In Praise of Long Lenses

[Rose]

Rose, this short vid I stumbled on covers your 100-400 v 70-200 + 2X question - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9zWpihW8IE

Thanks Paul that's really interesting ! Although the comparison uses the 2.8 version of the 70-200 and I have the f/4 of course...

[Mike Farley]

Coincidentally, this article about converters has just been published on the LensRentals blog: http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2015/07 ... converters

At the end, it refers to an earlier piece on the same subject by the great Roger Cicala himself: http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2009/01 ... erters-101

[davidb]

Rose, this short vid I stumbled on covers your 100-400 v 70-200 + 2X question - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9zWpihW8IE

HMM. I was looking to replace my 100-400 mk1 with the mk2 later in the year (Nov) but after watching this video the cheaper option would be the 70-200 as I already have the 2x converter. It's put the cat amongst the pigeons

[Rose]

Depends what you want to use it for... The video didn't really mention the compromise with the AF system which might be a deal breaker if you want to use it for sports, aviation or birds in flight ?

[Mike Farley]

Depends what you want to use it for... The video didn't really mention the compromise with the AF system which might be a deal breaker if you want to use it for sports, aviation or birds in flight ?

According to this article by Canon USA, AF speed remains essentially unchanged when an extender is used.

http://learn.usa.canon.com/resources/ar ... _pt2.htmlp

[Rose]

Depends what you want to use it for... The video didn't really mention the compromise with the AF system which might be a deal breaker if you want to use it for sports, aviation or birds in flight ?

According to this article by Canon USA, AF speed remains essentially unchanged when an extender is used.

http://learn.usa.canon.com/resources/ar ... _pt2.htmlp

Yes... but you may be restricted to centre focus only.

[Mike Farley]

Yes... but you may be restricted to centre focus only.

I wondered if that might be the problem. It depends on what the maximum aperture is on the lens, so the 70-200 f/2.8 + 2x extender would mean a maximum aperture of f/5.6. The combo would be slightly heavier than a 100-400 Mk II and there is the loss of up to a stop at the shorter focal lengths which would start at 140, but it would still be able to use all the AF points. With the f/4 version of the 70-200 as the starting point, you would be restricted to the 1.4x extender to retain full AF functionality of course.

[Mike Farley]

If you want to travel light with a camera that has a long reach as well as shorter focal lengths without compromising on image quality, then the subject of this review could be the way to go. There are a couple of comparison tests where the camera acquits itself favourably against the full frame Sony A7II. Note the concluding sentence.

https://luminous-landscape.com/canon-g3x-review/