Canon 200-400 f/4 Question

slookabill wrote:

BigBen08 wrote:

I rented the 200-400 twice for air show photography. At each show I was shooting aircraft in flight for several hours. About half way through the show my arms tired. No soreness or pain, just tired. I was always shooting hand held.

I think the weight and size of the lens made it a bit more difficult to pan aircraft. More effort had to go into panning. Also, it was hard to change the focal length while shooting. Many times I had to lower the lens and adjust the zoom, then raise the camera up to my eye and resume shooting.

Although it's a fantastic lens, it's not one I will be using for air shows.

Here's some aviation photos I took with the lens. On a few shots I used an external tc on the lens, making it go past 560mm.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/31267310@N05/albums/72157645473732458

And a few more 200-400 photos...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/31267310@N05/albums/72157652863727941

Thanks for the info... I'm just wanting more reach, esp for the Thunderbirds, and other GA acts, and hopefully better optics, than what my 100-400 mk I does.

To get past 400mm with Canon lenses, you either use the super expensive 500 f4 or 200-400, or stick an extender on another Canon lens. It would be great if Canon offered a 500 f5.6 lens that a hobbyist could afford.

I suggest you rent the Sigma 150-600 Contemporary. It weighs about 2 lbs less than the Sport model you used. I have this lens and it works good for air shows. Going past 500mm results in slightly softer images, but still useable. Overall a very good lens.

Another option...the Canon 400 DO II with the 1.4xIII tc. It gets you out to 560mm and weighs much less than the Canon 500 f4. Smaller, too. I rented this lens and obtained excellent results with and without the 1.4xIII. My 400 DO II photos can be seen here...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/31267310@N05/albums/72157652876389715

http://photography.atcontroller.com/ has all my galleries linked on it.

Looks great!