Best place to get a canon 100-400 lens?
Best place to get a canon 100-400 lens?
Author
Discussion

Lostprophet

Original Poster:

2,549 posts

198 months

Wednesday 24th August 2011
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Any recommendations?

Cheers PHers,

LP

oobster

7,683 posts

240 months

Wednesday 24th August 2011
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Try Kerso on eBay. http://stores.ebay.co.uk/FLASH-CAMERA?_trksid=p434...

He is currently showing two - price is £1175. Thats where I got mine from, although I ended up selling it to some bridge fetish-ist on here biggrin

covboy

2,593 posts

203 months

Wednesday 24th August 2011
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dibbly dobbler

11,492 posts

226 months

Wednesday 24th August 2011
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Lostprophet said:
Any recommendations?
Yes - try a 70-300 instead biggrin

McMacro

2,788 posts

186 months

Wednesday 24th August 2011
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dibbly dobbler said:
Yes - try a 70-300 instead biggrin
Just because you have muscles like Peewee Herman hehe

The 100-400 is an excellent lens, I would also highly recommend Kerso.

Lostprophet

Original Poster:

2,549 posts

198 months

Wednesday 24th August 2011
quotequote all
Really... Why the 70-300? I would have thought the greater 100-400 would be better? More zoom power...

dibbly dobbler

11,492 posts

226 months

Wednesday 24th August 2011
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Sorry - bit of an in joke. I bought a 100-400 (from Oobster) then sold it a few weeks later because it was too big and heavy paperbag Put about a third of the proceeds into a 70-300 and have never looked back biggrin

Other than being big and heavy (and expensive) the 100-400 is superior in every respect to the 70-300. Depends how keen you are I suppose smile

nellyleelephant

2,711 posts

263 months

Wednesday 24th August 2011
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What body are you using? I find mine (thanks mcmacro!) is balanced quite well on a 1 series body, on something lighter I can imagine it would feel a bit lens heavy.

paul911

2,771 posts

262 months

Wednesday 24th August 2011
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If you want a used one, you will always find at least one for sale on www.talkphotography.co.uk

Lostprophet

Original Poster:

2,549 posts

198 months

Thursday 25th August 2011
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I have a 40D body... Also I am a beginner when it comes to taking pictures ;-)

Killwilly

446 posts

217 months

Thursday 25th August 2011
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Have you considered the Sigma 150-500, see sample shots in the link below? I looked at both the Canon and the Sigma and finally decided on the Sigma after looking at comparisons on the forum in the link. There wasn't enough difference in quality to justify the extra cost of the Canon for the amount of times I would use the lens.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php...

Jame5

168 posts

207 months

Thursday 25th August 2011
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I got mine from http://www.simplyelectronics.net

Always a bit cheaper than other places I looked. My cousin had a bit of difficulty with them waiting a few weeks for a delivery but I had no problems.

Beardy10

25,372 posts

204 months

Thursday 25th August 2011
quotequote all
oobster said:
Try Kerso on eBay. http://stores.ebay.co.uk/FLASH-CAMERA?_trksid=p434...

He is currently showing two - price is £1175. Thats where I got mine from, although I ended up selling it to some bridge fetish-ist on here biggrin
E-mail him directly kerso1123@msn.com and you'll get a better price wink

He's got a great reputation, very helpful and is normally very good on price. Might take a day or so to reply...


Hunky Dory

1,094 posts

234 months

Thursday 25th August 2011
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Lostprophet said:
I have a 40D body... Also I am a beginner when it comes to taking pictures ;-)
I have one and the same body, but it's a lot of money for a lens if you're a beginner IMO. I'm a beginner myself, hence I got mine second hand from eBay, although I also looked on the TP forums classifieds. Obviously more risky, but saved me around £500 over buying new, although it did take 3-4 months to finally find a good one at the right price.

I did try Kerso (when i was trying to convince myself i could afford a new one!) who was exceptionally helpful and I've never heard a bad thing about him.

RobDickinson

31,343 posts

283 months

Thursday 25th August 2011
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If you buy a good one used then you shouldnt loose money on it if you sell.

Remember though its a tricky lens to use, the IS takes time to stabilise (IMO your often better off with it switched of) , it HATES filters and handholding 400mm (effectively 640mm) requires good long lens techniques.

Your often going to find you need to bump the ISO to get a decent shutter speed etc, even with the IS helping.

Superb lens and I feel that a lot of the 'bad copies' are owned by people with poor technique.

cirks

2,544 posts

312 months

Sunday 28th August 2011
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Kerso or if you don't mind second-hand, I picked a perfect one up from a bird (of the feather variety) forum I came across. Great price and easy transaction too.

muppetdave

2,118 posts

254 months

Monday 29th August 2011
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Another vote for Kerso, bought a new body and various lenses from him, more than helpful and a definite recommendation from me.

Matt..

4,019 posts

218 months

Monday 29th August 2011
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The thing about L lenses is that only one person ever takes the hit with depreciation. If you don't mind being that person, then buy new. Otherwise buy used. You will find that the vast majority of L lenses will lose money for the first person that buys them, then stay at virtually the same price used for many years.

One good example of this is the 100-400L. ~£1200 new, and £800 used. You can buy the lens for £800 used now, and sell it a year later for £800.

There really aren't the same bargains to be had buying new anymore. A few years ago i bought my 17-40L from Kerso for £375. You can't buy it new for anything like that now, and i could sell it now (4yrs later) for more than i bought it for!

flat-planedCrank

3,697 posts

232 months

Monday 29th August 2011
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Matt.. said:
A few years ago i bought my 17-40L from Kerso for £375.
eek

RobDickinson

31,343 posts

283 months

Monday 29th August 2011
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flat-planedCrank said:
eek
Yeah the GBP has dropped in value so much.

Our $ is crazy high, we can get a new 120-300f2.8OS for under $3k, 17-40L is $990, which was equivalent to about £350 when I first came here, more like £500 now!