After featuring aviation photographer Mark Mansfield previously, he is back for our Canon Series of articles. For the first round he talks about some impressive new gear that he has recently shot with. Why are we not surprised with his conclusion?

Mark Mansfield: I had the privilege of test driving the new Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens at the recent Master Power Technologies Airshow. Simply put, I love it! This lens is a killer, and I will now consider buying it.

I love the crisp quality and the ease of use in terms of the zooming mechanism compared to the previous 100-400mm. My old 100-400mm I replaced with what was then the latest Canon 70-300 IS L lens as I found this lens to be a lot sharper. But the new 100-400mm MKII has superb image quality on both the 100mm and 400mm end of the focal range.

Visit Mansfield's site to see more of his aviation photography.