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Who Chose the 300 f4 over the 100-400 for Birding and Why?

Started Jul 29, 2016 | Discussions thread
Trevor Carpenter
Trevor Carpenter Forum Pro • Posts: 19,435
Re: Who Chose the 300 f4 over the 100-400 for Birding and Why?
1

Because the 300 is better.  At least it is in absolute conditions and an optimum subject.  It would be silly to think otherwise when it costs nearly twice as much and it's a prime.

But the 10-400 is a lot lighter and still gets a bit heavy for me on walks and when shooting fast moving BIFs for any length of time. The extra 100mm is very useful for BIFs.  I agree for most birds a fixed max length is fine but for some BIFs I do use the zoom down to as low as 100mm just because it makes following the target much easier.  In my case my secondary use is aviation and not having a zoom would mean me missing many shots.

There is some truth in 75-300 or 100-300 providing good results but I can show you shots taken 7 years ago with my FZ50 that are magic.  The point is that you get more of those shots with the new lenses, more consistently and with a great deal more predictability.  The 100-400 is in a different class as is the 300.

 Trevor Carpenter's gear list:Trevor Carpenter's gear list
Panasonic G85 Panasonic Lumix DC-G9 OM-1 Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 60mm F2.8 Macro Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-140mm F3.5-5.6 O.I.S +1 more
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