which canon lens...

sparky675

I am looking to by new glass.. down to 3 choices,,1 canon 300 4.0 is 2 canon 400 5.6 3 canon 100-400 .. first question is the is something to worry about with the 300... most shots will be on a tripod... all are in my price range ,,, does the 300 work well with the 1.4 converter? any views out there..

dlplumer

sparky675 wrote:

I am looking to by new glass.. down to 3 choices,,1 canon 300 4.0 is 2 canon 400 5.6 3 canon 100-400 .. first question is the is something to worry about with the 300... most shots will be on a tripod... all are in my price range ,,, does the 300 work well with the 1.4 converter? any views out there..

I had the same short list and went with the 300 mm and the 1.4 tc. They work great together. You can see samples of both on my wildlife gallery in smugmug. You can't go wrong with any of these. If you are going on safaris consider the zoom. The 300 is nice and light and fast with excelent quality and of course IS in two modes. On a tripod you must turn the IS off.

Dan

sparky675

thanks
thanks Dan.. like the hummer shots... they are nice and clear.. question do you use the IS much on the 300? it is looking more like choosing between the 300 or the 400... thanks Sparky

dlplumer

sparky675 wrote:

thanks Dan.. like the hummer shots... they are nice and clear.. question do you use the IS much on the 300? it is looking more like choosing between the 300 or the 400... thanks Sparky

I use it all the time when shooting wildlife which I almost always do handheld. When you add the 1.4 you are shooting at over 600 mm on a 1.6 crop camera. The IS is wonderful. I may get a second 1.4 and stack them. I hear the 2x is not good.

Tee Why

Here is a review of the 400mm prime vs the 100-400mm zoom
He even states to have compared it against the 300mm with a TC.
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/lenses/forgotten-400.shtml

VE6AB

I own a 300mm F4 along with a 1.4 extender and use that combination from time to time. I like the photos the 300 produces and find it a good lens for shooting birds in flight. One of the things I really like about the 300mm is when I use a 25mm extension tube along with it, to shoot photos of flying insects such as dragonflys in flight. This combination gives you a nice working range, without spooking the dragonflys. Nice lens.

kdog

Tee Why wrote:

Here is a review of the 400mm prime vs the 100-400mm zoom
He even states to have compared it against the 300mm with a TC.
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/lenses/forgotten-400.shtml

That's only one person's findings of course. If my 100-400 was as bad as the one in that review, I'd have thrown it away a long time ago. I conducted my own carefully controlled tests on a tripod, and I get virtually the same performance from my 100-400 at F8 as I do from my 400 F5.6 lens at F8. Most other people who have directly compared these lenses have come to the same conclusion. When comparing the lenses wide-open at F5.6, the 400 prime wins, but at a considerably smaller margin than was indicated in the luminous landscape test. Obviously I have no horse in this race as I own both lenses. I'll be happy to post samples if folks are interested.