Whick Set Up??

Stevedevil

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Hi all

Am looking to get myself a Canon IS L Lens and am a little stuck In whick set up will be better,

Either the Canon 70-200mm f2.8 L IS USM and Purchase either a 1.4x or 2x converter

Or the Canon 100 - 400mm f4.5 - 5.6 L IS USM

I know its a bit like " how long is a piece of string " but thought I would ask

Cheers

Steve
 
From what I hear, the 70-200mm f2.8 L IS USM is one of the best zoom lenses avaliable and would outperform the 100-400. However, the 100-400 is still an L lens and is still a great lens in it's own right.

Check this out, but I'm not sure if Canon's 1.4x and 2x TCs are compatible with the 70-200 F2.8. Other brand TC will be, but you are giving up some of the lens's quality.
 
mmm I think you may be right here as just read US and UK Canon web, and the NON IS works on extenders, but not the IS, so will it just loose the IS system, or does the Kenko Pro work with the IS, Any Clues
 
The Canon teleconverters only work with a handful of their lenses, I think it's because of the rear elements/front of the TC. So if a lens is not compatible, it probably won't fit properly.

The other brands, AFAIK (as far as I know), will work on any Canon lens.
 
Reading about the 70 - 200mm f2.8 it does seem worth saving the extra, will check out the AFAIK converters, Cheers
 
Steve
I can help here having had this conundrum too!

I own the 70-200 f2.8L IS and use it with the 1.4x with great results. I decided for longer to use the 300f4L IS + 1.4x too.

The 100-400 will retain IS with a teleconverter but will lose auto focus on anything but a 1 series camera.

There is a work around (taping one of the small contacts on the converter) but it's not really worth it IMO.

The 70-200 f2.8L IS really is a superb lens - heavy right enough but superb. Add the 1.4x and you have a 98-280 f4L IS!!!

The 2x works ok but you do lose a noticable amount of sharpness. Especially soft in the corners.

My advice is 70-200 f2.8L IS which can be used in any conditions weddings, events, low light, bright light, IS is outstanding Canon says 3 stops but you can really get 4 if you are pretty careful in the way you hold the lens. I can shoot at 200mm @ 1/15th sec and get sharp images (obviously static). In fact I've shot at 1/8th sec and got great results.

THe 100-400 is also a great lens especially at airshows, sports and for wildlife - but in bright light!!

Speak to Ian Kerr and he'll do you a great deal - mention Jim from Scotland sent you :)
 
mmm I think you may be right here as just read US and UK Canon web, and the NON IS works on extenders, but not the IS, so will it just loose the IS system, or does the Kenko Pro work with the IS, Any Clues

I tzhink IS should work fine as it is a lens thing and does not need any communication with the camera.

I use the Kenko teleplus pro 1.4x with a Canon 300 f/4 L .. and IS works nicely, so does AF. AF will not work with the 100-400 though, tried that with a friend's 100-400.
 
An aside

None of the converters disable the IS capabilities. What it does is lose light. 1 stop for a 1.4 and 2 stops for a 2x. Your camera will allow AF on any lens with a max aperture of f5.6 or greater.

Now when you add the Canon 1.4x to the 100-400 f4.5-5.6, the max aperture becomes f5.6-f8 and you need a minimum wide open aperture of f5.6 to retain AF so at f8 this means you lose that AF on anything but a 1 series camera which retains AF to f8 on the centre focus point (I believe).

Also here's another scenario

With the Canon converter attached to your EOS camera, the lens will deliver the correct information to your camera. With any other converters the lens will not. So shooting a subject with a 70-200 f2.8 wide open, the camera will show f4 if the Canon 1.4x is connected but will show f2.8 with some other teleconverters.

Hope that helps

Cheers
JD
 
Steve

There is a work around (taping one of the small contacts on the converter) but it's not really worth it IMO.

I recently read that the taping of the contacts is a hit and miss thing in that it may work on one camera, but not on the other with the exact same set up.

Cheers
 
I recently read that the taping of the contacts is a hit and miss thing in that it may work on one camera, but not on the other with the exact same set up.

Cheers

I've never tried it. Don't have slow lenses that use the 1.4x :)

Should work on any camera though (so long as the user does it right).
 

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