EF 400mm f5.6 L USM

oddly I was sold on this lens when taking photos of dragonflies at Leighton Moss this summer. I was using a Canon 400D with a sigma 70 - 200 f2.8. The chap next to me had a 1d mkII with a 400 f5.6 with an extension tube.

He showed me the shots he was getting and then showed me some prints of his pics. I was blown away and bought one as soon as I could afford it.

This lens and my 24 - 105 L IS USM are the two lenses i use the most.

I can heartily recommend this lens for it's superb image quality, light weight and all at an affordable price.

On my second one and both excellent. An older design but still does the business and very nice to use.

When I was looking to buy a birding lens the main credentials were at least 400mm focal length, Good IQ and light enough to be able to carry around for hours upon end as I do a lot of walking and get my bird shots as and when an opportunity crops up.
The 400mm f5.6 fitted the bill as longer reach lenses were too heavy and faster lenses were at least twice the price and again, too heavy. I have had this lens for almost eighteen months now and it still surprises me with the great results that it produces.

The lens has a nice feel and balance on both my 350D and 30D bodies and gives great colour rendition, contrast and saturation. It is very light (possibly the lightest 400mm lens around) and easily hand holdable. The trick to getting sharp shots from hand holding this non IS lens is to make sure you have a fast shutter speed I can get sharp shots with 1/500 sec but aim for at least 1/1000 sec, these shutter speeds are obtainable by upping the ISO to suit. I find relatively little noise on 30D right up to ISO 800. Of course you can always use a Monopod to get sharp shots down to about 1/125 sec and with a good tripod and head almost anything will be sharp.

Auto focus on this lens is lightening fast and this coupled with its lightness makes it one of the very best flight shot lenses around. The lens has a switch to allow focusing at 3.5 meters to infinity or a slightly faster 8.5 meters to infinity.

This lens is pin sharp wide open. I have tried tests by stopping the lens down but can tell no difference at all in IQ from wide open. The only time I stop the lens down now is when I want more DOF.

Minimum focus distance is 3.5 metres (11.5 feet). You can reduce this to around 2 metres by using extension tubes. I am always amazed at the detail that can be recorded by this lens in something small like a butterfly or dragonfly from 11.5 feet.

This lens takes a teleconverter well although AF will be lost on a non series 1 body unless you tape the pins. I regularly use the lens with a 1.4tc (gives a 560mm focal length) hand held with very little IQ loss from the bare lens. Trying to AF at f8 is very variable depending on light and contrast sometimes the AF will lock on right away but other time the lens will hunt, this is where the full time manual focusing comes in useful by roughly manually focusing and then letting the AF finish the job. I should mention that for AF with the pins taped I have had a lot more success with the 30D than the 350D for some reason (better AF system?). Of course Canon would not recommend taping the pins to fool the AF but it seems to be a widespread practice. With a tripod and manual focusing I have used a 2x converter with good results and even got good shots by stacking a 2x and 1.4x converters which gives 1120mm focal length.

Other nice points are the retractable built-in metal lens hood and the supplied tripod collar which can be attached/detached without taking the lens off the camera.

For anyone that wants to travel light this is IMO an ideal birding lens. The only way I would upgrade from this lens would be if Canon bought out an IS version but even then providing that the weight was not significantly more.

This is a high quality telephoto prime lens that happens to be very lightweight and also reasonably priced. It is tack sharp even when wide open. Even on the 40D, it is possible to get 100% crops that look sharp with proper long lens technique and exposure.

AF is extremely fast and accurate.

This lens is very light and easy to handle, which makes it an ideal choice for shooting birds in flight. I can go for a long hike (several hours) with this lens and a 350D or 40D without having to use a backpack. In addition to the optical excellence, this lens is also built like a tank. Built in lens hood is extremely convenient.

This lens can be somewhat difficult to handle at slower shutter speeds without a tripod as it does not have the IS feature which is found on every other modern Canon L telephoto prime, but with some practice (and luck) it is usable at shutter speeds as low as 1/160. Without the IS subsystem, 400mm f/5.6L is a relatively simple design. Simplicity of the design probably reduces the likelihood of electrical or mechanical failure and accounts for the fact that this level of optical excellence can be offered at a price point that is comparable to high end binoculars.

I am upgrading my rating on this lens from 9 to 10 based on the most recent set of results I got after sending my 40D back to Canon for calibration.

The lack of IS and the relatively long minimum focus distance (3.5m) may be the only slight drawbacks for this lens, listed here only for completeness of the review...

You can see my BirdForum galleries or my recently updated Pbase galleries for some samples taken with this lens and EOS 40D.

This is an excellent lens. It is very sharp - as sharp wide open as any other aperature, This lets you concentrate on composition DOF without worry about sharpness. The lens is easy to hand hold - slim and light, and is both an excellent flight lens as well as for stills. Excellent tripod lens (solid unlike zoom) as well for the small percentage of the time you\'ll need it.

It has a slight tendency for CA in specular highlights, but they aren\'t so bad - they can be corrected easily in photoshop when the infrequently occur.

Great lens for travelling because of it small size. Great bang for the buck.

100% crops from this lens, mostly wide open, at http://www.pbase.com/gaocus/40056_sampler_gallery
Make sure you view them at \"original\" size

If you want the minimum focal length for birding, top quality optics, are on a budget and Image Quality is priority # 1, the Canon 400mm 5.6L may be the lens you\'re looking for. I didn\'t like the push/pull of the Canon 100-400 and at 400mm the IQ wasn\'t as good as I\'d seen from the prime so I opted for the 400mm. I made my decisions from borrowed equipment.
Once I purchased the 400, I tried handholding it which produced lots more OOF shots than sharp ones. The Tripod solved that. I also found that with ext. tubes it served pretty dang good as a \"monster macro\". The USM focusing is smoking fast! The retracting hood is wonderful, I just wish it would lock backwards as it does forwards. Keep in mind that 400mm is the minimum focal length (IMO) for decent birding. More often than not, it still comes up short for me. Unfortunately going up to the 500mm makes a BIG dent in the wallet. If you buy this lens, you won\'t be dissappointed.

This is one of canons great lower price L tele\'s.
its sharp wide open and the af is very fast indeed very light and a great birding lens .
here in the UK we dont get that many bright sunny days so f5.6 is a little slow given you need a fast shutter speed to avoied camera shake but it can make super shot\'s. being able to up the iso on digital cameras helps here.
its sharper than the 300f4isL not lots but just enough to show.
Rob

I have this lens as well as the 500. The 500 is optically a little better, but the 400 can\'t be beat for ease of use with birds in flight. A terrific lens. Would be a perfect lens if it had IS.

I found a copy used and was pleasantly surprised with the photos I was able to get. The focus is extremly fast. The lens is great even at f5.6. I would recoment this lens for any one that is on a limited budget as I am. The 100-400 f5.6 is not as sharp and is harder to use. (IMO) I own both lens so I can compare them.

This lens is an absolute pleasure to use, its very light and easily hand holdable in good light and the optics are stunning. The USM focusing motor on this lens is the fastest I have ever used, including a few other L lenses. The maximun aperature of 5.6 doesn\'t make this much of a low light lens, but when the sun is out this lens performs every time. Sometimes I wish they would equip this lens with IS, but obvious that would raise the price quite a bit. This is considered by many to be the best \"in flight\" lens for birding that there is and I would agree. I highly recommend this lens to anyone, if you buy a second hand copy you can more than likely sell it for the same amount you paid as these lenses hold their value very well.