Snecma From South Africa, joined Feb 2007, 25 posts, RR: 0 Posted (3 years 10 months 1 week 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 9441 times:
Hi. Could anybody tell me about the Canon 100-400 L IS USM lens. Is it a good lens? How is the sharpness and is there any vignetting? I have a Canon EOS 450D camera. Would the two be a good combination?
WILCO737 From Greenland, joined Jun 2004, 8479 posts, RR: 78 Reply 1, posted (3 years 10 months 1 week 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 9441 times:
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Quoting Snecma (Thread starter): Hi. Could anybody tell me about the Canon 100-400 L IS USM lens. Is it a good lens? How is the sharpness and is there any vignetting? I have a Canon EOS 450D camera. Would the two be a good combination?
I use that lense and I must say it is great. I used it on the 350D and now on the 40D and it gives me good quality. Most of my pictures here on a.net were made with that lense.
Cvervais From United States of America, joined Sep 2003, 600 posts, RR: 3 Reply 2, posted (3 years 10 months 1 week 1 day 1 hour ago) and read 9316 times:
I use this lens as well with a Canon 5D MKI. On a full body camera at 400mm there's a moderate amount of vignetting when shooting a subject with only the sky as a background. On your crop frame body it should be pretty minimal.
Some call this lens a "dust pump" because of it's push/pull design and lack of weather sealing. I've noticed using the lens that this MIGHT be true, my sensor does pick up a fair amount of dust but, the 5D is also known to do this on it's own so *shrug*.
Image stabilizer mode 2 works great for this "sport" it's pretty good at determining how you're tracking the subject and greatly reduces slight motions on the axis perpendicular to the axis you're tracking along.
Also, because of it's size it's a bit of a handful in windy conditions if the wind is blowing perpendicular to the lens.
Another gotcha I found.... Even if you have auto focus turned on the focusing ring isn't disabled and so you can still adjust the focus. I found out the hard way that you can guarantee getting soft images out of the lens if you grip it at the focus ring. So, just don't grip it there and you'll be fine.
But, despite all that I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this lens for spotting. It's very sharp especially at F8-11. I generally shoot at F9 and I get some really really sharp images. Once you get used to the push/pull and set the tension just right for you the zooming becomes second nature.
Anyways, that's my feedback, hopefully you find it useful.
Cpd From Australia, joined Jun 2008, 4879 posts, RR: 44 Reply 3, posted (3 years 10 months 1 week 1 day ago) and read 9299 times:
It must be good - every person I see using Canon gear has that lens. There are armies of them.
Quoting Cvervais (Reply 2): Also, because of it's size it's a bit of a handful in windy conditions if the wind is blowing perpendicular to the lens.
That's not a big lens. I watched someone using that lens with a 5D2 and he was getting perfectly acceptable results, and not far from my D700 with a 300mm prime lens. So it is a pretty decent lens.
Spencer From United Kingdom, joined Apr 2004, 1624 posts, RR: 19 Reply 6, posted (3 years 10 months 1 week 13 hours ago) and read 9201 times:
f/8 is good. It is a dust sucker unfortunately, I've had mine for 5 years and it's quite full now with a number of specks. They don't show up though, thankfully, on images. The one problem I had, however, was when I used to lock it into position, so as to not fall out to 400mm when I had it on the camera around my neck. What happened was after a year or two of locking it off, the barrel and/or the locking ring became tight and it was quite a handful to use it properly, ie. zooming it in and out. Other than that, it really is a great lens if used properly and it's good value for money too.
Spence.
EOS1D4, 7D, 30D, 100-400/4.5-5.6 L IS USM, 70-200/2.8 L IS2 USM, 17-40 f4 L USM, 24-105 f4 L IS USM, 85 f1.8 USM
JGR From Spain, joined Jul 2006, 129 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (3 years 10 months 1 week 10 hours ago) and read 9162 times:
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Hi,
After more 2 years with this lens I'm very happy ! Great sharpness even at f/5.6, "L" quality even at 400 mm. = professional lens, no vignetin or very few, good value for money, good results with my 50D...
Also a dust sucker ! you can clean your CMOS and 3 horus later you can see a dust spot. The weight and the minimum. focal lens (100 mm.) could be a problem in some airports.
Ex. at ISO 320, f/5.6, 1/50 s. @ 400 mm. with crop 2:1 :
Silver1SWA From United States of America, joined Mar 2004, 4538 posts, RR: 26 Reply 8, posted (3 years 10 months 1 week 8 hours ago) and read 9148 times:
Beware...there are bad copies of this lens out there. I think I got one. I still have not sent mine in for inspection/adjustment. I have had some great results with this lens but I often feel like I have simply figured out how to work around my lens issues. Some will say this goes with any large zoom but mine is very sharp aroun 200mm but gets very soft, almost blurry at 350-400mm. It is not, however, as sharp as my 24-105L in any zoom length. Sometimes it just looks like a focus issue and is something that happens when used with both of my bodies. My experience is a little different than other testimonials including some in this thread. So just watch out for that. It might require a trip to canon.
ALL views, opinions expressed are mine ONLY and are NOT representative of those shared by Southwest Airlines Co.
Paulinbna From United States of America, joined Feb 2003, 1114 posts, RR: 5 Reply 9, posted (3 years 10 months 1 week 1 hour ago) and read 9097 times:
I love this lens all of my non closeup shots on here are with this lens. The push pull zoom takes a little getting used to but once you have mastered it I think one can zoom faster with the 100-400.
If any indication of how good the lens is just look the next time when you are the airport, If people are using a canon they will most likely have a 100-400 as a lens.
Canon 50D user; 100-400 MM L IS 10-22 MM, 60MM Macro
Chris78cpr From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2004, 2813 posts, RR: 52 Reply 10, posted (3 years 10 months 6 days 22 hours ago) and read 9075 times:
Quoting Cpd (Reply 3): watched someone using that lens with a 5D2 and he was getting perfectly acceptable results
That surprises me. I have a 5D2 and 100-400 and find the combo unuseable due to the vignetting effect. It is not a minor problem either, shooting with this combo for an hour earlier in LA this year rendered all the shots useless.
The 100-400 does work perfectly fine with all my other cameras 1.6x and 1.3x and my 5D has not exhibited this problem with any other lenses so i have to put it down to the 100-400 not working too well with full frame. However i have seen people such as Michael Richeman use the 100-400 successfully on 1Ds type cameras.
Back to the main topic, the 100-400 is a very good lens if you learn it's limitations and learn how to work around them. Like Spencer said, it really needs to be stopped down to F8 for shooting aviation if uploading shots is your goal. It does suck dust but with a 450D you have a dustwave system i think which will help combat it. 400mm will always be just a bit soft but like people have shown you, it's perfectly workable with the right editing.
Good luck with your purchase!
5D2/7D/1D2(soon to be a 1Dx) 17-40L/24-105L/70-200F2.8L/100-400L/24F1.4LII/50F1.2L/85F1.2LII
JRowson From United Kingdom, joined May 2004, 345 posts, RR: 13 Reply 11, posted (3 years 10 months 6 days 13 hours ago) and read 9029 times:
It's a good lens, very flexible. I was one of the unlucky ones though with mine (and numerous others) with focus problems and IS problems. My IS failed 6 months after new (replaced under warranty) and then after the warranty had run out it had a focus issue where it appeared blurry on the left hand side in every shot. The AF was replaced and re-calibrated at considerable cost which solved the problem, but by this time I had lost faith in it. Mine was pretty soft over 300mm also. I'd picked up a 70-200 and 1.4x in the mean time which provided much more consistent results, particularily in the sharpness. I eventually traded mine in for a 300mm prime. I do miss the extra zoom occasionally but don't miss it's dust pump nature. My sensor is alot cleaner these days.
James Rowson. Canonite and lover of all things L. JAR Photography.
Stu1978 From United Kingdom, joined May 2005, 121 posts, RR: 4 Reply 12, posted (3 years 10 months 6 days 9 hours ago) and read 9001 times:
I also had two copies of this lens ... both turned out to be bad ones ... and since have sold them and not risking fate by going for a third on the hope its a good one ...
Moose135 From United States of America, joined Oct 2004, 2009 posts, RR: 12 Reply 13, posted (3 years 10 months 6 days 8 hours ago) and read 8998 times:
I've had one for about 4 years now, and am very happy with the lens. It's funny that the one "issue" many people bring up is getting used to the push/pull zoom - I shot with a Yashica SLR for 25 years, and my "long" zoom was push/pull, so I'm much more comfortable using it as opposed to a twist zoom.
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Another gotcha I found.... Even if you have auto focus turned on the focusing ring isn't disabled and so you can still adjust the focus. I found out the hard way that you can guarantee getting soft images out of the lens if you grip it at the focus ring. 
So, just don't grip it there and you'll be fine.
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I watched someone using that lens with a 5D2 and he was getting perfectly acceptable results, and not far from my D700 with a 300mm prime lens. So it is a pretty decent lens.
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