Canon EF 800mm f/5.6L IS USM Super Telephoto Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras

Buy Cheap Canon EF 800mm f/5.6L IS USM Super Telephoto Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras

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This is the longest telephoto lens among Canon's lineup, and a terrific choice for any long-distance application-outdoor sports, wildlife, news photojournalism, and so on. It's actually lighter than Canon's EF 600mm f/4L IS lens, weighing just under 10 lbs. It uses a refined optical design, with two fluorite lens elements, one UD element, and one Super-UD-glass element, for outstanding correction of color fringing and superb contrast and sharpness. This super-telephoto lens uses magnesium-alloy barrel construction to enhance its light weight, and has weather-resistant gaskets throughout for use in harsh conditions. It's compatible with both the EF 1.4x II and 2x II tele extenders for even more reach: EOS cameras with 45 AF points will continue to provide autofocus at the center AF point when the lens is used with the 1.4x extender. Finally, it's image stabilized, providing up to 4 stops of correction for camera shake. This makes it even more practical in many situations.
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Technical Details

- The Canon EF800mm f/5.6L IS USM, which is a L (Luxury) series lens incorporating a high-performance Image Stabilizer
- Feature optical systems utilizing special optical materials such as fluorite
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 "Took The Plunge" 2009-05-05
By W. Giordano (florida keys)
Had the Canon 500mm f 4.0 super telephoto and was very satisfied with the superb quality but found I needed more reach without using the 1.4x and 2x teleconverters. Having to change converters in the field, with weather and huimidity being what it is here in south Florida concerned me.

With the bare lens I can achieve the same result as I did with the 500mm without fumbling to attach the converters on the fly.

Just a note: Some may disagree, but I saw no discernable I.Q. degradation from the 1.4x converter when attached to the 500mm. With the 2x there was a slight softness at long range.

I use the 800mm with a Canon 50D and Canon 5d MarkII with wonderful results.

The drop-in 52mm circular polarizing filter[accessory] provides gorgeous color contrast and saturation during cloudless sunny daytime use.

Super fast auto-focus with two IS settings that help keep this large lens functioning in windy conditions.

Another note: This lens will auto-focus fast with the aforementioned camera bodies but will not auto-focus if a 1.4x converter is attached, although the IS will function. You would need to use a 1D or 1Ds series body to have auto-focus function with the 1.4x converter and then it would only utilize the center focus point. Auto-focus will not work with "any" camera body with the 2x converter attached to this lens....

Have taken some great wildlife shots down here in the Everglades and Florida Keys and hope to get to use this amazing lens in other locales soon


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Canon EF 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6L IS USM Lens

Buy Cheap Canon EF 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6L IS USM Lens

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A handy, compact zoom lens for versatile and easy subject selection while traveling, etc. The highest optical performance in its class, plus the convenience of focusing as close as 2.3 feet over the entire zooming range. A powerful ring-type USM drive provides silent, high-speed autofocusing, plus the wide zooming range provides an easy, enjoyable picture-taking experience.
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Technical Details

- Handy, compact zoom lens for versatile and easy subject selection while travelling
- Incorporates Canon's Image Stabilization (IS) technology
- Powerful ring-type USM drive provides silent, high-speed autofocusing
- Optimized to suppress ghosting and flaring, ideal for use with digital cameras
- Rugged dust-proof and drip-proof construction, designed for professional photographers working in harsh environments
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 "My only travel lens..." 2010-01-13
By pereirap
The only lens you need to carry when traveling. The choice was between a two lens solution of a 24-70/f2.8 + 70-200/f2.8 or just this one lens. I rented the 70-200/f2.8 and this lens to try them back to back. The weight differential is not that noticeable. The choice came to lower overall weight of the one lens solution over the two lens solution. The compromise was in losing the f2.8 capability. I shoot with a 5D mk II and already have a 24-70/f2.8, the plan was to use the 24-70/f2.8 for indoors/lower light and the 28-300 as the outdoor/bright light solution. However knowing my intense dislike for changing lenses. It turns out that I am seldom using the 24-70/f2.8 anymore. For recent travel I just carried the 28-300 lens as the sole lens and addressed the low light requirements by carrying the very compact EX270 flash Canon Speedlite 270EX Flash for Canon Digital SLR Cameras



The 28-300 is definitely heavy but it is still lighter than a camera bag full of lenses. I have done away with the 5D strap and use the following strap Op/Tech Bino/Cam Harness, Elastic Version for Cameras & Binoculars - Black which takes the load off the neck and makes it more evenly distributed on the shoulders. It has the added advantage that it keeps the camera/lens close to your body when hiking rather than swing out and hit something that the neck strap is prone to do.



If you are looking for a one lens solution look no further. It is the L lens to get...

 "Best Lens In Its Class" 2010-01-09
By Mevbo (Akron, Ohio)
It was a long road of trial and error to get me to this lens. I have owned a (All Canon) 18-55 kit lens, a 28-135IS, a 100 macro 2.8IS, a 18-200IS, a 70-300IS, a 70-300DOIS, and a 100-400LIS as either combos or do it all lenses. All the while not completely happy with them (All were sold). I finally bucked up and decided to give this lens a try. I have not looked back once. I read the reviews and found them very helpful, so after having this for about 6 months decided to write one myself. This lens is very often overlooked do to its weight and price. Its reviews while solid were not stellar. I can not put to words how happy I am that I got this lens. The focal length is just plain fantastic and the biggest advantage this lens has. It does like light and performs better outside than in (But most lenses are this way). I get consistent sharp shots at all focal lengths. Auto focus is fast and accurate (Except in low light-it will hunt a bit). IS works great too. Panning mode is great for shooting anything moving left to right or right to left. Just got some great shots of my nephew snow boarding.

Bottom line:

This is an "L" lens and is deserving of the classification.

Focal length can not be touched for the IQ of the shots, period!

Heavy duty construction, very well built.

Heavy! Don't kid yourself that you can get all of these benefits without a tradeoff.

I shoot mostly candid and my kids, but this lens allows me to "Do Anything". Really.

 "The only all in one L zoom" 2010-01-07
By Luving it (Seaside, CA USA)
I use it on 5D shooting mostly kids during field trips.



Pro:



- Good IQ/Color/AF speed, typical L zoom (I'd say it's in the same league as 100-400L and 70-200/2.8 IS L that I used, 28-70L and 70-200/4L probably is better.)

- Good IS

- Hand heldable

- Fast zoom with push pull



Neutral:



- Bought it as second hand with "light use" according to the previous owner. The lens looks good but the damping between the main push/pull cylinders are mostly gone and it sounds like metal to metal when zooming in and out. This also happened to my second hand 28-70 MF ring. L quality is "not forever" after all :)

- The weight is expected and is actually managable if you handled other big L zooms before. better support will bring out better IQ since IS is not everything.



Con:



- Too expensive. I used 40D+ Tamron 18-270 VR, a much cheaper and more flexible combo for the same job. The most obvious advantage of the big L is its unbeatable AF speed and accuracy in any reaonsable lighting condition. Tammy is good, but not in this league. But the price difference is ...





Bottom line -



This is the only real high quality all in one for full frame for bright out door shots.

 "A lens that will blow your socks off!" 2009-12-13
By C. Calder (Florence, SC)
I purchased the EF28-300mm f/3.5-5.6L IS USM lens for my EOS 40D after grueling over it for months. It's a lot of money but after using it, it worth every dime. I had been using the 28-135mm lens and always found myself short in focal length for some shots. The 135mm just isn't enough for many shots. So, I searched and searched and found this lens.



The lens is heavy as others have mentioned but the quality of the photos will ease your pain! I have a couple of different bags to carry it in, depending upon the situation. Let's face it guys & gals, you don't get "something for nothing!" You want that life like shot at any light condition and, you want it at wide angle &/or telephoto ranges; so don't complain!



Canon's quality is obvious in all aspects of this lens from the stabilization system to the fast focus speeds. As you can tell, I in love! This is truly a magnificent lens. It is the 5th Canon Lens that I own. If quality, reliability, flexibility, stability and speed are your game and you take your photography seriously, then this lens is for you. After all, you can buy another body but a lens you keep for a life time.

 "one of the best lenses that will compliment your other lenses" 2009-12-02
By Subodh
I'm not a professional photographer. This was my first L lens. Over a period of time that I acquired other L lenses (70-200mm f/2.8 IS USM, 15mm Fisheye etc) , I've come to realize this lens isn't anywhere lesser in the leagues as other premium Canon lenses like 70-200L lens.



First the Pros:



1. Once you get used to the push-pull zoom, focusing and zooming onto any object, at any distance becomes a snap.

2. Much has been said of the tightening ring, in my experience it has been a life-saver. With the same hand using the zoom push/pull just a flick of finger can increase or decrease the friction and one can adjust how quickly or slowly zoom push pull works.

3. The picture quality is amazing at least on my camera (50D) I did not notice much difference in picture quality between this and the 70-200mm lenses. Maybe it works differently for full-frame cameras.

4. I was quite skeptical about distortions as noted in some of the reviews. But in actual experience, Photoshop always had the correction data since both the 50D and this lens are supported. Its just a matter of loading up the RAW and your PS filters can automatically apply the respective correction for the FL you have the picture taken at.

5. One lens, huge range. One doesn't realize how easy this lens makes it until you've been using it for a while and then one day decide to go back to other lenses.

6. Beautiful pictures, bokeh as well, HDR shots, at least on 50D, there's not a single flaw I could find.

7. The lens is heavy; at least for me it means more stability. Combined with the IS on the lens I can be sure, my hand held shots will rarely have a shake. It may be a matter of personal preference but I did not find the lens to be heavier than two lenses put together to get the same range.

8. For a 3.5, the lens is surprisingly quick(unless in low-light scenarios). I've rarely missed a moment because of the lens. Of course, if you've not used the lens for a while or do not use the fl selector, you could cause the lens to hunt (happened rarely to me but my friends definitely complained about it).



Cons:

1. True, the aperture falls very quickly somewhere after the 50mm range but once you get a hang of how quickly and where, its not much of an issue.

2. In low light conditions, this lens does turn out very slow. Expect grainy, Ghost or long hunting times in the dark. I typically switch to manual focus and manual settings to correct these issues.

3. Obviously, using this lens means you wouldn't be hanging the camera or the lens around your neck. It goes in the backpack!



All in all, I think this is a great lens. It does not replace the 70-200mm plus other lenses to get the same range. It compliments them when you cannot carry multiple lenses. Feel free to look at the images taken by this lens on my Flickr page [...]


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Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM Super Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

Buy Cheap Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM Super Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

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This high-performance lens was designed with portability and handling ease in mind. One super UD-glass element, whose characteristics are similar to fluorite, and one UD-glass element result in sharp pictures from corner-to-corner. The lens also has a built-in hood and a detachable tripod mount.
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Technical Details

- EF mount; super telephoto lens
- Fluorite and Ultra-low Dispersion-glass; internal focusing; full-time manual focus
- 400mm focal length
- f/5.6 maximum aperture
- Micro UltraSonic Motor (USM)
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 "Great tele lens for handheld action shooting and light gear" 2010-02-11
By Nachtpfauenauge (Mainhattan)
I use this lens for wildlife photography, in particular to shoot flying birds. I prefer prime lenses as I want tack sharp images to get with my EOS 50D the full tele extension of its smaller crop sensor. I was really thinking about saving a lot of my Euro cents for one of Canons super teles. But besides their enourmos price level (I am still an amateur!) I hated the idea to carry such a big & heavy lens in the wilderness, plus being completely fixed on using a tripod. Many of my best photos I catched with a handheld shot. After some research on the internet I came across this "forgotten" tele lens in Canon's portfolio, and some nice picture examples of wildlife photographers immediatly convinced me that I may have found what I am looking for. And I was right!



The EF 400 mm f/5.6 USM is Canon's most aged tele lens that is still in brandnew copies available (since 1993). It has only a small aperture of 5.6 and no image stabilization. So on paper it does not look sexy - but it did to me! With a weight of only 1250 g (44.1 oz) and a length of 257 mm (77 mm filters) it feels extremely well balanced in the hand with the 50D: take a handy bottle of water, add in your mind a camera body to it and you get a first idea of how it handles. In particular it's image quality turned out to be very good: I can use it fully open (f/5.6) and get already very sharp pictures. In terms of picture angle you get with Canon's crop sensors theoretically a veeeery long 640 mm tele. In reality, as it is so sharp, you get about this tele reach when there is enough daylight available - great! Finally, it's Bokeh is very nice - it's a real "L" lens!



Another big plus is its extremely quick, responsive and surprisingly precise USM autofocus drive that allows full time manual focusing: if you switch the drive to a long distance mode (8 m closest distance) you get focus hunting quite well under control even if the background is vivid (at least with the 50D). This is much more an issue with the smaller brother Canon EF 300mm f/4L IS USM Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras that I use very often, too.



As I shoot mostly sort of action with it and therefore need quick shutter speeds, I do not really miss image stabilization. It helps to get a quiter picture in the optical viewfinder, but the difference is not too much compared with the 300 mm with IS. You need of course to train a bit before you get successful handheld shots of, say, a flying bird, since your angle of view is quite narrow. But you can learn it successfully! Now I shoot with it and the 50D in combo more sharp action tele photos as with the 300 mm f/4.0L IS USM.



Mechanically, this lens is built like a tank. It has a nice retractable "push & screw" lens hood that protects the front lens well (so you do not need a light consuming protection filter). It's precise and very sensitive mechanical focus ring is a pleasure to use. In fact it has a double focus ring with two diameter sizes so even women with smaller hands than me (average male hand size I'd say :-) ) should be happy with this tele lens.



Overall it's price-performance ratio is super! I can highly recommend it to anyone who can get used to prime lenses instead of zooms.



Another pluses: since this lens does not look as impressive as Canon's big super tele lenses you get not bothered with "expert talks" by freaks when you want to shoot, not to talk. And: it does not radiate so much the "I am expensive please steal me" appeal... that's relaxing if you travel with it around.



Comparison with the EF 300 mm f/4.0L IS USM:



I use both lenses very often. They look like brothers and have both retractable lens hoods. The 300 mm is shorter and more sturdy as it's IS drive requires more space. But their characters are very different! With a closest distance of only 3.5 m and a small maximum magnification of 0.12x the 400 mm is a true tele lens (with a crop cam you can of course fill the picture easily with a bird, no worry). The 300 mm allows 1.5 m approach and then an maximum magnification of 0.24x - so it's a really great "distance macro". And at close distance it turns out that its IS is extremely useful, like a built-in tripod. As the 300 mm combines both decent macro and tele capabilities it turned out to be my standard lens in nature. The 400 mm serves me perfectly if I only need as much tele as possible. Both lenses make less than 2.5 kg in the gear so you really can carry both plus one ore two camera bodys and a few smaller lenses - even in a very rough environment when you need mobility.

 "Very pleased with this lens." 2010-02-06
By Ronald C. Pacanowski (Yardley, PA)
I thought about buying the Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L lens for about one year and read most of the reviews during that time before taking the plunge and buying it. Reviews of this lens are generally very favorable except for the occasional bad copy. The lens arrived well before the expected date. I tested it against my Canon EF 180mm f/3.5L Macro USM lens which is tack sharp. Both lenses were tripod mounted for the test and focused on an object 37 feet away under natural lighting in my house. Exposures were at F5.6 and F8 with mirror lock up and a remote switch on a Canon 40D. I noted that the lens also had a very fast auto focus even under relatively low light(exposures were 1/25sec). From the reviews, I expected the EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens to perform well. But this lens exceeded my expectations. Pictures from my copy are as sharp as those from the macro lens. Next, I added a Canon 1.4x extender to the EF 400mm f/5.6L lens and let the camera and lens equilibrate to the outside temperature (40F) for 45min. Then I took a picture of the moon with a remote switch and 10x magnification on live view to manually focus. The pictures were shockingly crisp. Again, this lens exceeded my expectation. I have not tried this lens on wildlife yet. But I fully expect that this lens will produce stunning photos with hand holding when the exposure is 1/1000 sec or faster.

 "My Wildlife Lens" 2009-12-16
By RDSpock (Harrisonville, MO United States)
I will add a few comments to the excellent reviews and information I have found here. The 400mm lens by Canon is not the newest lens or the biggest but for my use, it has proved to be a fine addition to my zoom lenses on my Canon Rebel XSi. I use this lens for bird and wildlife photographs. I can not add much in terms of technical information, but I can share some things to get good results.



You must be very aware of your light source. Good light is critial to good, detailed photos with this lens. If your subject is in shade or shadow, the picture may be improved with computer manipulation, but in full light the 400mm will give you outstanding detail. You will also need to use your feet to get the shot framed properly. You need to physicaly move, rather than zoom in or out, to the get the composition you desire. True, you will crop photos later to get the right "look" but closer is still usually better. When I photograph birds flying overhead, the detail is quite good even when a 50% crop is used. I have set the ISO to 400 to help with blur as my subjects often do not pose as I might like. The use of a monopod has been helpful to give support and still be somewhat portable. Most of my shots are hand held and for the most part have been in focus. However, if there is a tree or post to lean against, don't pass it up! I carried this lens on a 2.5 mile hike and I thought my arms were about to fall off so you might want to invest in a backpack to carry this lens and your other equipment.



The 400mm is a prime lens, no moving parts and built for hard use. This is the "baby" of the Canon super telephoto series (and the least expensive, but not cheap) and, in my opinion, a fine lens for nature photographs.

 "Tack Sharp, Extremely Versatile, Incredible Image Quality" 2009-12-03
By Eric C. Reuter (Southern New Jersey Shore)
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.

 "Canon EF 400mm zoom lens" 2009-10-27
By Bat Man (Tennessee USA)
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.


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