Star Rating

Right! I know that you do not expect a scientific review of the Canon 100-400 F4.5-5.6L IS USM here, because I am not that sort person. As any one who has read any of the pages on this website will know, I am a long-term Canon user, having started with the Canon A1 in 1980, and been through pretty much every pro camera they have built, but don't take this as blindness when it comes to Canons short comings.

The 100-400 4.5-5.6 L IS USM is another of the famous BWL (big white lenses) it differs from the majority of the other Canon zoom lenses in that it is a single touch zoom, rather than two touch (OK I know the 35-350, 28-300 etc are also single touch).

The zoom function is rather like the operation of a trombone, with a focus ring sat behind a very large grip. I have to say that for a lens that is used manual focus as significant amount of time I find the single touch works best, enabling a single handed adjustment of the focus and zoom, if you use AF all the time then there is no real benefit. When collapsed to it's shortest focal length it is very similar in size to the 70-200 F2.8L IS USM, in fact it uses the same removable tripod mount.

One nice feature of the lens is that it has a friction lock on the zoom function, which means that whilst you are carrying it around mounted to a body, you can lock the lens at the shortest end, without it sliding out. As with most L lenses with IS there are switches to turn the IS function on and off, and also a stabiliser mode switch, with two positions, position 1 is the place for day to day shooting, however if you wish to do panning shots, you are advised to use position 2, as this deactivates the horizontal sensor (thereby stopping the IS from trying to cancel out the action of panning).

As with most Canon lenses there is located on the barrel at the nearest part to the body a distance scale, and to the left an AF/MF switch, which unlike the 70-200 F2.8L IS USM is tucked away and is unlikely to be knocked whilst retrieving the lens from the camera bag. Below the AF switch is the focus limiter, with two settings, 1.8m-Inf and 6.5m-inf. With the turbo nutter that the EOS1D is the AF is quick, and in dull conditions the lens can be a pain, as it hunts for focus, so manual mode is used fairly frequently with this piece of glass, but then I take photographs when a lot of others wouldn't have to, at the long end it snaps in and out of focus reasonable crisply, at the short end it is a little more difficult, as F4.5 at 100mm gives a bit of depth of field.

The lens is supplied with a nice pouch, but it is such a naff colour, mine went straight in the bin, it's OK if you are poncing around doing football matches, but not very subtle when attached to your black belt, and you are wearing DPMs. So straight into a Lowe pro Street and Field No 4 lens case, for mine. I am not going to comment on the quality of the images below you can make your own mind up, needless to say that I find it acceptable for the majority of the stuff that I do, and I have shot Fuji slide film with it and been very impressed. 100-400 F4.5-5.6L IS USM centre at F4.5 at100mm 100-400 F4.5-5.6L IS USM edge at F4.5 at100mm There you have it, I will allow you to draw your own conclusions, and I will when I get a change shoot some better test images.

100-400 F4.5-5.6L IS USM centre at F5.6 at 400mm 100-400 F4.5-5.6L IS USM edge at F5.6 at 400mm

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