Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM Super Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

I used my 400mm this weekend on a whale watch cruise and I loved it, I learned with a lens this big I gotta get a tripod though. I can't hold it as steady as I did the 200mm but wow what great pictures!

I've used this lens now exclusively for nature photography, primarily birds. Especially birds in flight. The shots I get with this lens (paired with an EOS 50D) elicit comments from other photographers with words like "incredible", "that sharp as hell lens you have..", "amazing detail!". I've taken probably 100,000 photos with this lens out in the field in the 15 months I've owned it. You cannot go wrong with the lens. The auto-focus is extraordinarily fast, and when you switch it from 3.5m-infinity to 8.5m to infinity, the speed is almost instantaneous for shots at a distance. It also seems to eliminate "hunting" for focus if you miss your target initially. Just remember to switch it back to 3.5m-infinity for closer shots! Bird photography is extremely demanding and difficult. This lens gives me the ability to walk and carry a long lens with great "reach" pretty much anywhere. Like others who have reviewed this lens mention, I never stop it down from wide open. It's sharp to the edges, and there's not a hint of chromatic bleeding or halos anywhere. In good light, I can use very high shutter speeds while keeping ISO values low, enabling high detail and great stop motion capture shots of birds in flight. This is THE lens for hand-held bird and nature photography. Buy it. Don't even think about it.

The lens is great and quick focus and IS ability of camera make pictures very sharp. Even distant subjects can be cropped and are still sharp. Excellent lens for animal photography, and setting lens at 5.6 makes for faster shutter speeds to stop action. Raising ISO also helps, but in bright light not needed as much. My only problem with this lens in my first two weeks of use was taking it to Florida to some boardwalks, and some birds and alligators were so close to the boardwalk that I couldn't get the whole subject in the frame, sometimes not taking the shot, although sometimes this made for great portraits. Normally the subjects are not going to be this close, and in most instances I was able to back up enough to take the photo. I'll sacrifice the pound of weight to be too close sometimes.

Great lens if you can get it right... I had to send mine back to Canon twice for calibration, second time with the camera.. Fist time lens was found with a broken USM.. Fortunately they replaced it but it came back so so.. Pics were not sharp as this lens is known to be... As of this writing, I haven't received my lens back yet, so will see... I purchased this lens in April of 09...

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I am very happy with this purchase. The extremely fast auto-focus makes catching shots I am after much easier than with any other lens I currently own. I highly recommend it, especially for nature photography.