Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM

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Goincarcrazy

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It seems this lens is loved by everyone from wildlife photographers to motorsport photographers and from aviation photographers to sports photographers.

Here is a smattering to start us off:

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Admin US West

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Nov 30, 2010
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Re: Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM

MDGF said:
Has anyone used this lens with the new mark III 2x converter? What do think?

With a 2X extender, the lens becomes a f/11 and will not autofocus on any Canon camera (maybe at 100mm it might). The new MK III TC's are supposed to give faster AF with the new superteles and might be a hair sharper.

There does not seem to be much point is paying a high price to use it with a f/5.6 lens and have to manual focus.
 
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Goincarcrazy

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Re: Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM

And for what it's worth, I've used my 1.4x mkII tc on it (I don't own a 1 series, so I don't get the luxury of AF) and even that makes the viewfinder dark and almost impossible to accurately manually focus with. I've not heard of many people trying their 2x on it, and the couple I know that did it for kicks came out with some pretty fuzzy results. What the mkIII will hold as far as IQ improvements is yet to be seen (by me at least).
 
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Goincarcrazy

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Re: Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM

Exactly what Kubelik said. I would LOVE a 300 or 400 2.8, or even the 400 f/4 DO, but the fact of the matter is I just simply can't afford it (and if I could, I'd go with length, not aperture size, aka 500 or 600). I don't find that the 100-400 limits me too much. Thanks to the IS I can handhold down to around 1/125 at 400mm with very good results. I'll admit, the slow f stop does get me sometimes, but its been very few and far between. To be honest, it's the large DOF that comes with the f/5.6 aperture that causes me more grief than the shutter speed.
 
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Admin US West

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Nov 30, 2010
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Re: Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM

kubelik said:
I'm sure everyone would love to have a 400mm f/2.8, but if you take a look at the cost you'll see why more people use the 100-400 despite the slow 5.6 on the long end

While cost of the 2.8 is too high, last year I bought a 600mm f/4 used. Carrying it around and setting up with heavy tripod and wimberly was just too much, it took up a lot of space in my car too, so I sold it and kept using the 100-400mm L.

For my use, portability has a higher priority than larger aperture. I have considered the 400mm DO, but it is also pretty high priced, and is not much sharper than my 100-400mm, and the background is not smooth like the zoom.
 
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Admin US West

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Nov 30, 2010
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Re: Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM

Just for the heck of it, I set up my 1D MK III on my back porch when we had a clear day last weekend and tried the 100-400mm L on Mt Spokane which is about 8 miles distant. I knew the photos would not be picture perfect, there is 8 miles of air to distort the image. I was suprised that those with TC's came out as good as they did.

I think the results show that you need to be close, but also that TC's work better than I expected as long as there is time to manually focus.

I used aperture priority, f/11, ISO 800, shutter speeds varied from 1/2000 to 1/3200. Even in good light, there is noise at ISO 800. The camera could not reflect the aperture value properly with two TC's, but t did reduce shutter speed to compensate so the exposures were ok.

I focused on a television tower, the same one my wireless internet provider uses. I used live view on the the shots and a wireless remote to help keep vibration down. I also used as fast a shutter speed as I could. I tried turning IS off, but results were better with it on, so all the 100-400mm images have IS turned on, even though it might not have worked with the stacked extenders.

First, a shot with a 50mm lens. On a 1D MK III its slightly telephoto, but gives you a good idea of how far away the mountain is.

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Next, a view at 400mm.

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Now 560mm (with Canon 1.4X II TC)

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Now 800mm (Canon 2X II TC) Manually focused using liveview.

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Finally 11200 mm with the 1.4X and 2X Stacked and manually focused using liveview.

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Goincarcrazy

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Re: Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM

You bring up a really interesting point. I've noticed a few people that get this lens and says its rubbish don't take into account how much air they're trying to cut through. I remember one time I was at a historics race in Daytona, FL at the speedway and found that so many pics were coming out like crap, but then when I took my eye away from the camera and looked toward what I was taking pics of, I realized that the intense brightness from the sun, mixed with the very dry, crisp late fall air, all mixing with the black track was throwing up massive amounts of heat waves from the asphalt. Ever since then, I've noticed some people just trying to ask too much from this lens and instantly kicking it to the curb. Super-Telephotos (or borderline in this case) are a very different ballgame compared to even 200's or 300's.

Very cool results scales! And thanks for bringing my mind back around to that point. BTW, I'm jealous of you, simply because you have mountains. Here in Florida, the tallest hill is actually a trash mound...fun fact.
 
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Admin US West

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Nov 30, 2010
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Re: Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM

I'm hoping that winter is winding up, that pile of snow in my back yard is a small fraction of what was there. Unfortunately, more snow if in the forecast.

It is nice to have a few days break and see a blue sky though.

I usually use the 100-400L at short range, but I did not see anything better to photograph from my porch, and it was too cold to setup and wait for birds. There was a flock of magpies around, but they are very shy, and do not sit still for more than 5 seconds. They watch us in the house and leave if we head toward the door.
 
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Jul 21, 2010
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Re: Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM

scalesusa said:
I'm hoping that winter is winding up, that pile of snow in my back yard is a small fraction of what was there.

It is nice to have a few days break and see a blue sky though.

We've got the blue skies...but it's a 'balmy' 21 °F out there (which is a lot better than the -3° when I left the house this morning). Our huge piles of snow aren't going anywhere soon... :(
 
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