ChrisMak wrote:
Thank you!
I think you may just have swayed me to set my plan for the 400DOII with at least the 1.4TC.
Thing is that I am not fully bent on doing ultimate BIF (as yet), but would like to get the IQ from my A7rII matched with a high end supertelelens, and have no need for a zoom, but do have a need for an aperture not too high, and the 100-400 is just too slow to be an allround lens for me.
This with in the back of my mind that it will give me suffiecient time to save up for a future Sony body that no doubt will give me a substantial upgrade path regarding AF. IQ is simply there with the A7rII already and resolution is sufficient.
It's all a very personal thing, and somehow tha Canon 400DOII appeals to me, there is something about the images that does it for me, and I am stunned by its performance with the TC's.
In future I could even add a 500pf with future Nikon body for cutting edge BIF.
In any event, your opinion does about the A7rII with the 400DOII seems not at all hopeless to me, and the resulting IQ is just what I am looking for.
EDIT:
Btw.: am I correct in assuming that focus lock (when near the subject) is secure and reliable? What I have faced with the Pentax DA560, is 3 out of 10 sharp images, and the rest júst out of focus, making them useless to me. I am assuming that sensor based AF will get a more reliable and precise AF lock when there is no urgent hurry. I don't mind working a bit harder, but don't like júst out of focus shots ruining precious moments.
Thanks a lot for your effort!
I can say that with the A9/400DOII, the focus lock is very reliable and consistent for non-BIF work. Adding either TC doesn't really affect the focus consistency either but it does slow it somewhat and with the 2xTC it sometimes will hunt but usually pretty good.
As for my earlier BIF comments, I had another look through my flight images from Sunday where I shot the bare 400DO for a few sequences and then the 400/1.4 for most sequences. What I'm seeing is if the bird is flying horizontal across the FOV then the hit rate was okay and surely some keepers in each burst. Where the combo started lagging is when the ducks were coming more towards me (they weren't straight on at me but at an angle towards me)...focus wasn't totally lost to the background but it looked like either tails were in focus or the bird was just soft leading me to think focus was probably just behind the tail a bit. So the A9 wasn't able to drive focus fast enough to keep up with the front of the bird. The problem is when you are shooting the green focus points look like they are actively tracking the bird just like with a native lens but once on the computer you see that most lagged and were rejects.
7Dii wouldn't be first choice if I could get a D500 (should have listened to Arbitrage long ago)
but it would BIF with the 400DOii eh, and add the MC-11 for perched.
I'll also try and do a quick comparison shot of my stuffed owl to give a better idea of the 500PF vs 400DOII. Of course the cameras will come into play a little bit and I don't have an A7R2 or 3 to add to the comparison. But I can put the 500PF and the 400DOII onto the A9 and that will show pure lens performance. Then I will take a shot of 500PF on D500 to show the difference that the sensor would make. Of course the A7R2 may look a little different.
It may be a couple days before I can do that but if you haven't bought the 400DOII yet then it may help.
7Dii wouldn't be first choice if I could get a D500 (should have listened to Arbitrage long ago)
but it would BIF with the 400DOii eh, and add the MC-11 for perched.
Haha, I don't think such a pm is likely to ever happen I meant it tongue in cheek really. But still your report on the A7rII is greatly appreciated!
In fact, I've cut my choice down to either 400DOII or 500PF for a while now, main reason being portability as I mainly hike and cycle with my set-up, not by car. Only thing holding me back from the 400DOII was that I do not like Canon camera bodies so much, and lately of course the 500PF, but it is f5.6 at 500mm, while with the Canon I have 400mm f4, 560mm f5.6 and 800mm f8, which is also closer to the Pentax set-up (DA560 f5.6 + 1.4TC) that I have been using for the past 5 years.
If you might wonder why I definitely want to change away from the Pentax: although very sharp, it has unreliable AF, mainly unreliable first focus lock, not so good OOF and color abberations, a rather unwieldly form factor and 3.1 kg weight, and the lack of a current Pentax body that I like. I got into the Pentax set-up at a time the 400DOII and the Nikon 500PF were not around yet, and the Canon, Nikon and Sony 500mm lenses were pretty much inaffordable to me.
Either the Canon 400DOII or the Nikon 500PF should be a solid upgrade for the years to come.
arbitrage wrote:
I'll also try and do a quick comparison shot of my stuffed owl to give a better idea of the 500PF vs 400DOII. Of course the cameras will come into play a little bit and I don't have an A7R2 or 3 to add to the comparison. But I can put the 500PF and the 400DOII onto the A9 and that will show pure lens performance. Then I will take a shot of 500PF on D500 to show the difference that the sensor would make. Of course the A7R2 may look a little different.
It may be a couple days before I can do that but if you haven't bought the 400DOII yet then it may help....Show more →
That would be great, informative and much appreciated!
Anyone shooting with the Canon 600 II on an A9 with the Sigma adapter? Wondering what sort of AF performance I could expect with that combo and with the 1.4x as I have a chance of picking up a used A9.
twodees wrote:
Anyone shooting with the Canon 600 II on an A9 with the Sigma adapter? Wondering what sort of AF performance I could expect with that combo and with the 1.4x as I have a chance of picking up a used A9.
Nice food pass but what would it be like with say a (female) northern harrier flying over, for example, a saltmarsh rather than two birds in the sky, ie brown bird on brown background.
twodees wrote:
Anyone shooting with the Canon 600 II on an A9 with the Sigma adapter? Wondering what sort of AF performance I could expect with that combo and with the 1.4x as I have a chance of picking up a used A9.
Send a PM to Joshua @AGeoJO as he is using it a lot now. He has been very happy with it.
I sold my 600II earlier this year but before that I did use it on the A9. I used it with both the 1.4 and 2.0 TCs. I didn't do any BIF with it but I did shoot a fair amount of perching birds. The AF was very good for perching birds, it will start tracking them as they move on the perch with no issue. The biggest issue I had with adapted AF is going from distant focus to a much closer distance. It sometimes has trouble with that large of a focus shift and that becomes more common as you add TCs. Usually it is fine going from a close distance to a further distance. Using the limiter switch and having it pre-focused close to your intended subject distance gets rid of that problem.
arbitrage wrote:
I'll also try and do a quick comparison shot of my stuffed owl to give a better idea of the 500PF vs 400DOII. Of course the cameras will come into play a little bit and I don't have an A7R2 or 3 to add to the comparison. But I can put the 500PF and the 400DOII onto the A9 and that will show pure lens performance. Then I will take a shot of 500PF on D500 to show the difference that the sensor would make. Of course the A7R2 may look a little different.
It may be a couple days before I can do that but if you haven't bought the 400DOII yet then it may help....Show more →
If you have not gotten around to a comparison yet, perhaps it will not be neccessary. I bit the bullet today and decided that however much the 400DOII appeals to me, it simply makes more sense to go the Nikon way, simply because I don't have any intention of ever buying a Canon camera.
So I ordered a Nikon D500+Nikon 500mmPF+ Nikon 1.4TC, and now only have to wait for the 500PF to arrive
Hope it won't last forever.
Seriously, the images from the 500PF also look very good, and it will give me an allround package, incl. BIF and ultimate portability.
arbitrage wrote:
Send a PM to Joshua @AGeoJO@ as he is using it a lot now. He has been very happy with it.
I sold my 600II earlier this year but before that I did use it on the A9. I used it with both the 1.4 and 2.0 TCs. I didn't do any BIF with it but I did shoot a fair amount of perching birds. The AF was very good for perching birds, it will start tracking them as they move on the perch with no issue. The biggest issue I had with adapted AF is going from distant focus to a much closer distance. It sometimes has trouble with that large of a focus shift and that becomes more common as you add TCs. Usually it is fine going from a close distance to a further distance. Using the limiter switch and having it pre-focused close to your intended subject distance gets rid of that problem.
Yes, I have been using the Canon 600mm f/4 Mark II that I purchased in September of last year since I felt the Sony 400mm f/2.8 GM was focal length-challenged for wildlife/bird photography. I have been very pleased with the results so far. Optically, that lens is superb. AF-wise on the A9 with the MC-11 is not quite the performance of a native FE lens. But we need to keep in mind that the existing longest GM lens at 400mm, it is shorter and at f/2.8, it is faster. How close? It depends on the shooting circumstances. The situation, when the focus was at far away distance and you focus on something fairly close, like Geoff described above, does cause the lens to hesitate getting onto focus. You have to nudge the focusing ring a little to bring the focus to be closer to the actual distance of the target. The situation doesn't happen often though and just in case, you know what to do to remedy that. But when the focus setting was fairly close to the actual target, the AF is basically instantaneous. And, and this is a big plus, when the AF latches on to the target, it basically, stays that way until either you reach the AF distance limit or when you stop.
I came back from a 3-day photoshoot at Bosque del Apache in New Mexico and I am very pleased with the result using that lens. My favorite AF mode with the A9 is "Zone AF Mode" and somehow it seems to manage to focus on the head of the target rather than on the wing or wing tips capture. On occasions, I also used the "Large Selectable AF Mode".
From time to time, I added a Sigma TC-1401 for longer reach. Both optically and AF-wise, the performance degradation with that combo is minimal. Since the birds there are pretty large, I never felt the need to use the 2X TC but locally, I did several times and I am pleased with the results, as well.
I will be posting my rendition of the Bosque trip in the N&W forum soon but here is a preview taken in combo with a 1.4X TC that I won't be including in the upcoming thread there. Plus, 3 images of a brown pelican captured locally and 2 of Mandarin ducks.
twodees wrote:
Geoff, Joshua - thanks for the explanation, it's much appreciated.
I second the results Joshua has been getting. I don't have my computer with me (snowshoeing in Rocky Mountain National Park), so I can't include any images, but I can say that I have been very happy with it, except for weight, that is
Thanks Kim. The lens I've had since 2013 so the weight is... well it's never got any lighter Handholdable but an effort, slightly easier with a 5 series body than a 1.
kimknapp wrote:
I second the results Joshua has been getting. I don't have my computer with me (snowshoeing in Rocky Mountain National Park), so I can't include any images, but I can say that I have been very happy with it, except for weight, that is
Sonoran Desert Museum free flight program.
You'll notice no jesses and no anklets. This GHO is free to fly away anytime he wants
But he's got everything he wants to stay. Kinda like 'my' hawks that come daily for chicken I'd think.
MedicineMan404 wrote:
Sonoran Desert Museum free flight program.
You'll notice no jesses and no anklets. This GHO is free to fly away anytime he wants
But he's got everything he wants to stay. Kinda like 'my' hawks that come daily for chicken I'd think.
I meant it tongue in cheek really. But still your report on the A7rII is greatly appreciated!
