This review was created side-by-side with the Canon EF 600mm f/4.0L IS II USM Lens review . These are very similar lenses that arrived at the same time, so you are sure to see many similarities between these reviews.

The EF 500mm f/4L IS II is the sweet spot of Canon's L series supertelephoto line up. It offers great reach, fast AF and the same quality build and features as its heavier, more expensive stablemates.

This lens is truly fantastic and well worth the time it took to save up for it. Note: I would not recommend ordering this item from Amazon/Adorama.

This is an expensive lens but worth the investment. For wildlife photography its invaluable. my biggest worry was its weight but i have been able to hand hold this lens all be it for short periods but its got me some really great photos.

"I have been using this lens for bird photography for about 4 months. Previously, I had been using the 300mm f/4.6. In terms of the optics and electronics, this lens is a quantum leap forward in every respect.

Have wanted this lens (earlier version) for about 10 years. Finally got it. Very pleased.

Fast / accurate auto-focus

I've only had this lens for a few days and I really like it. I've had a little bit of a learning curve. Some shots I've taken were out of focus but I'm sure that is operator error and not the lens. My most recent shots of Bald Eagles are really sharp.

Bought this for birding and absolutely love it. I generally use this with the 1.4 extender and it is tack sharp with very fast focus. Definately a lens worth considering if you are doing bird or nature photography.

A superb lens, fantastically sharp, nice contrast, great focusing speed, very robust (able to take some knocks, though best avoided if possible!), great full-time manual focusing - very smooth, when not hindered (see below). Great with the Canon 1.4x tele-converter, focusing speed still great, etc.

Sharp; nice contrast; fast; robust - just plain gorgeous

More of a niggle really, when shooting on a bean bag (or 3) from the window/top of a , it can be difficult to manually focus, as the focussing ring tends to sit on the edge of the bag; I need to experiment more with various bag set-ups to get it right

I adore my Canon EF 500mm f4L IS USM super-telephoto lens. It's the perfect lens for wildlife photography. The 500mm focal length, equivalent to 800mm when mounted on a cropped-frame body, delivers decent-sized images of distant subjects, while the f4 maximum aperture allows you to isolate them with...