Canon 100-400mm L + 1.4x III Extender - 100 vs 400

While photographing Kayakers at Great Falls Park in Virginia, i took two shots using my Canon 100-400mm L lens attached to a Canon 1.4x III extender attached to a Canon 5D Mark II. I love zoom lenses and this was one is pure awesome. When shooting so far away the zoom really comes in handy to put your subject in perspective.

If you plan on using the 1.4x III extender on this lens i suggest you lower your expectations. Auto focus does NOT work unless you do the "Tape trick" which you tape 3 pins on the lens that attaches to the body, which tricks the camera into thinking there is not extender on and you can use the center focus only.

You HAVE to use this setup on sunny days. The photo above was pushing it, late in the day, but i was able to auto focus with that light. Auto focus is SLOW and very annoying. It may take 5 to 10 seconds to lock on, so if you are doing wildlife it can easily make you miss shots.. with that being said i was able to get some awesome action shots and wildlife shots with the extender and tape trick. For example, you can see below a Great Blue Heron fishing while a Cormorant drifts by. In great light you will be able to focus quickly, only noticing a slight delay.

So with the 1.4x extender on my full frame body and the 100-400mm, that gives me 140-560mm. It is long enough to hand held without too much lose of quality. If you were shooting on a cropped camera like a 7D or my back up, a 40D, i have seen people report problems with the photos being blurry while hand held. You want to get a 500mm lens? Good luck, those things are HUGE, heavy and super expensive. a 500mm F4 is $7000. Nikon's is over $8000. You can get a Sigma 50-500mm for around $1500 ( a little more than the 100-400 at $1650) but i did some research and the Canon out performs the Sigma. They have to make it appear better by giving you the added 50-100mm and 401-500mm, but really, it's not better. Sure the 50mm is nice, but the 500mm vs 400mm shots at the lowest f stop do not compare.

Another option is getting the canon 70-200mm f/2.8 and using a 2x extender or a 1.4x extender. I thought this would be the best way to go because of the versatility of having a 70-200mm, a 98-280mm and a 140-400mm lens, but you lose quality with the extenders. Test shots show that straight up the canon 100-400mm is the boss on the "lower end" professional lens. Please, if you know a better lens let me know.

And a little extra, i was doing some googling the other day and found this future canon lens. My pants are wet!

www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EF-200-400mm-f-...

a 200-400mm zoom lens with a BUILT in 1.4x extender... how incredible is that. That lens should be super expensive though, some think it will be over $8000.

Photo Notes:
Shot from the first overlook on the Virginia side of Great Falls National Park, standing at the highest point closest to the railing.

ISO 640
f/ 8.0
1/200sec
around 6:45pm
Hand held

Future comparison shots with and without the extender and testing sharpness.

Link to the tape trick:
www.michaelfurtman.com/taping_the_pins.htm

Taken in: United States / Virginia / Great Falls (show map)

Taken on: July 21, 2011

Tags:

canon 100-400mm L

canon 1.4x iii extender

100mm

400mm

tape trick

auto focus

extender tips

photography tips

canon tips

great falls va

virginia

photography « less

Sets appears in: • Great Falls Park • Most Interesting

Groups appears in: • Canon DSLR User Group • canon photography

Stats: 44,680 views / 14 comments

go back