when you get a good copy, now I have one I couldn't be happer with IQ....shame the speed of AF on a 5D though

Neilyb wrote in post #7109814
100-400 is great when you get a good copy, now I have one I couldn't be happer with IQ....shame the speed of AF on a 5D though

i'm still waiting on the perfect lens too .

ed rader

I know what you mean about the AF speed, I'm hoping to get a 1d mk3 soon so that should help a bit It is sharp, very much so by f/8 and the bokeh isn't as bad as some people make out especially at the longer focal lengths and wider apertures eg. Blackbird and Motorbike Racing

the 100-400 is for the birds. with the IS I can be ready for panning flight shots at 100mm and quickly zoom out to 400 for perched compositions without a tripod. My favorite thing about this lens is something that I hadn't even considered when I made my purchase. Even with an aquatech rain cover in place, I can manipulate the zoom quickly and easily.It would be all but impossible to zoom that fast with anything but the push/pull. The 24 105 is probably my most used lens, but the 100 400 is my favorite.

I agree, with IS activated (I leave mine in Mode 2) and a hand on the zoom there's not much the 100-400mm can't do! And I also prefer the push/pull zoom with this lens.

Thank you for this insight ... I have been researching this lens for the last week ... I am happy to see all the recent chatter about it. Looks I will add this one to my bag soon.

I'm sure you won't regret it! There are a lot of different alternatives out there (eg. Canon 400mm f/5.6L, Canon 300mm f/4L IS with a 1.4x teleconverter, Sigma Bigma etc) but, for me anyway, the 100-400mm offered the best versatility and IS- I would rather get the shot than have loads that were too tight or blurry!

I got mine out to use it yesterday and the IS is acting crazy. It will focus but what I am viewing is jumping up and down, ''tilting up and down''. I have less than 200 shots with mine and not real happy about this. I will have to send it in to be fixed when I get the time. Again not very happy about this.

I'm sure sending it in will be the best thing, mine has actually done this a bit at 100mm but I think that was because I had Mode 2 IS activated and for some reason it didn't like being kept still. Weird!

I am loving my 100-400L. I really like the push/pull when I am trying to find a bird perched in the forest. 100 allows me to quickly find the tree and pushing to 400 for finding the bird is quick and easy. I just wish it had a better nickname than dust pump.

I know what you mean... we'll have to think of something

Any ideas?

I was heavily considering the 100-400L a short while ago (even had my mouse on the buy button) but the seemingly large number of bad copies scared me away. I ended up with 100mm ƒ/2, 200mm ƒ/2.8L and 300mm ƒ/2.8L IS (would be a 500mm if I'd gone with the 100-400L) instead, but perhaps I'll have to take another look at the 100-400L in a year or two.

Well if you ever fancy swapping the 300mm f/2.8L IS that you ended up with for a good copy of the Canon 100-400mm lens then just let me know It seems to be one of those lenses that attracts negative criticism. Maybe there are lots of bad copies out there, as you say, it seems that way. But its funny how most of the expensive L primes that are largely bought by more experienced photographers (on average) don't seem to have as many problems!