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

Looks like Canon has done it again, a quality lens you'll be proud to own and excited to use. I was originally concerned with the weight of this lens, I figured I'd have to haul a monopod around to help hold this monster up for extended periods of time. Though to my delight, it's so well balanced that I didnt have any trouble taking it to the zoo for several hours on a shoot. You definately get your moneys worth on this one. I highly recommend this lens!

This lens is great for cropped sensor cameras but is useless on the full frame 5DMark II based on the out of focus results. Sending back to canon did nothing to resolve this problem. I've spoken to other photographers while taking pictures at Bristkecone Pine Forest and they also had the exact same results as I including attempts to have canon fix this problem On the 50D camera body I'm extremely pleased with the results.

This lens is awesome. I have had mine for 4 years without any problem with the focusing but this is what i do. Because the lens is heavy it comes with a lens bracket to mount the lens to a tripod or monopod instead of the camera body. I use a mono pod mostly. Yes this makes a lot of difference and the pod acts like a third hand. You are not going to get really sharp pictures unless you use one especially extended at 400 mm. second is it is an outdoors lens. you can use it inside but your pics are not going to be as good as they could be with daylight even on a cloudy day. 3rd the more manual you can get with this lens the better. the I.S. is fast smooth and quiet but relying on the af when shooting is not ideal because when you push the firing button half way down on the camera the af feature is always adjusting so if you move so will the point of reference with the I.S. I like it. It is not for everyone. Large telephoto lenses take a little practice, it is worth the time and effort. The large telephoto non zoom lenses are much easier to use when trying to get a really sharp image.just in case you were thinking about going that way.

This has proved to be my standard wildlife lens, great for distances and really small birds. When you can't afford to put 10-12K in a lens, this is the perfect replacement.

No product is immune to lemons... Even this lens. After happily using it for 4 months, i got the Err 1 message, which after googling it, it meant faulty IS, i shipped it to Canon and they fixed it for free, i had to wait for 2 weeks though to get it back. Now it feels like the lens is not focusing 30% of the time, not sure if this is a result of canon repair, or my mistake.. I am too scared to send it again..