A new zoom lens test

I opened an email from Calumet this morning and looked at their special offerings, with little expectation.  Before closing the website I thought I would check their second hand offers and as they were grouped within each of their shops I checked our local one, in Bristol.  I noticed a 100-400mm L-series zoom, which is a type I have been thinking about using as I want to get longer reach especially for taking wildlife images.  I recently borrowed a couple of lenses from a friend, Bruce, who also uses Canon gear and I've been meaning to return them to him quite soon.

I realised that I hadn't ever seen this advertised lens before, as it had no IS.  Ideally I would want to buy the incredibly well rated new Canon 100-400mm IS L series Mk11 version, but at nearly £2,000 it is out of my league. I decided to ring the Bristol shop and was told that actually this lens did have IS and was the same version that Canon are continuing to sell, which has been around for a long time and still is well rated.

So I did some checking and realised that not only was it well reviewed but more importantly it might suit me, especially at their secondhand price. So I decided to drive down there and have a look at it immediately, because if it was a good buy I didn't want to miss it. I have been impressed with the service of Calumet at this branch and have brought several bits of gear from them and got good prices.

So off I went at 2pm for the delightful drive on the A46 along the Cotswold ridge towards Bath, and then a quick journey down to the next junction on the M4. I was in the shop within the hour.  The lens turned out to be one of their ex-rental, or demo lenses, which they had been told to sell by their head office because the new version would be its replacement. The assistant told me that they were serviced yearly and obviously couldn't be rented out if damaged so were always well looked after.  There were some marks on it but nothing that worried me, and the glass and contacts all looked good.

So I mounted it on my camera, and standing by the desk in the showroom I pointed it at a lens showcase and took this picture as one of the first images I tested it with.  The lens I focused on is by chance exactly the same as this one, not the new version.  From a distance I couldn't see what it was.  I then went outside to the car park and tried to take as many different types of shot as I could.  All in all I was very impressed and felt the focus was quick to respond and best of all the images looked very good at all points between 100 and 400mm.  Most of all it felt good to handle as I would want to be using it hand held  a lot.

I went for a final close examination of it at the desk and was then told there was another 10% off the price.  That clinched it and I had to buy it, as it was less than one third of the price of the new Canon replacement lens, and price is a very important issue for me.  I drove straight home but didn't have time to stop en route to test it out any further.  Tomorrow I will have to point it at the birds in the garden!  I think I am going to enjoy this.