Canon EF 400/f5.6 L USM + EOS 7D Mk II combo anyone??? (1 Viewer)

[BoldenEagle]

I used this set (bought secondhand of course) about 7 years before I had EF 300/f2.8 L IS USM II (which was waaay too expensive, even secondhand, for an amateur photographer like me).

Allthough 300/f2.8 L IS is more cabable and versatile (excellent with the 1.4x teleconverter and very usable with the 2x), I still miss my 400/f5.6 L... It was, even with it's cons (no IS, quite long mfd, just f5.6), extremely high quality piece of equipment, optically and mechanically. Especially for BIF the EF 400/f5.6 L + 7D Mk II was a killer combo; due to fast shutter speeds required anyway no need for an IS and 7D Mk II also offered, by my standards, quite reasonably high ISO quality (the eurasian wren is ISO5000). I rarely used tripod or monopod but with some luck I sometimes managed to get quite decent shots with low light scenarios. The 400/f5.6 was sharp wide open, no need to stop down unless for a greater DOF.

Luckily I can look back the legendary 400/5.6L USM by many pictures I took with it over the years! In a fact, I sold it to my friend and negotiated an option to loan it if I will sometime go for a longer trek, so maybe we will reunite some day in the future...





Regards, Juhani

 

[The BulbMogul]

I used this set (bought secondhand of course) about 7 years before I had EF 300/f2.8 L IS USM II (which was waaay too expensive, even secondhand, for an amateur photographer like me).

Allthough 300/f2.8 L IS is more cabable and versatile (excellent with the 1.4x teleconverter and very usable with the 2x), I still miss my 400/f5.6 L... It was, even with it's cons (no IS, quite long mfd, just f5.6), extremely high quality piece of equipment, optically and mechanically. Especially for BIF the EF 400/f5.6 L + 7D Mk II was a killer combo; due to fast shutter speeds required anyway no need for an IS and 7D Mk II also offered, by my standards, quite reasonably high ISO quality (the eurasian wren is ISO5000). I rarely used tripod or monopod but with some luck I sometimes managed to get quite decent shots with low light scenarios. The 400/f5.6 was sharp wide open, no need to stop down unless for a greater DOF.

Luckily I can look back the legendary 400/5.6L USM by many pictures I took with it over the years! In a fact, I sold it to my friend and negotiated an option to loan it if I will sometime go for a longer trek, so maybe we will reunite some day in the future...

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Regards, Juhani

If you like and miss that lens so much, you can still easily go out anywhere and buy one very cheap and I mean peanuts for one.. We all have certain ones will hold dear to our heart and heck, go get yah another one.. Lens is way to slow for me but that just me..

 

[BoldenEagle]

If you like and miss that lens so much, you can still easily go out anywhere and buy one very cheap and I mean peanuts for one.. We all have certain ones will hold dear to our heart and heck, go get yah another one.. Lens is way to slow for me but that just me..

Well, obviously I upgraded to the 300/f2.8 L IS USM II because I wanted certain abilities that the 400/f5.6 just didn't have; IS, f2.8 when needed (or f4 at matching focal lenght with 1.4x teleconverter) and the ability to get even 600mm/f5.6 using the 2x teleconverter and one strong point was the minimal focusing distance (about 2 meters now vs 3.5 meters).

Outside of those and especially with BIF, the 400/f5.6 L USM is very even with my current set; I would argue that it is even better with BIF than my current set. The 400/f5.6 is light and fast to use and gives very little if anything away considering image quality at f5.6, there was more CA than with 300/f2.8 L IS USM II + 1.4x or even 2x teleconverters but it was quite easy to remove in a post processing software (I use just Lightroom for my pictures).

Lens and cameras are just tools for me and I don't want to have more than one long prime (allthough I sort of have three now; 300mm/f2.8, 420mm/f4, 600mm/f5.6) at a time so I can learn to use the lens more efficiently. I also don't want to spend too much money on them; I could afford to by for example 600/f4 III or some other L II version long prime lens brand new but I can personally imagine more sound ways of using those extra money and the world is full of second hand stuff (and the Earth also has finite resources so...).

I guess I partly miss the 400/f5.6 because of it's simplicity, the tool like structure and that amazement how good can so cheap lens be. Also my photographing skills are not that high that I could say I mastered this lens abilities; the current 300/f2.8 sets even higher standards...

But as I wrote; I still can loan the 400/f5.6 from my friend if needed

Regards, Juhani