Lindrelt wrote:
The A9 and FE 100-400 are being a great walk around birding combo! This was in an unstaged wild location with no flash and hand held...
MedicineMan404 wrote:
Geoff, I'm getting the impression you use a9+MC11+400DOii ??
Me of course wondering now if the MC11 is better than the Metabones I'm using.
I'm not sure how it compares to the Metabones?? Does the Metabones limit you to those 3 AF modes also? The Metabones is too expensive for me to bother trying and comparing so I'll stick with the Sigma for now and use it as needed.
Yes I tried all of the following combos with A9 and MC-11 adaptor:
100-400II
100-400II with 1.4
400DOII
400DOII with 1.4 and 2.0
600II
600II with 1.4 and 2.0
16-35/4
24-70/4
My time was very limited so far as I did this all in about 45mins and tested in bright light and some in the shade.
My initial impressions is that if you are somewhere close to where you should be for pre focus then the system works great...lots and lots of tack sharp shots...the more points you give the camera to work with (like using L Flexible spot instead of Small) the better it does. It is also reasonably good at going from infinity back to a close distance....where it sucks is going from close to a distant tree. Although it did do good job picking up a vulture against the blue sky even though the vulture started as a black blurry blog in the EVF.
Adding TCs makes the above noted performance about big shifts from near to far and far to near worse. But still very good if you are in the ballpark to begin with and will track along with a bird twitching around on a perch. Also did good doing quick acquisitions of a warbler in the shade as I had to whip the lens around to a new perch and only had a second or two to acquire focus and fire...that was with the 100-400II + 1.4TC.
Other than the wide angle lenses which perform great (not sure why anyone would bother selling their existing Canon lenses in these type of focal lengths to buy Sony ones), the best performer seemed to be the 100-400II lens, followed by the bare 600 and then the bare 400DOII.
I plan to do a full day of testing tomorrow with the adapted lenses to get a clearer picture and decide which if any I will use. But really I just wanted to adapt the two standard zoom lenses so I didn't have to sell them and loose money on buying Sony ones. That part was a 100% success.
My next decision is whether to buy the Sony 2xTC...I was hoping maybe the 400DOII/2x would be sufficient to get 800mm handheld and have f/8 vs f/11 but I think the 100-400GM/2xTC might be the better option to get to 800mm despite the f/11....will see what tomorrow brings as I will test the DO combo the most.
What I do know is that even though these Canon lenses do very well, the Sony native lens still provides a significant AF improvement....all that means is I have to start saving for the 400/2.8 FE..... (luckily I just sold my Canon 200-400 which might get me 50% of the way there )
Man I appreciate the actual hands on with the MC-11.
And wow to you getting the 400/2.8. That's you and Joshua I know of so far.
I think I could swing it financially by July but I just can't be tripod bound. Monopod
is better but still not the way I go about photography on trips. Here at home in my little
blinds it would be fine but I don't need 400 for them.
Looking forward to you next installment of compatibles.
MedicineMan404 wrote:
Man I appreciate the actual hands on with the MC-11.
And wow to you getting the 400/2.8. That's you and Joshua I know of so far.
I think I could swing it financially by July but I just can't be tripod bound. Monopod
is better but still not the way I go about photography on trips. Here at home in my little
blinds it would be fine but I don't need 400 for them.
Looking forward to you next installment of compatibles.
I am still a long way from deciding if I will ever buy the FE 400 2.8. One very important piece of data is still missing and that is how many figures the price will be....
arbitrage wrote:
I am still a long way from deciding if I will ever buy the FE 400 2.8. One very important piece of data is still missing and that is how many figures the price will be....
(luckily I just sold my Canon 200-400 which might get me 50% of the way there 
)