200-400 f/4.0 1.4x - My hands on review and samples.

riknash wrote:

Conan Butcher wrote:

..snip..

I LOVE this lens and I now intend to sell my 100-400 L and 600mm f/4 L as soon as practical as purchase a 200-400.

Do you feel that using both the built-in TC coupled with an external 1.4 TC, provides much more versatility without compromise to image quality over the lens you plan to sell? I'm having a hard time accepting that the optics would be as good as the 600/4. Perhaps your 600/4 is not the latest generation?

Hi,

I have not been able to compare these side by side. My 600mm is the Mark I USM with IS - it's not the latest Mark II. Also my 1.4x is only a Mark I.

Without having the ability to do a side by side comparison it's very hard to say. However with an external 1.4x you get 280mm to 784mm f/8.0 which is a huge range in a fairly light package.

I mostly use the 600mm on safari and I love it, however grabbing another body or changing lenses is less than ideal in a dusty and often bumpy situation. Also I plan to try gorilla trekking next year, and the 600mm is really too large and heavy for this - and taking a tripod not practical - as there is likely to be a lot of hiking involved.

The 200-400 is rather expensive so to justify the cost I would really need to sell my 100-400 and 600.

I do think that the versatility and weight of the 200-400 will make it much of a "go anywhere" package.

Whether it can match a 600 f/4 for quality remains to be seen - I hope someone does a comparison.

Conan.