Travel Photography - Canon 600mm lens IS or no IS.

we have a 400mm canon that wife uses a lot. it is on a tripod behind a sliding glass door. most of the bird activity is 2-300 feet away on the shoreline.

a 600mm IS seems to be $6000 and up(mainly up). a 600mm non-IS's seem to be available for half of that. if that lens is mounted on a sturdy tripod on a solid floor, will there be any difference in image quality?

we do not plan to haul this monster anywhere, and do not plan any hand held shots.

For that much money, use a tripod and forgo the IS. That's what photographers have done for years before VR and IS ever came about. IMO, even with VR and IS, at that focal length, your pics are asking for blurriness without some sort of stable platform like a good tripod.

If you're going to use the tripod anyway, there is no need for IS/VR as it is actually contraindicated in this situation.

Modern IS systems can sense the amount of movement and turn the function off if below a certain threshold. So the old guidance of turning IS off on a tripod only applies to older technology. Unless you are using a timer and mirror lock-up with a very sturdy tripod, you will still get some movement from the shutter release and mirror slap. In fact, current IS system have special functions just for mirror slap while on a sturdy tripod.

Having said that, if you're on a solid platform, the difference to be gained, as long as you use a remote or good long-lens technique, will be very minimal. You would only see it looking closely at large prints or on-screen . With the new 600II going at 9-10K, I'd go with an older non-IS for this specific situation. Keep in mind the glass has also been improved over the years, you'll get a bit more blur, CA, etc., regardless of the mount, IS, etc. $6-7K seems like a lot to pay for the difference unless you're a pro making your living at it. But some folks have a lot more $ than I and don't see this as a big deal.

seems th non-is is 5-6K. i thought i saw 3500 and 4500 somewhere, but i cannot find it today.

Have you considered using your 400mm lens with a 1.4x Canon extender? I found the 1.4x extender rarely adds unacceptable blur (you do lose some light though). I wouldn't recommend the 2x extender.

Quite frankly, the only reason I look for IS super tele is because Canon no longer repair the older version super Tele(ex EF200 1.8, 400 mkI). If Canon still can repair the 600 f4L, I would have no problem getting it. In reality most of the time I have my IS turn off (300 2.8 IS/500 F4 IS) since IS tends to slow down focusing speed and I am on high shutter. I saw some recent 600 F4 non IS going around 3500-4700 over @FM. The one @4700 hardly had a scratch on the body. A good 600 IS will most likely stay north of 6.5K for quite a while as US$ still worthless and MKII is almost double the MKI IS cost.

If I'm spending that much on a lens, I'll be wanting the sharpest one and I'll be thinking about resale value and ease of selling it. Sure you lay out a few grand less with the old version, but when you buy a good used lens, you're really just "borrowing" it, since it'll be worth as much, if not more, when you sell. I've broken even or even made some money many times this way.

Have you considered using your 400mm lens with a 1.4x Canon extender? I found the 1.4x extender rarely adds unacceptable blur (you do lose some light though). I wouldn't recommend the 2x extender.

my canon(it is bottom of line) will not auto focus when i put on the 1.4x extender.

You should always be able to focus manually or (most of the time) using "live view" focus, but using extenders does cost you some stops of light, so autofocus is impaired. I've heard that some people put tape over some of the connectors on the extenders so that the camera doesn't know that the extender is on (and thus doesn't turn off the ability to use the regular autofocus), but I've never tried that.

The extenders absolutely will reduce sharpness, but depending on what you are shooting, it can be an acceptable trade-off. Last year my daughter and I stacked a 1.4x and 2.0x extender behind a fully zoomed 100-400mm lens attached to an APS-C camera and were able to take (manually focused) photos of Jupiter where we captured some of the moons and the saw the colored stripes on the planet. Of course, we used a tripod and the camera was hooked up to a laptop via live view since that was the only way to get the manual focus right (also Jupiter moves through the field of view so fast that you really need the large viewfinder on a laptop or you'll never find the planet in time to shoot before it moves out of view). All of which is a long way of saying, yes, you lose autofocus at some point with extenders (depending on the camera and the lens you are using), but you can still do very cool stuff with it.

Interesting point on a lens as an investment. One thing to bear in mind is that the lens are not made in the United States, so if the dollar weakens against the Yen, the cost of a new lens will probably go up, increasing the value of your used lens. The same thing should work in reverse, and if the dollar strengthens, the value of your used lens should drop.

Most Canon bodies can autofocus when maximum aperture of the lens (including extender) is f/5.6 or larger, while the 1D models (except the upcoming 1D X) can also focus a f/8 lens with its center point only.

So, if your lens is f/2.8, then you can use autofocus with a 2x extender; while if your lens is f/4, you can autofocus with a 1.4 extender. Without having to tape over the connectors.

i am in the process (i hope) of purchasing a 600mm f4 canon(non is). i live in dc suburbs. where would i take it and by whom to have it professionally evaluated.

i am in the process (i hope) of purchasing a 600mm f4 canon(non is). i live in dc suburbs. where would i take it and by whom to have it professionally evaluated.

May I ask why you need to have someone else to evaluate? You are spending some major bucks here, at the end of the day only you can make the decision. If your seller willing to loan the lens for the weekend, I would just do some test shots at a local zoo to check out all the lens functions.

Ran across this article the other day

http://bythom.com/nikon-vr.htm

It's possible to likely that the release of the 600mm f4L IS II (due out in mid-December IIRC) will drive down the price of the 600mm f4L IS a little, given the mark II lens is being offered at an ARV of "only" $1.5-2k or so more than the existing mark I lens. I'd think there might even be a decent drop in the used market for the 600, given several people will be looking to trade up to the mark II.

The mark II is supposedly around 3 pounds lighter than the mark I--given the lens isn't one likely to be handheld anyway, that's only of so much value, but something to consider.

Canon is also supposedly introducing a 200-400 f4 L with an integrated, switchable 1.4x teleconverter later this year, which is going to be a killer lens for wildlife photographers. That's a 280-560mm f5.6 with the TC engaged, and tack on the typical crop factor body's apparent magnification and you get a nearly 900mm lens out of it.

The Canon PR materials on it claim it's great for pros & beginners alike. Rumored price point is around $8-$9k, though (:eek:) which makes me question the "beginners" bit.

I believe they've had production delays related to the Japan earthquake & tsunami, or it would be out by now.

The Canon PR materials on it claim it's great for pros & beginners alike. Rumored price point is around $8-$9k, though (:eek:) which makes me question the "beginners" bit.



I wish the lens can be had for under 10k, but as it stands the mkII are still at $13k street price which makes the mkI priced hovering around $6-7k in the used market.