The age old question. Prime or Zoom

[MG TF 135]

Right he is the quandry. I tend to shoot animals/ nature and sports. At the minute i have the 70-200L but nothing with longer reach.

For the past couple of months i have been struggling with the decision. Get a 400 5.6 added to the kit bag to stand alongside my 70-200.

OR

Trade the 70-200 for a 100-400 which will then be my main zoom.

I already have reach up to 105mm, so will go up to the start range of the 100-400. I also will not lose any stops on the 100-400 as the longer range on both is 5.6.

Is the 400 prime really that much sharper that the 100-400?

I suppose i need to create a list of pro's and con's for both and then score the list according to my priorities.

Versatility - Performance - Weight - Price - Ease of use

Is there anymore areas that i should analyse to help my decision?

 

[Arkady]

Age old?
True...

 

[GarynLea]

I use the 100-400mm as I prefer the convenience of the zoom. When I visit a nature reserve I havent been to before, I usually take a picture of the notice board for reading later or a location map that I can refer to if needed. These are normally taken at the 100mm end and saves taking another lens.

 

[whiteflyer]

The big question is always - which lens should I buy/rent? The Canon EF 300mm f/4 L IS USM Lens plus the Canon Extender EF 1.4x (420mm f/5.6 IS), the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM Lens or the Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L USM Lens? This is not an easy question to answer, but I'll attempt to give some suggestions.

First, the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM Lens wins the versatility category hands down. It is by far the most popular of the three lenses. It is very close in sharpness to the two primes when shot wide open at identical focal lengths and better than the 300 f/4 IS + 1.4x combo. It shows more distortion (pincushion) and more vignetting. The weights of these three comparable lenses and lens combinations are similar but the 100-400 will remove more weight from your wallet than the two primes.

If you already own a Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 IS L Lens, you might not need the 100-400's versatility as much. In this situation, one of the primes might make more sense for you.

The Canon EF 300mm f/4 L IS USM Lens wins for widest aperture and native (without 1.4x) smallest/lightest physical size.

A big advantage over the Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L USM Lens is the Canon EF 300mm f/4 L IS USM Lens and Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM Lens' image stabilization. These two lenses also have the largest out-of-the-box magnification capability - .24x and .2x respectively vs. .12x for the Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L USM Lens (delivered at the relatively long minimum focus distance of 11.5' / 3.5m).

Much More Info...