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Archive 2015 · Focus speed of the 100-400 II?

naypay
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Focus speed of the 100-400 II?

I have the 70-200 f4 IS, and the 300 f4 IS. The 70-200 is good. The 300 takes a little longer to grab focus on something moving so although I love the lens I miss a lot of shots.

Been thinking about the new 100-400. Reading all the rave reviews. How would you compare the focus speed of this lens to my other 2?

Thanks so much.

I have a 5D3

Jul 02, 2015 at 09:18 AM

gdanmitchell
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Focus speed of the 100-400 II?

I'd say it is in the same league but not quite as fast as your 70-200.

Jul 02, 2015 at 09:28 AM

rachelsdad
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Focus speed of the 100-400 II?

Agreed, mine is pretty quick. Would it beat a 300 F2.8, no, but I used it to shoot some little League this summer and it was great.

Jul 02, 2015 at 02:24 PM

Imagemaster
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Focus speed of the 100-400 II?

Since there are no benchmark tests for AF speeds of lenses that I know of, the replies you will get will be based on perceptions

Some will say the 300 f4 wll focus faster than the 100-400 II, and some will say the opposite. All without figures to back up those claims.

Jul 02, 2015 at 02:32 PM

Kathy White
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Focus speed of the 100-400 II?

gdanmitchell wrote:
I'd say it is in the same league but not quite as fast as your 70-200.

+1 That is exactly how I would rate it, and as Tony said, based on perception. I used it the other day for kids softball and had no complaints. Also, I hated the original 100 400L for sports and would not use it. IMO the 100 400II is just about the same as the 70 300L.

Jul 02, 2015 at 05:29 PM

scalesusa
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Focus speed of the 100-400 II?

Its plenty fast, since there is no practical way to measure it, and the attached camera is part of the performance, that's about all I can say.

AF performance will depending on the composition of the image, light levels, amount of battery voltage to drive it, there are a ton of variables.

Jul 02, 2015 at 05:55 PM

EB-1
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Focus speed of the 100-400 II?

On a good camera like the 1DX, it is very fast, much faster than the 3004 IS.

EBH

Jul 02, 2015 at 05:58 PM

arbitrage
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Focus speed of the 100-400 II?

AF should not be a reason to not buy the 100-400II. It will keep up with what you throw at it. It is very good. The camera body will also have a big affect. On 7D2 and 1DX it is great. I haven't used your other lenses so can't offer any comparison to them.

Jul 02, 2015 at 06:04 PM

Imagemaster
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Focus speed of the 100-400 II?

EB-1 wrote:
On a good camera like the 1DX, it is very fast, much faster than the 3004 IS.

EBH

Might be true, but do you have any test figures to back up that claim?

I don't know why a 100-400 f4.5-5.6 zoom would focus faster than a 300 f4 prime lens, regardless of the body they were used on.

Would love to know why, if it is true.

Jul 02, 2015 at 07:03 PM

OntheRez
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Focus speed of the 100-400 II?

I guess I'm the minority report here, but I've been rather disappointed with the 100-400 II AF performance, at least on my 1Dx. I shot all of the softball and baseball seasons with it as I got it just before they began. Admittedly it took a bit to swing a heavier, much longer lens than the 70-200mm. As for AF acquisition and stability, the 70-200mm f/2.8 L II - in my experience - is exponentially better. In fact my very old 300mm f/4.0 L non-IS is quicker and better though of course not as flexible.

I've observed the 100-400 as I held it steady on the pitcher beginning his/her windup and watched the lens "wink" in and out of focus. I have dozens of photos that show the focus point exactly on the action which is OOF while some thing utterly extraneous at the far edge of the frame is crisp. Perhaps the AF didn't move fast enough or something?

I sent it to Canon along with several images as described above. They returned it saying "Working according to factory standards" and thoughtfully included several photo copy pages of the 1Dx manual's info on AF settings

. While I've always shot center point back button focus (with case 4), I've begun to experiment with center with 4 point assist and 9 point assist. Not sure of any improvement.

Working on shooting birds this summer, I've observed the same in/out of focus when the camera is held steady on a stationary animal. Can't imagine what would produce this. While the IS is nice and the focal range is a real plus, I am very frustrated with lack of predictable results. Please understand, when I (or it) nails it, I've gotten some great shots, BUT I can't predict when that will occur and can't reliably repeat the action.

It could very well be that the problem is in the operator, but at this point my old 400mm f/5.6L is a superior lens. I'm considering sending both the lens and the camera to Canon yet again and asking in stronger language for an examination of my outcomes. As a CPS platinum member I sometimes get more attention when I get emphatic.

What really frustrates me is reports like those above who find the lens to be quite adequate. IMHO opinion the lens is nowhere close to being in the latest 70-200's league for AF.

Robert

Jul 02, 2015 at 07:09 PM

scalesusa
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Focus speed of the 100-400 II?

Imagemaster wrote:
Might be true, but do you have any test figures to back up that claim?

I don't know why a 100-400 f4.5-5.6 zoom would focus faster than a 300 f4 prime lens, regardless of the body they were used on.

Would love to know why, if it is true.

I don't know if its faster, but the rear focusing, if I'm not mistaken means smaller and lighter lens elements are moving, and the mass that must be accelerated is a big part of the equation.

Here is a paragraph from a old Canon patent for a rear focus design laying out some of the advantages.

"Meanwhile, the choice of one of the other lens groups than the first lens group in focusing, or the use of the so-called rear focus method in the zoom lens, makes it possible that the effective diameter of the first lens group becomes smaller than when focusing of the zoom lens is performed by moving the first lens group. It also makes easier close-up photography, particularly photomacrography. Further, because the focusing lens group is relatively small in size and light in weight, a weaker power suffices for driving that lens group, thereby giving an additional advantage that swifter focusing is possible."

http://www.google.com/patents/US5134524

Jul 02, 2015 at 07:18 PM

Imagemaster
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Focus speed of the 100-400 II?

scalesusa wrote:
Here is a paragraph from a old Canon patent for a rear focus design laying out some of the advantages.

"Meanwhile, the choice of one of the other lens groups than the first lens group in focusing, or the use of the so-called rear focus method in the zoom lens, makes it possible that the effective diameter of the first lens group becomes smaller than when focusing of the zoom lens is performed by moving the first lens group. It also makes easier close-up photography, particularly photomacrography. Further, because the focusing lens group is relatively small in size and light in...Show more →

But that appears to relate only to zoom lenses. The zoom still has more elements, more groups, and weighs more:

100-400 II - 21 elements, 16 groups, weight 3.46 lbs.
300 f4 IS - 15 elements, 11 groups, weight 2.6 lbs.

Jul 02, 2015 at 07:42 PM

Kathy White
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Focus speed of the 100-400 II?

OntheRez wrote:
I guess I'm the minority report here, but I've been rather disappointed with the 100-400 II AF performance, at least on my 1Dx. I shot all of the softball and baseball seasons with it as I got it just before they began. Admittedly it took a bit to swing a heavier, much longer lens than the 70-200mm. As for AF acquisition and stability, the 70-200mm f/2.8 L II - in my experience - is exponentially better. In fact my very old 300mm f/4.0 L non-IS is quicker and better though of course not as flexible.

I've observed the 100-400 as I...Show more →

Robert, I'd bet it's not you but an irregularity in the lens. Do you have a friend who has one that you could test to tell them that it does not perform as another that you tried? Even as remote as I am in this little town, I have a friend about 45 minutes from here that I could switch with him for shooting and testing.

Jul 02, 2015 at 08:29 PM

melcat
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Focus speed of the 100-400 II?

I just bought the 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 II a couple of days ago, and have both the 300mm f/4 IS and 70-200mm f/4 IS. In particular, I've been using the 300mm f/4 IS on animal and bird subjects, mostly with the 1.4× II, for a few years now.

Unfortunately the weather here has been very poor and I haven't had a chance yet to do any real-world shooting with the new lens. My initial impression is that the AF and IS are faster with the new lens on my 1D Mk III than with the 300mm f/4 IS either with or without the converter. The speed of the old lens has been a problem for me when tracking birds especially (it's not the camera).

I certainly won't be doing quantitative measurements as some here seem to want, but check back here in few days for my observations.

Jul 02, 2015 at 09:09 PM

Herb
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Focus speed of the 100-400 II?

Recently my wife and I went to watch my son compete in the triathlon "Escape from Alcatraz". She has a Canon 7DII and used our 100-400II. The photo was taken at 1/1000 sec, ISO set at auto and ISO 500 had been selected. The lens was at 400mm with an aperture of f5.6.

While this isn't a scientific test, my son was probably riding at about 20-25mph and almost coming right at her. She fired off about 15 photos in high speed burst and I would say all were keepers as long as he wasn't below minimum focal length (understandable).

Photos were JPEG and unsharpened right OOC.

Just after the photo mentioned above

Photo described above

Photo just before described photo

Jul 04, 2015 at 09:49 PM

tonyxcom
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Focus speed of the 100-400 II?

I've shot karts coming almost straight at me between 80-90mph and the focus tracks that fine on the 100-400ii.

I bought a 300 F4 a few years ago for little league and it worked ok for that but I sold it after one attempt at karts. It could not keep up when compared with my 70-200II with 1.4xIII.

Jul 05, 2015 at 12:33 AM

melcat
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Focus speed of the 100-400 II?

I went out shooting with the 100-400 Mk II this afternoon and among other things tried the focus on some seagulls. It can definitely acquire and track them in flight providing you can get a focus point on them to start with. My impression is that it's faster than the 300 with a 1.4x. I had very good light so I must qualify this by saying I haven't tried shooting at dawn yet. Test cameras were 1D Mk III and 1Ds Mk III.

I also shot some static subjects and am fairly sure now that for close subjects ~1.5m it's slightly slower than the bare 300mm f/4. I guess there's a lot of glass there. Neither lens is terrible. Test camera was the 1Ds Mk III.

Jul 05, 2015 at 05:10 AM

naypay
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Focus speed of the 100-400 II?

Thanks for all the feedback. My 300 is very old and maybe it's a slouch. Maybe I will rent the 100-400 to try it out.

Jul 05, 2015 at 08:47 AM

Herb
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Focus speed of the 100-400 II?

For what you can rent it for you can probably join CPS and borrow for few days to evaluate......option to think about..,,,

Jul 05, 2015 at 08:55 AM


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