Sunday, August 10, 2008

This is MY new toy

Recently I purchased my first L-series lens. EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM. The reasoning behind this rather expensive purchase was the desire to have a large, reasonably fast, sharp, image-stablised zoom for wildlife photography.


So, after reading reviews on line, and looking carefully at the Lidgard Photography budget, I purchased this lens. I used it recently on a photoshoot to Five Islands Provincial Park. I will also be using it this month on a 5 day field trip on the Bay of Fundy shooting whales and dolphins. I will post some of these images soon.

Its quite heavy to hold but the IS helps a lot here. Very fast focusing. The push-pull zoom takes a little adjusting to but not bad, and the photos I have seen so far are nice and crisp. Really good, and very happy.
Damian

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, with the sensor multiplication factor of 1.6x, this gives you over 600mm at the zoom end?? Is f4.5 fast enough, even with IS? Also, is L-series a little overkill for an APS-C sized sensor? I thought L was needed for full-frame, so that the superior optical performance of these lenses minimises light drop off (vignetting) at the corners. On the smaller sensors, this is not an issue. I guess it's future proof, if you ever upgraded to a 5D (or it's replacement) or a 1Ds MkIII. Still, the lens will be terrific, and you should be some excellent shots. What's the handle for underneath?

Ivan

Damian Lidgard said...

I used the lens in rather dim light on a recent photo shoot and it performed very well; that was hand held with IS. So, so far I think it is. And the reviews that I read also suggested that. As for the L factor, I thought hard about this one. Again the reviews pushed me toward this lens, irrespective of the L, rather than the 100-300mm IS lens. This lens is also used for the photo-id of whales/dolphins where speed is crucial. The long term investment was the deciding factor.

I have seen a few images from this lens, taken at 600mm, and they are far better (very crisp) than the 100-300mm lens I also have (and which is about to be sold).

The handle is actually for a tripod attachment.

Damian

Colin said...

Very snazzy! Does Sue know? :)