I’ve previously written up a short review of this lens (see my post titled “Canon 400mm 5.6 L USM- Mini review“) but wanted to follow it up with another, more in-depth review.
Although I recently fell in love with the Canon 500mm f/4 L IS USM lens after renting it from Borrowlenses.com, the Canon 400mm 5.6 L lens is my current workhorse. It stays on my Canon 7D constantly.
What I love about the Canon 400mm 5.6 L
This is a great lens for birding and/or wildlife photography. It also makes a great lens for just about any type of photography…if you’re far enough away from the subject 
You can pick it up for ~$1200 from Adorama (B&H and Amazon sell it for the same price), which is about one-fifth the price of both the Canon 500mm f/4 (~$6100) and Canon 400mm f/4 DO IS (~$5800) and about one-sixth the price of the Canon 400 f/2.8 (~$7200).
In addition to the great price, this sucker is light, weighing in at 2.8 pounds (1.25Kg) – compare that to the 8.5 pounds of the 500mm, 4.3 pounds of the 400mm f/4 DO and 11 pounds (!) of the 400mm 2.8.
Add focus speed to the price and weight and you’ve almost got a perfect lens (see below for why it isn’t perfect). Take this lens out on a bright day and hit your shutter to focus….you’ll probably be surprised at how fast it is. This lens is quick. Even on cloudy days you’ll be OK. Take this lens outside when its not quite daylight, and the AF system will hunt a bit. But that’s to be expected from a 5.6 lens in low light.
What I don’t like about the Canon 400mm 5.6 L
There are only two things that I don’t like about this lens: No image stabilization and an aperture of 5.6.
The lack of image stabilization on this lens brings the value down tremendously for me. While I can use a tripod or monopod to help stabilize (and you should at that focal length anyway), I like to be able to handhold while out and about sometimes and it’s extremely hard for me to do that with this lens and keep it steady.
Prior to this lens, I had the Canon 100-400mm IS L USM lens. I didn’t realize how badly I tremor while holding a camera/lens until after I moved to the 400 5.6.
The only other issue of this lens is the 5.6 aperture. While that aperture is OK, it does keep me a stop or two away from getting some excellent low light shots using a decent ISO. That’s not as a big of an issue with my Canon 7D now (beautiful at higher ISO’s!) but it would be nice to see an f/4 on this lens.
That 5.6 aperture also takes away my auto-focus when i have an extender on. I’ve used the 400 5.6 with the Canon EF 1.4X II Extender but without AF, I’m stuck when trying to shoot birds in flight and other moving animals. I did try the “tape the pins” method and got AF to work, but I’m not thrilled with the performance of the combo (400 5.6 + 1.4X)…the AF is slow and hunts a lot. Now…if i were to throw this combo on a 1D body, I’m sure it’d be fine….but I don’t have a 1D body so it doesn’t work for me.
Wish List
Canon – Give me a 400mm f/4 with image stabilization that weighs less than the 500mm f/4 and I’ll be a happy. Make that 400mm f/4 work take an extender like the 500mm and I’ll be set.
Oh. Wait.
I guess they already did give me a 400mm f/4 with IS….the Canon 400mm f/4 DO IS has been out for quite some time and always gets excellent reviews. But I think that design (along with the 400 5.6) is getting a little old. Time for something new Canon. Please?
Or…perhaps I’ll just upgrade to the Canon 500mm and be done with it.
Conclusion
This is a great lens. If you can’t afford to jump up to the big lens listed above, try this one out.
To get consistently sharp images, you’ll need a tripod or monopod and/or excellent hand-holding techniques. Pair this lens up with the new Canon 7D and add in some photography skills, you’ll get some wonderful results.
