Wildlife Series
Any feedback on this lens?
Canon 70-200mm f/4 L series USM non IS…
When was it released?
Any personal experience with this lens?
Pros and cons?
Is it good for a wildlife and sports begiiner?
thanx
Although its a little short for wildlife its still usable. For daytime sports it should be fine although its still a little short for field sports like football unless you can get around the 50 yard line. The best thing about this lens is that its a constant aperture.
Some may say its too slow for night sports and that you need an f2.8 lens at night. I’m a proponent of fast lenses but I’m not in complete agreement that an f2.8 is really needed IF you can deal with some digital noise in your images.
Suppose you’re at a night game and with your f4 lens you get a shutter speed of 1/125 sec. at ISO 800. If you had the f2.8 lens your shutter speed under those conditions would be 1/250 (1 stop). Since you don’t have the f2.8 lens, increase your ISO to 1600 (1 stop) and your shutter speed with your f4 lens is now 1/250 sec. If your camera has Noise Reduction built-in then use it. If not, use a program like Noise Ninja.
Remember, for wildlife photography you can always buy the Canon 2X teleconverter which will make your 70-200mm lens a 140-400mm lens. Yes, there is a trade-off: your f4 lens will behave as though you were using f8. So you lose 2 stops. This isn’t as bad as it sounds though, especially if you’re shooting under sunny conditions. Lets review the venerable “Sunny 16 Rule” which states: “On a sunny day, set your f-stop to f16 and your shutter speed to 1/ISO.” So if we’re using ISO 400 we can shoot with our lens at f8 (remember, the 2X teleconverter will make f8 an equivalent f16) and a shutter speed of 1/500 sec. Shoot in Aperture Priority and watch that the shutter speed doesn’t drop below 400 since you’re using a 400mm lens and another old rule is to always hand-hold a lens at a shutter speed equal to or greater than the focal length. This is especially important since the lens you have doesn’t have IS.
Note: The “Sunny 16 Rule” was developed when shutters were mechanical and we had to use them as marked – 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000 – so we’d use the shutter speed closest to our ISO. With today’s electronic shutters which are, essentially, “stepless” they will come much closer to the actual 1/ISO).
Buy the lens and enjoy it. Learn to work around its limitations and you’ll get some good pictures.
One of my favorite lenses is my 70-210mm f4 and I often use it with a 2X teleconverter.
EDIT:
An f3.5 lens is 1/3 stop faster than an f4 lens – hardly a deal-maker when deciding on a lens. Also, since most zooms that are f3.5 at the short end are f5.6 or even f6.3 at the long end, the f4 constant aperture is still preferable.
GRIZZLY LAND- New Wildlife Series Trailer, Alaska
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