Introducing “The Beast”

The_Beast_100 The_Beast_400 Having been removed from my tenter-hooks by the delivery of my new camera lens, I thought it appropriate to introduce the beast – and beast it certainly is tipping the scales at 1.36 kgs or about 3 lbs. The Beast is more properly known as a “Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM” lens. Though it does come with that marvellous relatively modern technology, Image Stabilization making hand-held shots a real possibility, here it is mounted on an arm-saving tripod. One shot shows it at its shortest 100mm focal length and the other at its maximum 400mm.

Blue_Tit_cropped Blue_Tit I thought I should take a trial shot or two just to make sure all was well and to begin to learn how to control it, since this is my first professional-grade lens and quite a departure from my normal frugal self. Naturally, the birds fluttering around our garden were not being particularly cooperative – and then the laundry went out ruining things completely. Here, however, is a pre-laundry shot of a distant Blue Tit both full frame and cropped. The cropping was to check what detail was like compared to my old 75-300mm “consumer” lens. I know it isn’t a great shot but it shows the detail of which this should be capable. This was taken at 400mm, 1/40th sec hand-held, f8, ISO 200. In the cropped image, feather detail looks good. I’m pleased.

Somewhat less pleasing is this. Last evening we had a phone call from the diligent folks at our Mastercard saying that mine “had been compromised”. Apparently, a small charge from America was attempted – and rejected. The cards are now suspended and replacements are en route. The only thing that I have recently done that was a departure from my usual behaviour was to order this lens from Simply Electronics, apparently a Hong Kong based organization.

Inconclusive but interesting! 🙁

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One comment on “Introducing “The Beast”
  1. One should definitely be please with a $2,000 lens, otherwise it would produce many sleepless nights!

2 Pings/Trackbacks for "Introducing “The Beast”"
  1. […] not quite good enough for a trip web album, largely because the subject was too distant, even for TheBeast, and going away (now there’s a surprise). A black kite swooped down on our favourite camp site […]

  2. […] of the guys was similarly armed with an example of TheBeast. He and I chatted for a while and he told me there was a trick to getting TheBeast to autofocus […]

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