Frequently Recommended Lenses

Canon EF 100-400mm F4.5/5.6L Lens: Welcome to the next level, both in terms of price and performance. The 100-400 mm lens actually occupies a midpoint in price and quality between the budget 55-250mm and the big 500 and 600 mm primes, which run well into five figures. The 100-400 mm is an L series lens which means it has Canons highest quality fluorite and super UD glass elements and is weather resistant. It is built like a tank. In contrast to many lenses it has a push-pull zoom, as opposed to a rotating zoom. This type of zoom is controversial and you either like it or you don’t. Personally I find that it is much faster than a conventional zoom. You can quickly locate birds in flight at 100mm then very quickly zoom to 400 mm.

The lens focuses very fast. It has two m autofocus modes, one from 1.8 m to infinity and one that goes from 6.5m to infinity. The lens will focus much faster in the 6.5m to infinity mode. There are also two image stabilization modes. Mode 1 which corrects vibrations in all directions and mode 2 which corrects vertical camera doing following shots in a horizontal direction and horizontal camera shake during following shots in vertical directions. Mode 2 is designed for panning shots.

The Canon EF 100-400 mm is not a light lens. It weighs around three pounds and it will dwarf an xxd Camera. It has a separate tripod mount, so the camera is better balanced when this lens is used. This lens is designed for the serious wildlife/ sports photographer. It comes with a hood and carrying case.

Below is a picture taken with the 100-400mm lens. Settings: 1/250 sec, F6.3, ISO 1600 focal length 400mm

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