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Canon 500mm f4 IS (1 Viewer)

Bojangle

Bojangle

A Bird in the Scope is worth two in the bush
Great to find this Bird forum and even better to find photographic sections. I am about to part with £4000 for this Canon 500mm lens, does anyone have any strong views that would either encourage me to go ahead and buy or suggest an alternative. It seems to me that weight versus quality is key and that this lens is probably the top end of both.

Look forward to hearing anyones views

Bo:hi:
 
Bojangle said:
Great to find this Bird forum and even better to find photographic sections. I am about to part with £4000 for this Canon 500mm lens, does anyone have any strong views that would either encourage me to go ahead and buy or suggest an alternative. It seems to me that weight versus quality is key and that this lens is probably the top end of both.

Look forward to hearing anyones views

Bo:hi:
Click to expand...

Hi Bo and welcome to Birdforum. Can't be too helpful on the lens other than to say that if I could afford the 500mm f4 I'd buy one straight away. The lens has a great reputation and its hard to think of anything that would match it.

Look forward to seeing your shots in the gallery

Paul
 
Hi Bojangle. I have never met or even heard of someone who has bought one of these and regretted it. You could have mine, but only if it's from my cold, dead hands.
 
Hi Bo,
This is a superb birding lens. 600mm IS will obviously give greater magnification but is just that little bit too heavy & unwieldy to cart through forests or over distance.

The optical quality of this lens is amazing. I often use it handheld with 1.4x converter to get images I would otherwise have no chance of getting. With a 1D mkII/III or 1Ds you will still get autofocus with a 2x converter ( & even with a 1.4x & 2x stacked >>surprisingly good image quality in good light).
 
paul goode said:
Can't be too helpful on the lens other than to say that if I could afford the 500mm f4 I'd buy one straight away. The lens has a great reputation and its hard to think of anything that would match it.
Click to expand...

Totally agree with this - it's a dream bit of glass, I'm sure you'll be delighted to own it.
 
Hi Bojangle,welcome to the birdforum.Dont know much about the lens but you are not a million miles from me!(ebbw vale).Probably bump into you sometime.Mike.
 
I went through all this last year or so and went for the 500f4isL as it can be hand held for a short time takes a 1.4tc very well too, i really belive regardless of cost it is the best overall.
Rob
 
Hello Bojangle,

It's is a superb lens.I have my 500 for almost a year now and don't regret a minute of it.The quality of the glass is exellent. Have a look at my pbase-site for some results. www.pbase.com/niwde

Regards Edwin.
 
Bojangle said:
Great to find this Bird forum and even better to find photographic sections. I am about to part with £4000 for this Canon 500mm lens, does anyone have any strong views that would either encourage me to go ahead and buy or suggest an alternative. It seems to me that weight versus quality is key and that this lens is probably the top end of both.

Look forward to hearing anyones views

Bo:hi:
Click to expand...
Haven't used the lens, so can't comment. However, the price seems awfully high. B&H in New York has it for ~$5300 USD, which should work out to ~2650 pounds. Is there a reason people from UK don't buy from the U.S., like prohibitive shipping or tariffs?
 
Thanks

Thanks everyone for the prompt responses, sounds like its the right one for me from all that you have said. Can`t wait to get it into action. Unfortunately my 20D and 5D will not be able to auto focus the 2x converter from what has been said, what are the results of manually focussing with a 2x like anyone?

Bo
 
Harold Stiver said:
It's is a superb lens and the quality control seems to be excellent as I never hear complaints about a "bad copy"
Click to expand...

I've read a few - just today for example, someone with a bad front focus issue with theirs; I've seen AF problems discussed, and even basic sharpness problems.

Wouldn't put me off though - there has to be the odd bad apple in every basket.
 
nomdeploom said:
Haven't used the lens, so can't comment. However, the price seems awfully high. B&H in New York has it for ~$5300 USD, which should work out to ~2650 pounds. Is there a reason people from UK don't buy from the U.S., like prohibitive shipping or tariffs?
Click to expand...

How the costings go (using vague guesses for rates/amounts):
USD 5300 -> GBP 2650 at central bank rate
+ 100 (?) shipping + insurance -> 2750
+ 1% (?) currency conversion = 27.5 -> 2777.5
+ 10% (?) import duty = 277.75 -> 3055.25
+ 17.5% VAT (sales tax) = 534.67 -> 3589.92
+ 20 (?) carrier's handling charge for collecting duty/tax -> 3609.92

So you could save just shy of 10%.

On the other hand, you don't get to handle the lens beforehand, there can be warranty issues, legal issues in the case of a dispute, do you have to return the lens to the US for service/fault repair? etc etc.

There are assorted tricks to try and avoid some of the costs, but a) HM Customs & Excise have seen them all before, and b) if you get caught, it will end up costing you considerably more than the UK price, and possibly a criminal record too.
 
Bojangle said:
Thanks everyone for the prompt responses, sounds like its the right one for me from all that you have said. Can`t wait to get it into action. Unfortunately my 20D and 5D will not be able to auto focus the 2x converter from what has been said, what are the results of manually focussing with a 2x like anyone?

Bo
Click to expand...

Stack two 1.4X TCs. I do this and AF works just great on my 30D. From all reports the IQ is as good or better than using a 2X TC. Unfortunately one of the TCs (the closest to the camera) will have to be a brand other than Canon. You can not stack two Canon TCs because of the protruding front element. Note, this gives you more flexibilty. It is faster in the field to take one 1.4X TC off than to take a 2X TC off and replace it with a 1.4X TC. The only minor drawback is that the EXIF data will not show that you are using 2 TCs.
 
Ive been using this lens forabout 2 month now and at first struggled to get good images,at first i didnt know if it was my long lens technique or the shallow depth of field or the camera slightly miss focussing so took it to Canon service they checked out the lens matched it to my 20D gave it a sensor clean updated the firmware ready 24 hours later no charge( You cant get better service than that).Since then my hit rate has improved but iam still getting useto this lens,one big advantage it does have is there is no difference in quality when the 1.4x extender is attached even wide open and i find i leave it attached all the time.(when i was using the extender with the 400 5.6L lens i was never happy with the results unless it was stropped down to F11)If buying from the USA it works out at the price of the lens plus shipping=£2740 +6.7% import duty=£2924 +17.5% vat=£3435 +your bank or credit card will charge 2.6% or 2.7% of the $ price for converting from £ to $ about £75=£3510 plus the shipping company may make a charge when they collect the taxes.Ive not checked B&H price but you would need to order the USA model to have a warranty over here.
 
Last edited:
There is a quality difference when you put a converter on it. I use the Canon 1.4 converter with my 500/4 regularly, and although the combination produces great results, the bare lens is nevertheless even better. It comes down to basic laws of optics: no matter how good your glass is, the more layers of glass the photons have to pass through, the more degredation of the image.
 
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