Canon 100-400 L series lense

[chestersgallery]

I have seen a few canon 100-400 L series zoom lenses for sale recently for around the £800 ($1600) mark. As well as these lenses I have seen Tamron, Sigma and the lesser canon zoom lenses for sale with similar zoom for between £100-£200 pounds. My question is are the canon L series lenses really worth all that extra cash. If anyone has galleries with similar size lenses I would appreciate a peak to see what sort of image quality I can expect from the "poor mans " lens option.

[djwixx]

You can use the search option for results from various cameras and lenses.
http://www.pbase.com/cameras

[ericvision]

Hell, yes its worth the extra money if you have it.

I had the Sigma 70-300 and for what it cost its a great lens. If its all you can afford then I'd say go for it, 'cos a cheap lens is better than no lens and its perfectly possible to get excellent images from it. But if you can afford the 100-400 do it straight away, 'cos you'll only end up upgrading to it in the end like I did, wasting a hefty portion of the money you spent on the cheap(er) one.

The price on the 100-400 at the moment is excellent (if you PM me I can give you the contact details of a guy in Scotland who does them for around £790) and I certainly think that no-one will ever regret buying one!

[tim32225]

The Canon 100-400 lens is worth the money, because in additon to better optics than most 3rd party lenses, it also has very effective image stabilization, which will get you lots of good photos that you would have missed with some other lenses. I used a Simga 135-400 lens for a year and a half even though I really wanted the Canon 100-400. The Sigma was a good lens, but without IS, you had to be in really good light to get good results. After I upgraded to the Canon, I saw an immediate, huge change in the number of sharp photos I was getting. If you can afford it, I would definitely go for the Canon 100-400.

You asked for example photos. Here are a few below made with the 100-400L lens, and here's a link to one of my galleries where you can find more. In the gallery, look at the exif under the photo to determine which lens was used. Some in this gallery were made with the 300 f2.8: http://www.pbase.com/tim32225/wild_florida

Great Blue Heron - 1D Mark IIN & Canon 100-400L IS lens:


Roseatte Spoonbill - 1D Mark IIN & Canon 100-400L IS lens:


Cormorant - 1D Mark IIN & Canon 100-400L IS lens:


Black Vulture - 1D Mark IIN & Canon 100-400L IS lens: