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Originally Posted by PCH
thanks for your detailed reply, - though I have to say it sounds very much like you're light years ahead of where I am photographically  |
No worries, I've played with and own lots of Canon lenses
Don't worry about the jargon - a lot of is really just comparing a lens that performs at 99.0% of "perfect" versus another that is 99.5% perfect. Either way, they're all great lenses capable of great photos.
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You make an interesting point re the age of the design of the IS feature on the 100-400. Is there a more recent version of essentially the same lens that you know of? Or does it not really make that much difference?
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Yep, the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6
L IS USM Telephoto Lens (note the L designation) is the modern day replacement for the 100-400: it gives a 112-480 mm full-frame equivalent on a crop camera.
It's a lot sharper than the 100-400 as you can see from the following link. If you move your mouse repeatedly on and off the images of the funny lines - it lets you judge the relative sharpness of the two lenses.
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/R...mp=5&APIComp=1
Flare and ghosting have also substantially improved in the 70-300 (important if you shoot things like sunsets). Easier to see than to explain:
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/R...mp=0&APIComp=1
The 70-300 is also cheaper than the 100-400 brand new, about 25% lighter, and physically about 5 cm shorter. (Warning: there are two versions of the 70-300s... you want the white "L" version.)
Bottom line: if you know you're going to be shooting at 400 mm a LOT (e.g. bird photography) or you get an awesome second hand deal, I'd go with the 100-400 or 400 f/5.6. All other cases... go with the 70-300L.
PS: here are a couple of examples of how insanely good some of Canon's most recent lenses are. The sunset was part of a time lapse, shot with the 70-200 f/2.8 IS II - straight out of camera aside from white balance + cropping. The moon was a 100% crop (i.e. each pixel you see is one pixel from the captured image) with the 200 mm f/2 - with a massively scaled down telescope image for comparison. Amazing!