Mohain said:
Racing car pics aren't really my thing but these are nice and sharp and the colour rendition is lovely.
Congrats on your new toy
thanks mohain
ok, well here is my very ameuter review of the 100-400
L
After spending a while chatting to SDK about various lenses, thanks SDK
and reading about 2 months worth of reviews i decided it was time to upgrade my telephoto lens. I started off looking at something in the 70-200 catagory as you will have noticed by reading my other thread. Eventually i made the decision that this wasnt going to be long enough so i started to look at longer lenses like the sigma 50-500 and the canon 100-400L. It actually took me a while to justify this kind of expence on buying "just a lens" as behind my car this was my single biggest purchase.
After playing (read testing) in my local shop for about an hour i was really blown away by the quality and hsarpness of the canon.
first of all it weighs quite a bit, i think i will get used to this as time goes on. pretty sure it weights in at about 1.3kg. That is the only non positive thing i can say about the lens.
i was using it in TV mode with a shutter speed of 1/250 and centre weighted focusing and when i say focusing is instant, i really do mean instant!!! its that fast.
With regard to the colour rendition again its top drawer, i can only compare it to my old lens (sigma 70-300 dg macro) but the way the colours are recorded is stunning, i mean when i put some of these images into photoshop and auto leveled them nothing changed
It seems to capture eveything as i saw it.
also, for me i find the IS a godsend really with my shakey hands, like for instance when i was tracking those cars i had the IS set to mode to which helps keep the picture steady when panning moving subjects. This really did make a huge difference, there was no blurryness at all.
I have only had this lens for a day and a bit now but i feel i have got some good photos with it already. I KNOW there is a lot more to learn with this lens and photography in general but i am really blown away by it. It is my first L glass and i have to say, if this is anything to go by, i will definatly be buying more in the future.
I am fully aware though, having said this, that its not the lens the makes the picture, it is the PHOTOGRAPHER!!
Having a good lens does help but you have to know how to get the best from it, and that is something i am definatly still learning.
I hope this has been of some help to people that are considering this lens and im sure some of the other guys on the forum who have the lens will come and correct my on anything they feel is not quite right or anything i have missed.
