We love this lens for wildlife. We’ve had every Canon wildlife lens, and we still choose this lens constantly. Here’s a listing of what we’ve tested:
- Canon 100-400 L IS
- Canon 100-400 L IS II
- Tamron 150-600
- Sigma 150-600 Contemporary
- Canon 70-200 f/2.8 with a 2x teleconverter
- Canon 400mm f/2.8
- Canon 500mm f/4
- Canon 600mm f/4
…yet, we still recommend the 400mm f/5.6 prime to all new wildlife photographers. Even if a photographers is using a Nikon, Sony, Panasonic, Olympus, Pentax, Fuji, whatever, we tell them to buy a used Canon 7D just so they can attach a copy of this lens to it. Yes, it’s so good you should buy a different body if you need to. There’s no comparable alternative, not from any manufacturer. There’s a problem, though–it sounds terrible on paper. It doesn’t have the reach of the 150-600mm lenses. It doesn’t have IS like them, either, nor the Canon 100-400. But it’s sharper–far sharper. You can crop it from 400mm to 600mm, and it’s sharper than the 150-600mm lenses. It’s also faster, better built, and easier to hand-hold. It doesn’t have IS, and we wish it did. However, IS isn’t a factor when shooting moving subjects, because your shutter speed will need to be higher, anyway. For still subjects, we regularly hand-hold this lens at 1/250th (on a 1.4x body) and get sharp results. Because it’s so light and small, it’s easier to hand-hold. If you’re interested in wildlife photography, stop reading reviews and order a used copy of this lens. Then, start shooting. You’ll thank me like hundreds of other photographers who made the same choice. Here’s another comparison test with this lens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fmMG5jgDwk
