Pricey, but very good! 3

As previously satisfied owner of the Canon 70-200mm 2.8 L IS lens that I use mainly in sports photography, I had the fainter 100-400er always irritated, because it provides the APS-C my quick Canon 40d an extended telephoto range, which you can use even in nature photography, for example, scan a lizard from a distance outside the flight distance. Reservations were of course the high price and the lower initial opening. At the heavy weight I had already gotten used to in the 70-200er. First comparative tests after the purchase a month ago with my excellent 2.8 100 Canon Macro (old EOS production run), the good 70-200er 2.8 on a test Newspaper double page from the stand showed that the 100-400er ordinary at maximum aperture Quality delivers better than the 70-200er at the same aperture and even more so if you compare the latter with open aperture 2.8. The 100 Macro prime lens was expected at the same focal length and open slightly in advantage.

Now the practical test had to follow. In the forest I initially cleared (of the hand) with pretty lousy weather everything from what crawls and flies mostly at open aperture 4.5 to 5.6. Result in subjective judgment: I was rather pleasantly surprised! The image stabilizer helped given the long focal length (400mm = 600mm over at full frame) tremendously! Test shots to vehicles approaching me cars (6 frames / second in AI Servo mode) to test the responsiveness and reliability of the autofocus, also fell out very satisfactory. This aspect is often suppressed in almost all tests in photo magazines, where sharpness, color reproduction, vignetting, etc. studied, is for sports photography but crucial! I got the feeling the lens I give her no more!

But ultimately decides the practice. When New York City Marathon then finally came the professional use. On cloudy days and ISO 400-800 that 100-400er then held more than I promised. Safe in the sharpness (the elite runners race with almost 20km / h!) And good handling. At the touch zoom you get used to quickly, the lock ring is slightly if necessary zuzudrehen. The criticism of it is incomprehensible to me! Everything else is to be expected as the expensive L series: fine workmanship, etc., what you do not need to repeat here in detail. Conclusion: Better than we thought, or in plain text: schweineteuer but saugut! Not exactly a vacation objective, but well suited for the serious sports applications and in nature. Could be my favorite lens and replace the 70-200er in which I ponder currently, where am I going to use even in low light situations except ....