Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM Super Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

I agonized between this lens and the 100-400 zoom; I am glad I made this choice and saved the $$$. I use this for wildlife; mostly birds handheld with no real problem getting sharp images without stabilization. I will use a tripod if I plan to set up and sit on the edge of a marsh or pond, when walking around I use it handheld and compensate for shake with shutter speed. The picture I attached was shot handheld with this lens. The lens is very sharp and I get great images when I do my part with set up and execution. The only upgrade from this lens would be one of the big primes in my opinion and I doubt I will ever be able to afford one of them, so this is the lens for me, I paired this with a Canon 7D MII which is a fabulous combination it does everything I want it to do. I love it

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Cant say enough good things about this lens. Light and easily hand held. If you are a wildlife photographer shooting Canon, THIS is your hand holding lens. Ridiculously sharp, high quality images. No need for IS. Super fast AF. Razor sharp at 5.6 and only gets better at 8.0. Built like a tank. I will never, ever sell this lens. Only possible negative is that its a 5.6 and it needs lots of light. But you already know that, and if you want a faster prime lens at this focal length, youd better take out a loan.

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I bought this lens one year ago and have taken 1000s of photos with it. For the price, you would expect excellent focus and you get that along with a beautiful bokeh. It is light enough to handhold with some practice. It does not have IS and I have not found this to be a problem, just use enough shutter speed. I like 1/800 for small birds. Why not buy the Canon 100-400 and get a zoom range? I read several reviews and have talked with Flickr friends who have bought the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM and it is not nearly as sharp. One Flickr friend bought this lens and just couldnt get a sharp enough photo to use. He even sent it into Canon for repairs and it is still, in his opinion, unuseable. I got the 400mm f5.6L for the long end. I have other lenses for photos that take less reach that are smaller and easier to use. At F5.6, the lens is rather slow and needs a lot of light. But to get a quicker lens, you go to about $10,000 and a much heavier lens you will not be able to handhold. The 400mm5.6 L weights 2.8 lbs. The more expensive version, which is faster, weights 8.49 lbs. Weight makes a huge difference out in the field. At 2.8 lbs, and relatively light, it is still a lot to carry around for hours but is something you can do. The F5.6L is not a zoom, so there is no problem with dust getting into it. .

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I just got this lens a little more than a week...perhaps not long enough to give you a decent review. Having said that I want to tell you of my first impression to perhaps prepare you for this lens. In terms of previous telephoto experience...I use a 70-200mm f/4L IS USM coupled with a 1.4 II Extender for my bird in flight (BIF) shots. So I have shot up to 280mm. To prepare for deciding whether to get this lens, I turned off IS and shot a bunch of pictures at sunset light level...BIF still turn out pretty decent. So Non-IS is not an issue. I went ahead and ordered this lens...like most BIF shooters, I do not have enough reach. I got this lens via UPS...it was delivered at 6pm, half an hour before dark where I live. Not enough time to go to the bird reserve to shoot so I started shooting in front of my house to test it out. Shaking with excitement, I started to snap at various still objects, people walking about. First impression was the lens is a lot heavier than the 70-200 f/4L + 1.4X. Its also a little longer and the tripod mount was interfering with where I normally hold the lens with my left hand. Everything via the viewfinder was magnified so much and I couldnt keep it from moving around. Most of the shots I made was with 1/400, f/5.6 or slower. The result was abysmal...out of 30 shots, only 3 were not blurred. I also tried it with my cheapo $40 tripod and the result was slightly better but not by much. The tripod was shaking too much under the weight and the breeze. Panic set in. The next day, I left work early and showed up at the bird reserve. The light was brighter and I was able to shoot at 1/800 or faster. I also paid attention to my breathing - back to basics. I moved the tripod bracket up and away so my left hand can hold on to the lens more securely. The results were much better...I got a bunch of keepers whose sharpness and clarity is just as good as the 70-200mm but at twice the reach! I felt much better. A few days later (a Saturday) I went back to the bird reserve and spent half a day there. I was a lot more used to the lens, its weight and bulk. I figured out how to hold the lens with my left hand to minimize shake. I learned to take deep breaths then release the shutter while exhaling. I also cranked up the shutter speed to 1/1200 or even 1/1600 and set aperture at f/8 (its sweet spot). The result was stunning...razor sharp images with vivid colors and contrast...I didnt have to do a thing to the images with photoshop...jaw dropping awesomeness! What a difference a prime makes! Im completely sold on this lens. I realize that the IS feature on my 70-200mm coupled with relative short focal lengths spoiled me badly. I could just snap away happily and got good results (provided I can reach my objects). With this 400mm lens, one must be more careful. At this FL, any movement is magnified and IS is not there to help you when you need it most. I think Im a much better photographer for learning to use this lens properly. It also kick start me into thinking seriously about investing in a good tripod and gimbal head...almost time to join the big boys. To see some of the pictures, use flickr dot com and search for user tongho58 (thats me). I have a set named after the lens (EF 400mm f/5.6L USM).

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The Canon EF 400mm (Prime) is a true delight. This is my first Super Telephoto lens from Canon, I absolutely love this lens. I will never sell this lens because it is really that good. 1) The build quality is absolutely superb and built like a mini tank. Extremely durable. The white/cream, black and red line color scheme looks like a space aged telescope; very impressive design. Absolutely no slack, every screw and mechanism is tight and right. The built-in lens hood is very convenient for a lens of this magnitude, which extends outward even further making the EF 400mm look like a rifle scope of sorts. 2) The AF is very fast and can target multiple subjects quickly like birds hiding in between branches for wildlife photography. Or you can just switch it to MF mode, and use the focus ring. 3) Shots come out very clean and crisp even at F/5.6 even without IS 4) I even use the 2x tele-converter, despite losing two stops of light, dealing with now F/11.2 (or 12) and managing camera shake, shots still come out very good, not the best, but really good at now 800mm!!! I suggest using a tripod for more stability with teleconverters. 5) Compared to other Super Telephoto lenses, this is very lightweight, but may still cause some neck strain with camera strap. I tend to hold both camera and lenses with one hand. This is a great Super Telephoto lens to add to your collection!

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What amazes me the most is how incredibly tack-sharp it is, even wide open. When pixel-peeping in Photo editing software the image doesnt ever start to get soft. I zoom in and zoom in and the image just starts to become pixelated before the image starts to get soft. I shoot a lot of humming birds with it. I can zoom in and see every vane in the feathers. In the eyes I can see a the reflection of everything the bird is seeing. I can see myself, my house, the sun is a pin-point of white light in the sky, the clouds, etc. I took a pic. of a squirrel. I zoomed in on the inside of his ear, which was in shade. I could not only see the tick inside his ear, I could see each of his legs and the markings on the ticks back. Ive been using this lens for two years and Im still highly impressed. I tried some of these same shots with my Canon 300mm (not L glass). The results were not even close. This lens is worth every penny. I have 1.4x III extender and the 2.0x III extender. Both work amazing with this lens. The 1.4 is better on keeping the image tack-sharp. The image does start to get slightly soft with the 2.0 - but it isnt really noticeable unless you have a 1.4 image or just the 400 image alone to compare it to. I use with a 60D and 7D.

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This is an amazing lens well worth the cost. the images Ive taken with it are sharp and vibrant. Without having IS built in, I recommend the shutter speed be at least 1/800th of a second to get sharp, crisp images. I shoot wildlife such as birds in flight at 1/2000th of a second and the results have been utterly amazing. This is a prime lens and fills a need for any sports or wildlife photographer. The lens is solidly built and comfortable to use free hand or on a tripod. The only drawback of this lens is that it will not autofocus with the 1.4 or 2x Canon extender. However, manual focus is easy and smooth. Though this lens isnt small, its also not so heavy as to be cumbersome. The fit in the hand is superb and the auto focus is very, very fast. Ive attached a sample shot I took using this lens hand held.

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This is a great lens for the price. Been using this puppy for nearly a year now and it is awesome for nature shots. Images are tack sharp and I have been able to get the band numbers off of eagle tags and submit them to which ever state the Eagle was tagged in. Downside is that it wont work with the Canon Tele-converter because it is not a 2.8 F stop lens. Learned that the hard way. But all in all, Id recommend this lens. For Nature photography, this lens is awesome!

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This lens make photography fun. On a crop sensor camera it provides enough reach to do some amazing wildlife photography. On a full frame camera sometime I cannot quite get close enough to wild birds. That is most likely my issue and my approach. At f/5.6 this is a daylight lens. It is a prime lens, very sharp and much less to go wrong. At our local zoo it can be a challenge, many of the animals are simply too close. Those that are not, this lens will get you pictures of amazing isolated animals. Bokah is fantastic in isolating your subject. Minimum focus distance is around 12 feet. This lens does what is does very well, and will provide you pictures no cell phone can.

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As a prime lens it will surprise no one that that image quality is fantastic. Its also reasonably light weight (relative to the focal length) with solid focusing. And for an L series lens you cant argue with the price. Theres a lot to like here. However, the lack of IS is a bit of a conundrum for me. Some people claim they can shoot this hand held with no problem - Im not one of those people. In many circumstances I think this needs a tripod. If Im walking around shooting handheld I think Id rather use the EF 70-300 5.6L IS as I get more consistently sharp photos with it. If you normally shoot with a tripod, or have a very steady hand, this might be the lens for you.

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