Anyone using the canon 400 L f5.6 with a TC ??

gus

If so which TC and how have you found it ie taping the pins for auto focus & sharpness with sports ?

Im thinking of the canon 1.4 but im reading that the sigma is quite adequate.

Thinking mainly for surf in good light.

gluwater

I've never shot sports Gus but I use the 400 f/5.6 with the tamron 1.4 for birds in flight. AF can hunt and is pretty slow for fast action. You can try mine out at Glacier, I've got both the Tamron and Canon 1.4.

gus

gluwater wrote:

I've never shot sports Gus but I use the 400 f/5.6 with the tamron 1.4 for birds in flight. AF can hunt and is pretty slow for fast action. You can try mine out at Glacier, I've got both the Tamron and Canon 1.4.

Cool mate...your on

Ive been searching since i posted & found that bit about retaining AF with the Tamron. AF is important with stuff like sport...the surfers move too fast.

Manfr3d

gus wrote:

Cool mate...your on

Ive been searching since i posted & found that bit about retaining AF with the Tamron. AF is important with stuff like sport...the surfers move too fast.

.... and I always thought real men ought to shoot surfers with a 15mm lens
Like this: http://photo.net/photodb/top-rated-photographer-photos?user_id=565407

Harv

I'm with Nick on this one. Even using the 400/5.6 with a 1.4xTC on my 1D MkIIn is very slow to AF. I don't know which body you're using, but the 1D MkIIn is no slouch in the AF department. If what you are shooting is fast action sports, you might actually be better off using the 400/5.6 straight up and cropping more heavily. My guess is you'd end up with more keepers.

Kory Lidstrom

I have a 5D, 400 5.6L and Canon 1.4 TC and therefore when I use them together I have to focus manually. The results have been so-so. But, for sports shooting it would be utterly useless because, as others have stated, you NEED AF for that.

I would not recommend taping the pins. The AF is slow as hell.

gus

Tks fellas..im using a 30D. I suspected the AF would be too slow.

howard

I use the 400/5.6 on a 20D and have tried both my Canon and Kenko 1.4x and haven't been impressed by either. I confess to being confused by this because I have always thought my 400 to be sharp, but I get better results with both 1.4x on my other long primes. As to autofocus the Kenko will AF with pins taped and if your focus is already in the right sort of area it's not horribly slow if it sets off in the right direction. The Canon was just too much of a pain to tape because of the protrusion so I only tried MF. Unless the distance is just too much I'd try the lens bare and crop.

Having said the above many others say they get good results with both the taped Kenko and the Tamron which doesn't require taping. So clearly YMMV good luck and if you can try before you buy I'd recommend it.

gus wrote:

If so which TC and how have you found it ie taping the pins for auto focus & sharpness with sports ?

Im thinking of the canon 1.4 but im reading that the sigma is quite adequate.

Thinking mainly for surf in good light.

kdog

I've tried the Kenko Pro, Tamron cheapy, and Canon 1.4x, and noticed little to no difference in AF -- they all suck. However, if you have static subjects, the image quality of the 400 with Canon 1.4x is very good.

Click here for a sample image: http://www.jacara.com/cpg144/albums/az_landscape/IMG_5515.jpg

Jekyll & Hyde

kdog wrote:

I've tried the Kenko Pro, Tamron cheapy, and Canon 1.4x, and noticed little to no difference in AF -- they all suck. However, if you have static subjects, the image quality of the 400 with Canon 1.4x is very good.

J: Agree with kdog. I have the 30D and 400/5.6 and have tried the Canon 1.4x (taped), and cheapy Tamron 1.4x (taping unnecessary). AF is quite slow (but usually accurate).

H: If your AF is very close to start with, then AF is much faster. That's really the key.

J&H

gus

tks guys. Looks like i will let it go. As fast as the 400 is on its own i still could use faster AF so no way in hell do i want it to slow too much.