This week I returned to The Wetlands Centre in Barnes, South West London, one of my favourite places to visit when I have new equipment to test, or am just in need of escaping to somewhere peaceful. It is hard to believe that it is so close to the hustle and bustle of Central London.

I recently got my hands on the new Canon EF 100-400mm USM MK2,  lens. The MK1 lens was one of the first I used for wildlife photography, before I could afford the 500mm, which then became my default lens for many years. The Canon 200-400 mm lens is now my favourite when in the field. However, there are times when the 200-400 or 500 lens is just too large and too heavy to carry. For times like that, the new 100-400 really is an excellent lens. With its 4 stop image stabiliser it can be hand held at far slower shutter speeds than would otherwise be possible. Its optics are better than the earlier model, and instead of the push/pull zoom of the MK1, it now rotates to zoom, which is far nicer to use. It combines well with the 1.4x converter, giving an effective 560 mm lens. I tested it with my Canon 1DX with and without the converter, at ISO speeds of up to 10,000 and the results were amazing.

These are a few images from my day: