Category Archives: Equipment

Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II Lens Announced

(Updated) Canon has announced the long-rumored replacement to the venerable 100-400mm L lens. It is the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II.

Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II
Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II

The lens it replaces has been a very valuable “go to” lens for many photographers who wanted more reach, a reasonably small package, good optical quality, and the flexibility of a zoom. I’ve been an enthusiastic user of the older version for some time now.

Recently Canon has updated or augmented their lens line-up to improve the offerings in certain categories. For example, earlier this year they introduced their ultra wide angle zooms by adding a new EF 16-35mm f/4L IS lens. That lens has been a real success, not only adding image stabilization to lenses in this class for the first time, but also providing excellent resolution across the frame — more so than either of the lenses that many photographers used before it was introduced.

For some time, many have felt that there was a lot of potential for updating the 100-400. Although it is good performer in many ways, there has been room for improvement. More modern IS systems can provide up to 4 stops of stabilization, while the older lens only provides perhaps two. The older lens has good image quality, but it could be better in keeping with more recent lenses from Canon. In fact, rumors about the introduction of the updated 100-400mm zoom have been floating around for years.

We don’t know what the optical performance of the new lens will be yet. As I write this I have seen no real reviews. (I have seen some “reviews” that are mostly lists of specifications and speculation.) When we do see them, it will not surprise me at all if this lens provides valuable improvements in the same way that the 16-35mm f/4 has. Here is some of what we do know from Canon specifications:

  • Rather than the “push-pull” design of the earlier lens, this one has a more familiar rotation ring to change the focal length.
  • As was the case with the older model, the front of the lens extends as you zoom. This means that the lens is more compact when packed.
  • Image stabilization has been updated to provide up to four stops of stabilization — especially important with longer focal length lenses.
  • Other features include 9 blade diaphragm, the familiar 77mm filter thread diameter, and more.

The list price of the lens is $2,199. That may seem like a lot of money, but if it provides the sort of image quality we all expect it is actually a rather good deal for a lens with these capabilities.

Update: I have now had a chance to look at the MTF charts for the new lens (available at the Canon web site) and they suggest that the new zoom should be a very good performer in terms of image quality. The chart suggests better image quality than the existing 100-400 (which is quite decent) and the 400mm f/5.6 prime.

I expect that this lens will be in short supply at first — for the usual reasons related to any new product introduction, but also because of a pent-up interest in the update. The lens has been announced but is not yet available — though you may preorder it if you want to be first to get one.

As for me, there is a very good chance that I will get a copy of this lens before too long. In fact, I’m leaning more and more towards placing a pre-order — something that I rarely do.

© Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

About Tripods (Morning Musings 11/4/14)

Friends photographing in Utah's red rock landscape
Friends photographing in Utah’s red rock landscape

Morning Musings are back! Today I have a few general thoughts about tripods — not aimed at those who are already confirmed tripod users, but rather at those who find it hard to bother using them.

To start, let’s admit that one does not always need a tripod. For certain types of photography in which quick response is required and in which being too obviously a photographer can interfere with photographs, it is usually better to not use one. There are exceptions to every rule, but you are unlikely to want to use one for most street photography, for personal and family photography at home and on vacations, for certain kinds of portrait work, casual travel photography, and so on.

Let’s also agree that using a tripod is a burden, especially at first when one hasn’t accepted the extra trouble and when you haven’t yet developed instincts that make tripod use a lot more automatic before long. I’ll readily admit to being less than thrilled on about the 50th time that I must remove my tripod from the car, extend and lock the legs, level the thing, attach the camera, and only then make a photograph… after which I have to reverse the process: remove the camera, collapse the tripod legs, stow the thing once again. The slightly put-upon feeling diminishes as you get used to it, but it perhaps never goes away entirely. (The good news here is that the process of setting up and using the tripod does eventually become much quicker and much more automatic than it first seems.)

So, why use it then? There are more reasons than you might imagine.

Stability is an obvious advantage of the tripod. While you can, with care and practice, often hold a camera quite steadily and produce very sharp images when shooting handheld, you simply cannot eliminate all of the blur that comes when you hold the camera in your hands. And if you do happen to have very steady hands, you still will make mistakes that produce blur — working a bit too fast you may introduce a bit of camera vibration in some shots and you will reduce the number of successful results. A good tripod used correctly can virtually eliminate all camera motion and vibration in most cases. This is especially important when doing some kinds of photography that intrinsically require longer shutter speeds. This obviously includes night photography. Low light, low ISO, long lenses, and small apertures often require landscape photographers to use rather long shutter speeds. Continue reading About Tripods (Morning Musings 11/4/14)

Lens For Sale — Canon EF 24mm f/1.4 L II

UPDATE — November 3, 2014:

Three of the four lenses that I’m selling have now found new homes, but the Canon EF 24mm f/1.4 L II prime is still available.

Canon EF 24mm f/1.4 L IICanon EF 24mm f/1.4 L II – This is the newest version of Canon’s wide-angle, large-aperture 24mm prime lens know for its excellent image quality and performance at large apertures. This lens is in essentially “like new” condition — no scratches or blemishes, as it was purchased for a particular project and only used minimally for that purpose. Lens, caps, hood, pouch, original box. Reduced to $1300.

Canon EF 135mm f/2 L

Canon EF 135mm f/2 L – The Canon 135mm f/2 is classic Canon lens and highly regarded for image quality and its ability to produce narrow depth of field and smooth bokeh.  This lens is in excellent “near mint” condition — no scratches or blemishes. Lens, caps, hood, pouch, original box. $875. – SOLD

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 – This is one of Canon’s best non-L lenses, and many regard it as a worthy (and much less expensive!) alternative to the excellent 85mm L. It is in excellent condition — no scratches or blemishes. Lens, caps, 3rd party hood*, original box. $300. (Canon does not include a hood with this lens.) SOLD

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 LCanon EF 17-40mm f/4 L – This is a fine workhorse landscape lens, and it is a core lens in the kit of many Canon landscape photographers. The lens is in excellent condition, with some cosmetic blemishes on the lens hood. Lens, caps, hood, original box. $610. –  SOLD

I prefer an in-person sale to someone in the San Francisco Bay Area, but I may consider other arrangements. Email dan@gdanmitchell.com.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | FacebookGoogle+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photo Rumors — A Cautionary Tale (Morning Musings 102/14)

Rumors are so much fun! Whether you are interested in cars, computer, smartphones, movies, books, or photography gear, there is a good chance that certain hints and rumors may grab your attention and perhaps get you thinking about “what if.” However — and this shouldn’t be news to anyone! — rumors are not news, at least not in most cases, a fact that can get lost as they get picked up, repeated, commented upon, and so forth until they acquire a veneer of believability that may be inappropriate.

If you are interested in the fascinating sub-species of photography equipment rumors, you might enjoy a recent article (“News! 46MP Megapixel Canon 1DsX DSLR About to Be Announced!!! Or the Anatomy of a Rumor”) that unravels the process by which a very (very!) dubious “report” got amplified and repeated until it was regarded as a likely fact.

(For those who don’t follow links, a short version of the conclusion: The “rumor” appears to have been entirely in the mind of one “imaginative” person until it was spread by people who perhaps should have known better.)

Morning Musings are somewhat irregular posts in which I write about whatever is on my mind at the moment — connections to photography may be tenuous at times!


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | FacebookGoogle+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.