Lens Geekery and Colourful Macaws

[major_clanger]

This post contains both photography geekery and nice photos of birds, so I feel free to jump to the latter if the former bores you!

I've taken advantage a couple of times now of photo dealers and rentalship Calumet's special offers of discounted equipment rental over bank holidays to try out kit that I can't justify buying, particularly nice lenses. Over the May Day weekend I thus got to have a go with the Canon 100-400L Mark 2.

The earlier version of this lens had been very popular, but was introduced in 1998 and even the most dedicated Canon enthusiasts had been wondering for some years when it was going to get an update (its first-generation image stabilisation was looking decidedly geriatric, for starters). A Mark 2 version had been the assumed next big lens product from Canon since at least 2010 or so, but there was still a lot of online excitement when it was finally announced late last year.

As a lens itself, it has the usual robust and well-engineered feel of Canon's L-series prestige lenses. It is neither small nor light, being as long as and a bit fatter than the 70-200 f/2.8 when zoomed in and about 15cm longer when at maximum zoom. It focusses quickly, the image stabilisation (Canon's latest version) works very well, and the image quality is superb. One new feature that a lot of photographers will like is that for such a long-focal-length lens its minimum focussing distance is very close - about 75cm. This is a lens that lets you take near-macro photos from arm's length.

To test it, we went to Tropical Birdland, out near Leicester. If you want lots of pretty, colourful and fairly tame photo subjects, this is your place. It has literally dozens of birds, mostly but not entirely macaws, which are happy to sit around and be fed the nuts they helpfully sell on the way in.









This was taken at close to maximum zoom from about a metre away:



... and this is a close crop of part of that, only slightly enhanced with Photoshop to bring out detail. Have a look at the pupil!



The full set of photos is here. Some of these were taken with my trusty Sigma 10-20 wide angle zoom, including this one I rather like.

Comments

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Those close-ups are amazing, especially the eye. I really ought to look into image stabilisation, but I think that if I ever go that route I'd be better off ditching all of my existing fairly basic Nikon kit and starting over. Maybe if I ever have a serious premium bond win.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure about what Nikon are doing, but Canon are pushing IS into more and more of their lenses. Looking at their EF-S lenses (aimed mainly at enthusiast rather than pro photographers) all but two of the fourteen lenses introduced since 2006 have featured IS, including the standard 18-55 zoom they tend to bundle with lower-end SLRs.

IS has its limits - a running animal is going to have blurred legs at 1/15s, whatever the IS is doing - but it gets you a far higher percentage of usable pictures.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

My impression is that Canon are doing it better and a little cheaper - my guess is that the reduced body depth and wider lens mount in Canons is part of the reason, but I could be wrong. I think Nikon were looking to keep their existing user base happy so kept the old lens mount through every change in technology; Canon annoyed a lot of people, me included, with the move to Eos, but in the long run I think it paid off for them.

later - meant to add that none of my kit has any image stabilisation, it's all too early and low-end. Not even sure my D50 supports it, though I could be wrong.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

But do be careful when feeding those large colorful birds... I still have a scar on my right forefinger.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

There were plenty of signs there warning of that!

[history-monk.livejournal.com]

I am impressed!

[secritcrush.livejournal.com]

These are really lovely. The closeups are so detailed.