Toronto Photography Meetup Group

I'm thinking of upgrading from my current telephoto lens (Tokina AT-X f4.5-5.6 80-400) and would like some feedback from members before I make a decision. I would be using this lens mostly for wildlife.

I have rented the 100-400 and it's a nice lens. Even more so when you consider the price. My only concern with a lens like that and I think this also applies to the 70-300 is its push-pull design. Although it makes for really fast zooming, it sucks air and debris into the lens. It wasn't an issue for me as I was renting but if your investing in one it's something to consider.

Boketh is nice and DOF is awesome at f4. It's fairly fast focusing and if I recall correctly it is a 77mm filter size (don't quote me on that) which is fairly common so you can most likely share filters with your other L lenses.

I have the 100-400 and according to my lightroom stats, it's my most used lens with over 72,000 pictures taken with it
Although it seems to have gotten the internet moniker of ' dust trombone', I have not had any issues whatsoever in 6+ years of shooting in adverse conditions including frequent rainstorms, wind, snow, duststorms, salt water spray etc...

ANY lens that changes its length sucks in and displaces air. The 100-400 L is "L" weather sealed which in addition to keeping all that nasty water out, also keeps dust and other crap out very well too.

Also, even when pixel peeping, you will find that dirt on the filter or any internal lens elements are not typically visible on photos unless you are shooting at very high f-stops and the spots are close to the sensor. (this is similar to how you can have huge dust bunnies on your sensor but that they don't show up unless you are shooting f22+).

At the risk of appearing to be an annoying pedant, I wonder if it depends on which part of the lens moves during focusing. Some lenses are fully enclosed purposely designed this way so that the front elements are the only ones that move. This also helps with weather sealing. I think the 70-200 f4.0 lens is one such lens (I am a nikonian and could be wrong). I think these lenses do not create the vacuum dust sucking conditions. Some lenses rely on back element movement more than others and are notorious for dust problems. These are a big problem for wildlfe shooters who end up in dustier than normal environments like deserts and beaches.

Here are some pics of last years Caribana. I'm pretty sure they were all taken with the 100mm-400mm. I thought it worked well and you can't even see the dust bunnies. LOL I'm kidding about the dust. The optics were spotless.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/m2c_photog ... 637417504/

Great shots!

Thanks for the feedback guys, will do more research on these two lenses.

Trev,
any lens that changes it's overall length will be sucking in and blowing out air regardless of which internal elements move. If this wasn't the case then every time you extended the lens it would create a vacuum in the body and as soon as you let go it would 'suck' the lens back to it's starting position.

If the overall length doesn't change (such as in the 70-200f4), then there is no transfer of air from the outside, but there still will be transfer of air inside the lens between any elements that move, but that shouldn't increase or decrease any dust problems though as it will just be blowing around of any existing dust in the lens and not increasing it in any way.