Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS 1.4x Full Review

British photographer Andy Rouse spent 6 months with Canon’s new EF 200-400mm f/4L IS 1.4X lens. His extensive review is now online, and comes with plenty of sample images. All aspects of this lens are examined.

About image quality:

In my experience, and I frankly cannot be arsed to do a pointless side by side comparison, the 200-400 produces images that are perfectly good enough for publication. I have published many images with it already, from high class A3 calendars to an advertising campaign ( all with the EXIF removed by the way ), and not once has the quality been questioned.

Final words:

The Canon 200-400mm lens is the first in a generation, ground breaking, and how often have we been able to say that in the past few years. Who knows whether we will get IN-BUILT teleconverters in other Canon lenses, I am sorry but I am not party to that information! Its my view that the new Canon 200-400mm is just great, thats all I can say. In fact you know what, we should start calling it the 200-560mm lens because that is really what it is. Using the teleconverter is so seamless now that I dont even think about it, in fact most of the time I have it engaged and am using a 280mm – 560mm lens, perfect for wildlife, sports and aviation photography. Thats if you have a full-frame sensor of course, if you have a cropped sensor then you are effectively using a 300-840mm lens

Pre-orders for this $11,799 lens are possible at Amazon(click here) and Adorama (click here) and B&H (click here). There is also a hard lens case for the EF 200-400mm, sold for $799.95 at Adorama (click here) and for $649 at B&H (click here). To see the specification sheet click here. The lens is expected to ship May 30.