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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
differences between versions of the EF400mm f/2.8
Patrick Murphy-Racey, Photographer
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Powell | TN | USA | Posted: 10:09 AM on 02.07.10 |
->> A guy asked me some questions about the various versions of this lens offered by Canon since 1990. I'm pretty sure this is acurate but if you see a mistake, simply comment on the thread. Here is my response in case it helps others:
EF400mm f/2.8L usm/Mark I: heavy but sharp. has decent AF speed but as the lens ages, the brushes on the motor need to be cleaned every once in a while. this is a labor only thing and usually costs under $300. The early version of this lens had the old style hood with all the little tabs that hit the lens when attached. These early hoods were notorious for losing the screws on the tabs. If you get one of these, remove every screw in the hood and put them back in with clear nail polish which acts as a great lock-tite to keep them from coming out. Usually, this will due you for the duration of ownership... Late in the run, they swtiched to the more current style hood which only has the tightener knob and no additional tabs. Last, the later version hoods the tightener knob is black. When I used to own Photo-Fax, we referred to this copy as the 400mm f/2.8LN (but only the hood was changed).
F400mm f/2.8L II usm/Mark II: shorter by almost 2" than the mark I. The lightest weight one they've ever made. Has perfectly smooth Manual Focus which makes this one the best choice for many for video and stills. the mark I is also great for stills as well. Many shooters found the mark II to be a tad sharper than the mark I but it may be due to slightly higher contrast than better glass, although the optical formula did change from one to the other. There are still parts and service offered at Canon for the mark II as far as I know. Lens hood tightener knob is silver on this vintage lens.
F400mm f/2.8L IS usm: This lens is the current one and has the best AF speed of any of the former. The manual focus sucks, however, as whatever changes they made ruined the feel of the lens on AF. This is the lens I used to shoot the SECHD video and it is very hard to even move the focusing ring. But when you hit the button, the suckler is super fast and tracks well no matter what light you are in. All lens shade/hoods have silver tightener knob.
Last, for more useless trivia on the other changes of Canon long glass, keep reading:
EF200mm f/1.8L usm: this lens never changed at all, but the lens shade did, similar to the 400mm f/2.8L. The later hood was much improved over the old one.
EF200mm f/2 IS usm: There is only one version of this lens. it's awesomely sharp, weighs a lot less than the 1.8 version, and is weighted much better than the 1.8. It is easy to hand-hold and is superfragalisticly accurate on a 7D or Mark 4 body. Canon is charging about $1K too much for this one but I hate to admit it's worth the $5300 I paid for mine... Amazing lens... I look for excuses to shoot it...
EF300mm f/4L usm: early version lacked a screw out locking hood which can be a pain. a fantastic remote lens, very sharp, but has less AF performance than the EF300mm f/4L IS that replaced it.
EF300mm f/4L IS usm: current lens is awesome, a real sleeper with great AF speed. I use this all the time as my shorter lens for football and downcourt for hoops. As the ISO on the digimark 4 chips reaches for silly heights, I see this lens getting very popular with shooters on a budget that can't afford the 2.8 version. Many will save thousands and simply bump up the ISO and go for it.
EF400mm f/5.6L usm: There has only been one version of this lens. it's slow but very tack sharp. I love this lens for shooting coaches on strobes for hoops on the Mark 4 body. it's a little slow on AF but makes up for it with loss of weight and ease of carrying. Also a great lens for auto-racing at places like Sears Point and Talledaga where you have miles and miles of track. You can hump it all day and never feel it. Uoping Canon will update this one and maybeeeee even make a 400mm f/4.5L IS as they already made that focal length in the FD system... Hint, hint...
EF300mm f/2.8L usm: this one I think the tripod mount changed once in the early lens, the hood saw the same changes as the 400 and 200 1.8L, but there was never a major optical change until the IS version.
EF400mm f/4 DO usm mark I: this early lens had a bad reputation. there are some geeks out there especially in the nature shooter realm who can give you serial number runs and/or date codes of which one to stay away from. I had one once and shot a few football games with it but I must have had an older one. there are some good ones out there so I'll call the Mark II of this lens the good one. Pretty vague, I know, but just know there is a good one and an OK one out there if you're looking. maybe someone will post the date codes on a subsequent message for us????
EF600mm f/4L usm: There was only a Mark I version of this lens with the same lens hood changes mentioned above. The IS is the only other lens that they ever made.
EF500mm f/4.5L usm: this one only had one version and the very tail end of production saw the later style lens shade but I don't think they ever made a silver knob--it was always black. There was no mark II lens as they went right into production of the f/4 version with IS.
EF500mm f/4L IS usm: Only one version in this one as it was produced relatively late as compared to the 400mm lens offerings.
Last comments: Canon glass is great stuff! They have recently registered some patents for "plastic lenses" with the US patent office. While their registering these patents does not mean they will for sure go into production, this makes sense. Imagine the weight of the 400mm f/2.8L with a plastic front element... you'd shave maybe 6 lbs off the overall weight. there were also a few new DO lens patents too, so Canon is pushing ahead with this technology as well, which is good. |
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Howard Curtis Smith, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Easton | PA | USA | Posted: 5:29 AM on 02.09.10 |
| ->> Canon no longer services the 400 f.2.8 mkII. I took mine in (NJ) about a year ago, and they refused to look at it. All it needed was a clean and check. |
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