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| | Customer Reviews: | | | Average Customer Review: ( 48 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
89 of 91 found the following review helpful:
 A really sweet long lens Sep 07, 2006
By A photographer
I've been using this lens about six years. In all that time, I can't remember ever shooting at any aperture smaller than f/5.6. It's amazingly sharp wide open and I've never had any reason to stop it down. When I first bought it, I used it on a tripod almost all the time. These days, I've started using it handheld and I can appreciate how well it handles. In good light, autofocus is fast and accurate. In low brightness and low contrast light, it gets a little slow and sometimes hunts. Not a real problem, just switch off the autofocus and use the superb manual focus ring. Images snap in and out of focus easily whether you do the focusing or you let the lens do it.
The lens is made like a tank. Mine has been subjected to a lot of use but it has never failed me. I sometimes use it with the Canon 1.4x Extender which makes it a 560mm f/8 lens. That combination does usually require a tripod but it is still a handy combination that retains great sharpness. I've also used it with the Canon 2x Extender as an 800mm f/11. It's a good idea to put it on a sturdy tripod and stop down a wee bit to get the best results.
If you can make use of the focal length and you can live with f/5.6 as the maximum aperture, I recommend it highly.
68 of 71 found the following review helpful:
Great quality for the price Aug 17, 2007
By Mark J. Minasi
A 400 MM prime for about a grand? Neat.
I originally bought the 100-400 when I got my Canon body, as I wanted to do wildlife photography and wasn't even AWARE of this lens. I wish I had, because this lens is (1) a pound lighter than the 100-400 (two pounds vs three), (2) doesn't pump dust into my camera body when I adjust the zoom (as there isn't any zoom!), (3) is shorter and so easier to balance in my hand, (4) has a built-in lens hood -- the one with the 100-400 is separate and surprisingly flimsy for a $1500 product, (5) produces a somewhat better picture, and (6) it is a 77 mm L lens, which means I needn't buy a new set of UV and polarizing filters. (Many, but not all, "L"s are 77 mm diameter lenses.)
No, there's no IS, but -- and here's the important part -- it doesn't NEED it. That one pound and shorter length makes all the difference, at least for me. But if you're undecided, then keep in mind that: (1) the 100-400 has that zoom, which means that when you CAN shoot in, say, 100 mm, then you're doing it at F/3.5, and (2) if your hands are a bit wobbly then you can do a lot of hand-held shooting with the IS.
I wondered if I'd miss the zoom, but in all honesty there has only been one shot in the two years that I've shot with this lens that I wished that I could dial it back a bit. A great lens for the money.
69 of 73 found the following review helpful:
Get closer to the action GUARANTEED!! Mar 04, 2005
By Mario S. Jimenez Jr.
I got this lens as a way to capture birds in flight and as a sports lens. Don't let the f/5.6 discourage you from buying this beauty, because in my experiences, it's one fast lens. The sharpness is absolutely stunning, with razor sharp edges!! The color and contrast are also remarkable!!
If you like photographing nature and sports, than this is the lens for you. Take my word for it, you won't regret it!!!
(...)
27 of 27 found the following review helpful:
Canon 400mm f/5.6L Telephoto Lens Jun 10, 2009
By Gadget Hound
I purchased this lens primarily for hand-held bird photography for use on my Canon 40D DSLR. The lens is typical of Canon's L-series "white" family of professional level telephoto lenses, having very high standards of construction and superb optical performance, even with a 1.4X teleconverter, when conditions allow.
This lens is known as the "overlooked" Canon telephoto, since it does not garner the glamor of its cousins, the really long, heavy, faster, and vastly more costly professional telephoto lenses. It is also known as the "toy lens" by bird photographers who mostly use those really Big Berthas for long-distance close-ups with blurred-out backgrounds.
I selected it for the high image quality wide-open, relatively light weight, and shorter physical length, allowing both hand-held and tripod mounted use, as well as its modest cost (compared to all high quality alternatives). The image quality is extremely high, even wide open at f/5.6, although it does improve slightly stopped down a notch or two. The image contrast, flare resistance, and color saturation are also excellent for a telephoto lens of its "older" fixed focal length optical design.
It doesn't have image stabilization (IS), which maintains the reasonable price, but I don't consider that much of a handicap using Canon's DSLR's, which allow low-noise high ISO settings for higher shutter speeds under decent lighting conditions. Braced against a tree, fence post, etc., and especially in a sitting position with arms resting on knees, for example, the lack of IS is simply not an issue. The focus is extremely fast and accurate with the 40D's sensitive all X-type focus points, and the quickly removable tripod mount is of an excellent design that all tripod mounts should have.
As a bonus, on the 40D, the lens has the equivalent field of view of a 640mm f/5.6 telephoto lens! When a high quality teleconverter can be used, this becomes almost a 900mm f/8 telephoto (actually 896mm)! Not to exaggerate the point too much, but that's starting to get into the Big Bertha focal length range, under the right lighting conditions. Other pluses include the handy built-in sliding lens hood and the very high quality included lens case, which are extra cost items for Canon's non-L lenses.
The 400mm and 500mm zooms all seem to suffer from image softness at their maximum focal lengths, which I would be using 90% of the time anyway, so I elected to simply get the highest quality fixed 400mm I could find for a reasonable price. I also decided that I could live with 1 f-stop less than the much more expensive f/4's, since this lens can be shot wide-open at the same high quality as the f/4's stopped down - thus resulting in f/5.6 anyway.
This reasoning is even more appropriate when including the slightly less expensive, still high-quality, third party lenses, such as Tamron, Tokina, Sigma, etc. I reasoned that since I plan to use this lens for the rest of my life, why compromise in image quality for a few percent lower initial cost? I'm not slamming third party lenses in general by any means (I own a few), just in this case of comparing available alternatives (including other Canon's) to the selection of this particular Canon 400mm and its intended use.
I was blessed with several excellent bald eagle shots on what I had expected to be just an initial "practice with the new lens" outing. Because of this excellent lens, it turned out to be a very productive shoot. I would include a thumbnail photo of one of these shots, except I can't seem to be able to "paste" a small image into Amazon's review window.
For one that is willing to accept and operate within the parameters of this lens, that photographer will be handsomely rewarded by Canon's 400mm f/5.6L telephoto lens. In my case, it is exactly what I was looking for and it is exceeding all my expectations.
30 of 31 found the following review helpful:
Perfect wildlife companion Sep 04, 2007
By Ole-henrik Helin
I started out with the sigma 50-500 and shot with that for about a year. Dissapointed with the fact that I had to stop it down to F8 to get acceptable results, I started to look for a new telephoto in the same range. Besides, I was always at the long end of the sigma anyway, so I didnt need the zoom that the sigma provided.
After reading pages up and pages down on the 100-400, the 300 f4 and the 400 5.6L, I landed on the latter.
It is true what they say, the lens is tack sharp at f5.6, you need to zoom into 200% to properly see any improvement to around f7-f8 (atleast on my copy). Contrast and color are both beautiful and the bokeh is awsome, although you need to get closer than with a 400 f2.8L to completely wash out the background. (the f2.8 L does cost you an arm and a leg though).
Build quality is excellent, my lens accidently took a dive from 6 feet when mounted to a 20D, the lens hit the floor with the lens shade (which was in the back-position) with a very foul sounding thud.
Result: No damage, no mis focus, not a single mark and the lens works just as well as it always has.
The lens is primarily a birding lens, but there is no problem using it on larger wildlife or even for portraits. It also performs well as an air show lens, giving you the cool pilot-in-seat pictures that the 70-200 owners can only gawk at.
I will never sell this lens, even if I in the future own the 600mm L, it's just too good to part with.
See all 48 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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