When someone tells you that something defies description, you can be pretty sure he’s going to have a go at it anyway. It’s hard to imagine how much lighter this lens actually feels than any other 400mm f/2.8. All I can say is I never, ever shot with 400mm f/2.8 lenses before this. Just too heavy to lug around. This is still a big lens, but the difference is amazing. I can hoist it to my shoulder for a hand-held shot if needed. Maybe even a couple of shots. More importantly, I don’t have any problems hoisting it up to mount it on a tripod.

Image quality is, of course, absolutely spectacular, even with a 2x teleconverter mounted. Which makes me wonder, now, why I would particularly take the 800 f/5.6 when I have that option with the 400, which isn’t much heavier.

A little known fact: this big huge lens gathers so much light you can set ants on fire with it — by moonlight.

March, 2013