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Canon 70-200 f/4 L IS with 1.4x or Canon 70-300 f/4-5.6 L IS or 300 f/4 L IS over Tamron 70-300 VC?

Started Feb 19, 2015 | Questions thread
bronxbombers4 Veteran Member • Posts: 3,387
Re: test pics from all three:

dheerc wrote:

bronxbombers4 wrote:

All tests done at about 25' to target, longest end, f/5.6, center frame, constant indoor lighting, best of numerous liveview manual 10x focusing attempts, tripod, remote release, 100% crops:

Here is the 70-200 f/4 IS + 1.4x TC III:

http://sunsetbayphotography4.zenfolio.com/img/s2/v61/p1143966064.jpg

And here is the 70-300L:

http://sunsetbayphotography4.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v56/p1143966196.jpg

And here the tamron:

http://sunsetbayphotography4.zenfolio.com/img/s2/v58/p1143966326.jpg

different target 200% crops:

70-200+tc:

http://sunsetbayphotography4.zenfolio.com/img/s4/v66/p1143967304.jpg

70-300:

http://sunsetbayphotography4.zenfolio.com/img/s2/v61/p1143968368.jpg

tamron:

http://sunsetbayphotography4.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v56/p1143967168.jpg

WOW! This is one of the best tests I've seen so far with respect to these three lenses! Thanks a ton! You completely got me on the 70-300L side now!
Out of curiosity, how come the Tamron seems to be only a tad different than the 70-300L and almost the same as the 70-200 with TC? I am very surprised with that! Does that mean on a FF camera, it does better and comes close to the L lenses because on my cropped T3 sensor, the difference is substantial!

I'm not surprised that it comes close to the other lens with the TC since TC do give decent hits to image quality. Even the might 300 2.8 IS gets the IQ reduced a bit with the 1.4x TC III (although that lens is so amazing that even with the TC it's perhaps still as good as a bare 70-300L or bare 70-200 f/4 IS).

I am surprised that you found the tamron and 70-200 f/4 IS + TC to be so different on the T3.

How did you test? Did you just rely on AF? I don't think the T3 has micro focus adjust so the focus could have been off with the tamron but, by pure luck, dead on with the 70-200+TC combo perhaps?

My tests didn't use AF and use the best of many tries manually with lieview 10x zoomed to eliminate AF mistakes from the equation.

Maybe you got a really bum tamron? It could be that my 70-200 f/4 was bum too of course, but I don't think so considering that it did better than my 70-200 2.8 non-IS at 200mm which itself did better than a borrowed 70-200 2.8 IS at 200mm and I don't see how it could be noticeable better than those two and be a bum copy.

weird, not sure what to say.

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