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100-400 4.5-5.6 L IS lens ?

Started Oct 30, 2013 | Questions thread
R2D2 Forum Pro • Posts: 26,550
Re: 100-400 4.5-5.6 L IS lens ?
1

rebel99 wrote:

Colin Smith1 wrote:

I have the 100-400, purchased around ten years ago and it is sharper at 400mm than the 400 F5.6. You can compare these two lenses at http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/ISO-12233-Sample-Crops.aspx The 100-400 is clearly the winner here. I have a 5DiIII and I used it last weekend with a 1.4X. It was pretty sharp and auto focused albeit a bit slowly. I have heard that some older copies of the 100-400 were not as sharp at 400, but I have no personal knowledge about that.

i don't know what you were looking at but i just compared them at that link @400mm and the 400mm prime is clearly better than 100-400mm it has been proven numerous times that the prime is sharper at 400mm and it is an accepted conclusion by the majority of owners of both lenses

+1

Like the OP, I've seen a number of soft early copies of the 100-400 and none of them were even close to my 400 f/5.6L.  Now two of my best shooting buddies own recently purchased GREAT copies of the 100-400 which are as sharp in the center as my 400 (but not sharper in 1:1 tests).

Having said that, "Romy" (from these parts) has an early 100-400 that beat the odds and is uber-sharp.  Even sharper than the 400 prime he owns.

R2

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