I know true wildlife photographers don't like the 70-300mm lens.
I love it. So light and compact...and perfect for some settings.
So off into the woods I go in pursuits of this guy, popping the Riv into crop mode for some effective reach and ISO 4000 to add to the fun, he pauses for a moment and let's me get the capture.
Soon enough I'll be using the 70-350mm for more weight savings and that extra 50mm
robsonj wrote:
Spent the day yesterday photographing the Rockford,IL WWII Days. The largest WWII re-enactment in the US. I shot with the A7rIV exclusively, 24mm GM, Zeiss 55mm (a lot!), 24-105mm G, 100-400mm GM (all battle scenes).
Everything performed wonderfully, add to that the fact that we had a lot of rain. It's like shooting fish in a barrel getting good focus with this camera.
I'm not gonna post all of the photos here, as there are 100 at the minute, still processing, link to the album below for anyone interested in either the camera or the re-enactment. It really is impressive to see the re-enactors doing their thing, closest I've been to a time machine...
A bit of fall color behind this Nuthatch.
The grip arrived for the A7Riv, wonderful feeling rig.
This shot with the 400DOii which to me has focus acquisition just as fast as the FE200600G.
Via the MC-11 I now have a 400mm prime which I can wield and feels 'native'.
Great to see that the Canon 400DOII has not the least problem resolving detail fine enough for the A7RIV sensor. Beautiful colors too. Nice to know for me that that road is still open for me, since AF is (near) native on the A7RIV.
MedicineMan404 wrote:
A bit of fall color behind this Nuthatch.
The grip arrived for the A7Riv, wonderful feeling rig.
This shot with the 400DOii which to me has focus acquisition just as fast as the FE200600G.
Via the MC-11 I now have a 400mm prime which I can wield and feels 'native'.
ChrisMak wrote:
Great to see that the Canon 400DOII has not the least problem resolving detail fine enough for the A7RIV sensor. Beautiful colors too. Nice to know for me that that road is still open for me, since AF is (near) native on the A7RIV.
The 400DOII in my controlled testing still gives a sharper image at equivalent focal lengths to the 200-600...so like 560 vs 600 and 800 vs 840. I haven't tried on the A7RIV (because I don't own one) but on the A9 I would say the drive speed between a far to near, near to far is very close to the 200-600. Especially if you compare bare 400DOII with 200-600. But at least with the 2xTC on the 400DOII it will often do a second little pulse to get focus that the 200-600 doesn't do and I'd say is a bit slower. With the 1.4 on 400DOII it is hard to tell much difference.
That all said, the last time I tested the 400DOII with TCs for flight shots of ducks it never came back with anywhere near the consistency of a native lens. So target to target speed of focus doesn't always correlate to keepers once the AF system has to constantly drive to follow a moving subject.
The 200-600 has pretty much negated my use for the 400DOII because the weights are about the same, the 200-600 has the added flexibility of a zoom and the consistency of flight shot hit rate leaves the adapted 400DOII behind. Also you only get 10FPS and it won't initiate focus much outside the centre region of the sensor. It won't track over the entire sensor either like a native lens will. However, for non-flight shots the 400DOII even with 2xTC renders a beautiful image that certainly rivals and slightly bests the 200-600/1.4 image.
Geoff speaks gospel.
Only thing I'd add about the DOii, is the obvious, F4 when you need it.
But with the 200600 I don't need it anymore. In fact if Sony were to put out
a 500 I can lift I'd get rid of the DOii and the Nikon lot I'm sitting on.
My intended use for the A7RIV would not be BIF so much, as having a reliable body for the 400DOII+2.0TC with accurate and consistent AF and large dynamic range and color depth.
The 7DII does surprisingly well with the 400DOII+1.4TC for BIF, and I have found it to be a btter camera than expected based on what I had read about it. But the 7DII lacks proper dynamic range, especially when dealing with difficult light, and the ability to recover in post processing is very limited. Also, it does not have the color depth of the A7R series.
On the A7RII, the 400+2x does well, but AF is limited, and especially low light AF is dramatic. The A7RIV seems to tick all the boxes, especially since Canon does not make it any easier by not producing a 7DIII and the EOS-R being 30mp, which only leaves about 10-12 mp crop mode.
I understand that the 200-600 is a great lens, but in truth, if I am to get another lens, I would want a 500mm f4. So I will wait to see if Canon comes with a RF 500mm f4 next year. The A7RIV will not be wasted anyway: I have three Loxia lenses and shoot everything other than birding with Sony.
arbitrage wrote:
The 400DOII in my controlled testing still gives a sharper image at equivalent focal lengths to the 200-600...so like 560 vs 600 and 800 vs 840. I haven't tried on the A7RIV (because I don't own one) but on the A9 I would say the drive speed between a far to near, near to far is very close to the 200-600. Especially if you compare bare 400DOII with 200-600. But at least with the 2xTC on the 400DOII it will often do a second little pulse to get focus that the 200-600 doesn't do and I'd say is a bit slower. With the 1.4 on 400DOII it is hard to tell much difference.
That all said, the last time I tested the 400DOII with TCs for flight shots of ducks it never came back with anywhere near the consistency of a native lens. So target to target speed of focus doesn't always correlate to keepers once the AF system has to constantly drive to follow a moving subject.
The 200-600 has pretty much negated my use for the 400DOII because the weights are about the same, the 200-600 has the added flexibility of a zoom and the consistency of flight shot hit rate leaves the adapted 400DOII behind. Also you only get 10FPS and it won't initiate focus much outside the centre region of the sensor. It won't track over the entire sensor either like a native lens will. However, for non-flight shots the 400DOII even with 2xTC renders a beautiful image that certainly rivals and slightly bests the 200-600/1.4 image....Show more →
MedicineMan404 wrote:
A bit of fall color behind this Nuthatch.
The grip arrived for the A7Riv, wonderful feeling rig.
This shot with the 400DOii which to me has focus acquisition just as fast as the FE200600G.
Via the MC-11 I now have a 400mm prime which I can wield and feels 'native'.
