Canon EF Canon 500mm f/4L II IS or ?

[Kung Pao Panda]

Greetings,

A good friend of mine is interested in purchasing a super telephoto lens (or super zoom). Her longest lens she has is the Canon EF 70mm-200mm f/2.8 II IS.

She desires a longer lens for shooting world big wave surfing, F-1 and Indy car auto races, and Americas Cup boat races coming to San Francisco, USA next year.

She uses Canon 7D's.

She is looking at in order of preference:

Canon EF Canon 500mm f/4L II IS . Considering to use with 1.4X or 2X Canon teleconverter? How much quality loss if teleconverter attached?

Sigma 800mm F5.6 EX APO DG HSM. Plus adding Sigma teleconverter for longer reach?

Sigma 200-500mm F2.8 APO EX DG.

Also recommend an appropriate size tripod(s).

Advice and recommendations appreciated and any pics to posts for sample quality?

Thanking you in advance.

 

[Schwany]

Greetings,

A good friend of mine is interested in purchasing a super telephoto lens (or super zoom). Her longest lens she has is the Canon EF 70mm-200mm f/2.8 II IS.

She desires a longer lens for shooting world big wave surfing, F-1 and Indy car auto races, and Americas Cup boat races coming to San Francisco, USA next year.

Very diverse subject matter.

If she has a press pass, she may not need the long lenses for motorsport. A 70-200f/2.8 is a serious work horse for many situations where the photographer has access to the track. I see a lot of them at the races.

F1 and Indy cars are exceedingly fast. The bare 500/4 can keep up. With a 1.4x extender it is usable. I have the 2x, but have not tried it yet on fast motorsports. I've never used the 500f/4 MkII since it's not available. Even if it were, I probably wouldn't get one anytime soon. However, that is a wallet issue.

Shooting surfers from the land would require an excellent position. I've never pursued it seriously, but 500mm from the beach is pretty short most of the time. If she is shooting from a boat, 500mm would work well. That world stuff is usually on very open water without too many good vantage points on land.

I know nothing about the Americas Cup, but 500mm would probably be enough.

She uses Canon 7D's.

She is looking at in order of preference:

Canon EF Canon 500mm f/4L II IS . Considering to use with 1.4X or 2X Canon teleconverter? How much quality loss if teleconverter attached?

Both extenders will soften the image some, but nothing that can't be addressed in post process.

Sigma 800mm F5.6 EX APO DG HSM. Plus adding Sigma teleconverter for longer reach?

If she can afford that lens, why not hire someone else to do the work? Just saying. ;-)

Sigma 200-500mm F2.8 APO EX DG.

Those Sigma lenses are big lenses. I know nothing about them.

Also recommend an appropriate size tripod(s).

Advice and recommendations appreciated and any pics to posts for sample quality?

Quality is subjective. One man's trash is another man's treasure.

Canon 1D MkIV, 500f/4 + 1.4x extender MkII (700mm)

Thanking you in advance.

 

[Robert Sheldon]

Greetings,

A good friend of mine is interested in purchasing a super telephoto lens (or super zoom). Her longest lens she has is the Canon EF 70mm-200mm f/2.8 II IS.

She desires a longer lens for shooting world big wave surfing, F-1 and Indy car auto races, and Americas Cup boat races coming to San Francisco, USA next year.

She uses Canon 7D's.

She is looking at in order of preference:

Canon EF Canon 500mm f/4L II IS . Considering to use with 1.4X or 2X Canon teleconverter? How much quality loss if teleconverter attached?

She will lose AF with the 2X using it on the 7D

Sigma 800mm F5.6 EX APO DG HSM. Plus adding Sigma teleconverter for longer reach?

Again, she will lose AF using a TC on this lens using the 7D

Sigma 200-500mm F2.8 APO EX DG.

Also recommend an appropriate size tripod(s).

Advice and recommendations appreciated and any pics to posts for sample quality?

Thanking you in advance.

--
Bob Sheldon
Photo Gallery at
http://www.bobsheldon.com

 

[netgarden]

She'll need a sturdier tripod and head as well.

I can't imagine someone purchasing the sigma 200-500 simply on recommendation. And it's so heavy, I can't imagine any kind of fluid movement achieved with this lens, with her requirements.

I doubt if she'd need anything @800 either, and if she does, the canon 800mm is your best bet. I know sigma makes a 300-800 lens that would suffice for everything, but it's 12 lbs and has no IS. A friend put out some excellent photos with it.

The 500f4 is unbeatable in image quality. I'd get the new version, considering she has big bucks. The new 1.4x would suffice for anything of her needs. And yes perfect for surfing also. If she wants to be easily mobile, she may want to go that route. There is nothing more exausting than carrying huge lenses around.

Better yet,, considering money is no object, I'd get the 500mm and the 800mm. Forget the teleconverters. My years of experience with them is if you are going to spend a wad of money for top quality work, then adding the teleconverters bring down that quality you are trying to achieve, including focus speed.

The other option is the 600mm, which is a more gentle drag around. Great for surfing, sports at a distance. If she's going to be shooting in alot of low light, stick with the f4 lenses. You can always buy a teleconverter later, but don't plan it in to make the lens work for you.
Buy the right length to begin with. Oh, and a MKIV to be really happy.
--



http://www.OCwildlife.com
There is no other photography like Wildlife

 

[CameraCarl]

Since your friend apparently has never used a supertele, I'd recommend she borrow or rent one before buying it. I know several female photographers. Most of them use and love their 500mm and 600mm lenses, but one or two find the lenses too big to handle and opted for a 400mm DO instead. You also asked about tripods: I wouldn't get anything smaller than a Gitzo 35XX series or a Really Right Stuff tripod. The standard tripod for long lens users seems to be the Gitzo 3530LS. Then a good ball head like the Kirk or RRS and/or a gimbal head like the Wimberley or Jobu gimbal mount are also needed.

 

[Howard102273]

+1

These lenses OP listed are very different in terms of weight and handling, don't get surprised after you get the lens.
--
-----
cameras: 5DII, 50D, D60, R2K
lenses: 17-40 f/4 USM L, 24-105 f/4 USM L, 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 IS USM L
24 f/3.5 TSE L, 35 f/2, 50 f/1.4 USM, 100 f/2.8 IS USM Macro L
Tamron 90 f/2.8 Macro (for sale now!)
personal website: http://www.travelerathome.com
blog: http://travelerathome.wordpress.com

 

[Dave Peters]

I own the Canon 800mm, the Sigma 300-800 and have used the Canon 500mm.

There is very little penalty in using the 1.4x with these lenses - about 6% loss of MTF at the center, a little AF speed and some chromatic abberation which is easily removed in processing. The 2x is not quite so good and may lose too much AF speed for action - although the new convertors are much better than the old ones.

The Sigma 300-800 and the Sigma 800 have little difference in quality and the zoom is much more flexible so consider spending a little more for the zoom. Both are strictly tripod only lenses as there is no stabiliser and they are very heavy. I would recommend the Canons in preference for these reasons although the optical quality is similar. None of the 800mm will Autofocus with a 1.4x and the 7D. You would need the 1D mk IV or 1Ds mk III for that (both soon to be obsolete). The new 1Dx will also not AF with this combination. There is no point going to these cameras just for their f8 AF because you lose the 1.6x "crop factor" of the 7D.

The Sigma 200-500 is a monster and although I have never even seen one, I would not even consider it unless I was to be rooted to a fixed position and had a team to carry it for me.

The Canon lenses are of course all superb. I use the 800mm f5.6 but would not buy that now as the new 600mm f4 (out soon) realy makes it obsolete. Using it with the 1.4x will be very little penalty so you can get to 840 f5.6 anyway and you have the option of 600mm f4. The 800 would not AF with the 1.4x so no advantage unless you have 1Ds mkIII or 1D mk IV.

Both the old 500mm and new 500mm are good choices but weigh up the pros and cons with the new 600 - it might be a difficiult choice.

The other possibility is the Canon 200-400 f4 with switcheable 1.4x available sometime next year. If its long enough with the converter then it would make a good option for hand holding or at least making the overall load lighter.

Gitzo have a good tripod selector tool on the website (at least they used to and I assume its still there). You can get away with a lighter tripod with the stabilised Canons than the Sigmas.

For heads, do not bother with ball heads but get a gimbal type. They are so much easier to use and you are much less likely to damage the lens by making mistakes. If you are going to be working from a relatively fixed position and not hiking with the equipment, I would get the Wimberley MK II which is bottom mounting and thus less likely to have accidents mounting the lens or having it come loose. If you need light weight, you can use the Mongoose M3.6 which is side mounting and thus not quite as safe or easy whilst mounting. If you choose this option, I recommend you replace the Canon lens foot with a low profile one from RRS which will bring the lens more over the center of gravity than the original foot.

--
Dave Peters
http://www.dpphotoimages.com