Dissilusioned, your opinions please...

Boon

Boon

Suspended / Banned
Messages
1,619
Edit My Images
Yes
hi
i recently bought a Canon 100-400L lens, i have also just come back from Bridlington, where i wanted to use it at Sewerby on the RSPB nature reserve there, and around Bempton cliffs.
Imagine if you will, my total horror as i thought from 25' away i should be able to count hairs on the back of a Tits head, but alas NO, i just couldn't believe the bird was this tiny thing in the viewfinder, my heart just sank.
Please tell me i am wrong, please tell me i dont know what i am talking about, please tell me i am spoilt, TELL ME SOMETHING to stop me chucking it out the window.
I suppose the only thing to do is buy a 1x or 2x convertor for it.
Hmmmmm:'(
 
I would have thought the 400 would have got you close, but remember birds are pretty damn small no matter how close you are :(

I am gonna go stand under your window just incase I see a white tube flying out ;)
 
Sorry, but 400mm is at the wide end for wildlife; especially small birds.:shake:
 
I've never been a fan of the 100-400. Not far any particular reason, we just never really got along.

However, I've just got back from a week in the deepest darkest highlands of scottishland shooting with a really mixed bunch of snappers. The 100-400 was almost standard issue for the canon folk and after seeing all manor of things to point a camera at, I've got to say that it could be the most versitile lens money can buy.

So it wasn't enough this time. I think you need to live with it for a while and let it show you just how much it can do. I dare say that in a few weeks/months time, you'll be wondering why you ever started this thread. :)
 
Dont despair. The truth is that a 400mm zoom isnt all that its cracked up to be.
Learn to live within its constraints and you have a stonking lens to play with. Learn the power of the zoom young tog.
(unless JL catches it before it splonks on the pavement)

Look at it this way. The human eye sees things at approx 55mm (give or take).
So a zoom of 400mm will give you a magnification of 8X. Sounds good dunnit.
Now consider how big the "screen" at the back of the eye is (dont at this stage consider what the brain can do to create a panorama).
Look at something about the size of a birdie (a small coffee?) cup 25' away (exclude peripheral vision). Its weeny.
If you figure it out its a teeny fraction of the total space you can see. Now replace it with something 8 times bigger (a boot) does it completely fill your central vision. No.
To fill your vision you'll need about 20X. Now go get your cheque book out. :p
 
I know Steve is a bit disappointed with his 100-400L because he PM'd me about it and I've asked him to post his thoughts in a thread for everyone's benefit.

Firstly let me say, I'd still recommend the 100-400L over pretty well anything as a general purpose walk around wildlife lens, and if anything happened to mine, I'd be buying it again. For your typical zoo visit where animals vary from being close to a bit more distant, the lens is ideal and never comes off the camera.

What Steve is suffering from is disappointment due to over-estimating how the lens was going to cope with distance, and that happens to all of us initially.

Let me say straight away Steve that photographing Sparrow and Tit sized birds is just about the worst example you could choose. Even with my 500mm F4, all my bird pics are substantial crops, even if I use the 1.4XTC (700mm) or 2XTC (1000mm). It doesn't really matter - what matters is the quality of your bird image when you look at it at 1:1 size, and before you decide how to crop.

You've wildly over-estimated the power of the lens Steve, but give yourself time to get used to it - it's a great lens.

A couple of shots with the 100-400L at around 20 feet. Both are crops, but the squidger less so, obviously.

Mr_Chaffinch.jpg


OY8N4176-01.jpg


Both these shots are tripod mounted Steve, as are pretty well all my shots, I rarely take handheld bird shots, and I still get a high count of blurry shots due to the very animated frenetic nature of these little birds.
 
I do believe that CT just said what I did, but from a tangential perspective.

It's always worth sitting down and thinking before splashing a small car's worth of cash on a 2ton 600mm lenzese (just to annoy the spelling police) It'll only get you about 10x closer than the human can see. "ONLY" gulp!

What I'm saying, or at least trying to say, is put it in perspective. It's a brill lens, but learn what it can do and you'll realise that it's got great potential.
Dont be sad learn young tog, learn... :)
 
btw those are cracking pics CT!
 
I reckon that if you want to shoot little birdies, get a riffle. It will be far cheaper, more satisfying and once you've nailed the sucker you can get a nice frame filling pic with a £60 nifty fifty.

Problem solved. ;);)
 
Hmmm. might give Daz's idea a go! :naughty:

As for using a converter with the 100-400L Steve, you'd lose 1 whole stop with the 1.4X TC which would mean you'd be at f8 at the long end - very usable as long as the light is good. Quality will suffer though, and you'd need to stop down a stop or two. Just stopping down one stop puts you at f11 though, so things start to get tricky.

There's no perfect lens mate, which is why most of us have a load of the damned things. ;)

Sheeee...it!! Just seen my post count! :eek:
 
Most holiday makers come away from Brid being disillusioned... it's perfectly normal ;)
 
I recently took photographs of birds slightly larger than sparrows from about 50 yards away. They were just dark shapes in the distance. I did not have my bins with me and took a few shots with the 100 - 400 in the off chance I could crop in and identify them. When I did this I was delighted. Yes they are slightly oof and soft but after PP I could see they were Meadow Pipits. If I knew how to post them here I'd let you see one but the quallity is not really good enough to show them off. Don't despair it's a great lens but it does need light and the focus has to be spot on at any sort of distance. I'll add one of the pics to my gallery and you can let me know what you think, bearing in mind the distance they were taken from.
 
Brash just open your pic full size in Gallery. Under the pic you'll see a line of text titled BB Code beginning with
. Just highlight all that line of text with your mouse, then copy and paste it into your post for the image to appear.
 
CT:

I'll try that with the otters. Been a bit nervous about showing my first lot of photos on the Forum. Does the bird give you hope for the lens? I read a review before I bought mine which said don't expect to take it out of the box and get great images straight away. It does take time (and some frustration) to get used to it. I've still some way to go before I can use it to it's full potential.
 
wow CT those images are amazing. it almost puts me off starting. How could I ever take a picture like that :shake::'(
 
It's a very nice shot.. It looks as though you've run noise reduction on it though, and I personally prefer the noise to that smoothing effect you get with NR.

It looks like it wasn't quite sharp originally, but if you post the original lets see what can be done with it - nothing to be worried about. ;)

I know the 100-400L is a good lens - give yourself time to get used to it. Walking around trying to grab bird shots hand held isn't the best way to go about it. You'll get lucky now and again, but it's more a case of getting set up within the effective range of the lens, using a tripod and playing the waiting game.
 
peanuts said:
wow CT those images are amazing. it almost puts me off starting. How could I ever take a picture like that :shake::'(
Click to expand...

Thank you - but trust me... you can. :)

I quite like the squidger shot - he looks like he's doing a Richard The Turd impression. :D
 
Sorry CT my reply about the lens was for Boon. I got confused. Thanks for your help though. I've posted the otter pics (I think). You were right about the noise reduction, I just wanted to show Boon the lens could take a good enough image at that distance to allow me to ID the bird.
 
chewyuk said:
Well I'm off to invest in my first L glass tomorrow and guess what I'll be buying :) Yep , that'll be the 100-400!!!
Click to expand...

I honestly think it's the best all round bang for your buck zoom you can buy. I actually prefer the push/pull zoom too. :shrug:
 
well before i got the 600 the 100-400 was never off the camera ! Its perfect for the shots i was taking at the time, and still gets used when the 600 is too long (or too bloody heavy) :)

That would be a cold dead fingers moment for me too :) Ill never get rid unless Canon make a better one ;)
 
Andy Rouse gets all his fantastic tiger shots from the back of moving vehicles and he gets 'em with with the 100-400L.
 
This is one of Jan's shots with the 100-400L. She wont mind me saying she knows b****r all about the techie side of photography, and doesn't really want to. She's only a little dot though, so she uses a monopod, and I've just drummed into her to keep it steady and get that AF spot over the eye.

IMG_5118-01.jpg
 
CT said:
What Steve is suffering from is disappointment due to over-estimating how the lens was going to cope with distance, and that happens to all of us initially.
Click to expand...

your spot on as usual CT, i was suprised at how little a 300mm zoom actually magnified things once i took it past the focusing on a coffee cup across the room situation, as soon as i took it to a rally or a race circuit the magnification doesnt look that great, however the real skill is to use the fantastic lens (if you were to add a 1.4 or 2x tele converter on the 100-400L you'd loose autofocus on all but the top end bodies) in a way that allows its quality and your skill to show through, whether that be to just sit tight for longer until that bird comes close enough to fill the frame, or to crop and make use of the lenses inherrent sharpness to minimise the effect of the crop.


dont get disheartened, or you;ll end up like me, disheartened at how my bank balance holds me back from buying the gear i need to progress a little further with my photography. the 100-400L is a cracker of a lens so ive heard, just work its stregths to move yourself forwards :)
 
LOL would you really wanna be that close in the back of an open vehicle? :D

When you get the 100-400 chewy get used to adjusting the torque zoom collar so that it doesn't slide right out to the 400 end if you point the camera down. It hits the limit of travel with a hell of a whack - makes you wince actually. It's thought to be the cause of a lot of IS failures with this lens due to the jarring.
 
CT said:
LOL would you really wanna be that close in the back of an open vehicle? :D

When you get the 100-400 chewy get used to adjusting the torque zoom collar so that it doesn't slide right out to the 400 end if you point the camera down. It hits the limit of travel with a hell of whack - makes you wince actually. It's thought to be the cause of a lot of IS failures with this lens due to the jarring.
Click to expand...

Good shout, been playing in a few shops recently, but will get the the wife to be to pick me up from the shop tomorrow - that'll sure test it out :) (SLAP)
 
CT said:
I honestly think it's the best all round bang for your buck zoom you can buy. I actually prefer the push/pull zoom too. :shrug:
Click to expand...

I've just bought this lens second hand from here :D mostly for sport. Excellant quality, but for me the push pull needs getting used to, but I'll be getting some more practice in tomorrow.

What did surprise me is seeing others using it by pulling/pushing on the lens hood.

Oh and is there a trick to getting autofocus working with a convertor? I have a Mk2 1.4x and it won't autofocus.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top