• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

EF 500 f4.5L & EOS 5D for bird photography? (1 Viewer)

Malcolm Stewart

Well-known member
I'm getting one of those irrational spending urges - again!

Can anyone who's used the older Canon 500 f4.5L on a 5D or 1Ds (preferably both!!) advise regarding how well the AF works against waterfowl on water or land. (No problem against the sky.) On my 5D I'm using a mixture of OneShot and AIServo AF with the hidden AF points both enabled and disabled.

I bought a venerable EF300 f2.8L some time ago, and only recently have started to get to grips with it on my 5D. Some shots have been absolute crackers in the sharpness department. Rather too many others have been less than acceptable, and I'm wondering where I'm going wrong. I am now aware of how narrow the DoF is at around f5.6 and distances of around 10m, and am able to distinguish this from what appears to be front focusing. The lens appears to focus correctly based on what I can see in the viewfinder, but 100% checks on the monitor at home frequently show otherwise.

Too small an object to focus on? (Hence interest in EF500 f4.5L.)

Poor AF? So I ran a series using same lens and my EOS3 and the hit rate against similarly placed birds seemed somewhat better. But careful static tests (with my 5D camera mounted both horizontally and vertically, but haven't checked yet at 45°) also show the 5D's AF apparently to be spot on - with no hint of front focusing!

For some shots of birds hiding in undergrowth, I've used manual focusing and they've been OK.

Any ideas would be welcome - I'm using a sturdy tripod for many shots, and quite often hand-holding when shooting birds in flight.

Did some further tests today, and I'm wondering whether my old 300 f2.8L is occasionally (frequently?!) not getting to the correct focus position, and whether this might be subject to lens tilt? If I misfocus totally the lens has no problem in shooting from Inf to close-up and back again, so there don't appear to be any friction high spots in the USM, but something's not right.

Many thanks
 
Hi Malcolm

From reports I've heard I'd be cautious about buying a Canon 500 f4.5. It has been suggested that the lens is not as sharp as the current models and also is not as sharp wide open as the Sigma 500 f4.5. I've also heard that this model is no longer supported by Canon so if it were to go wrong you might have problems getting it repaired.
 
postcardcv said:
Hi Malcolm

From reports I've heard I'd be cautious about buying a Canon 500 f4.5. It has been suggested that the lens is not as sharp as the current models and also is not as sharp wide open as the Sigma 500 f4.5. I've also heard that this model is no longer supported by Canon so if it were to go wrong you might have problems getting it repaired.

Many thanks for the reminder about service support wrt the older Canon - just hope I don't need that with my present problems!
If I do go for the Sigma I'll obviously seek an assurance from the importers that it's compatible with my EOS 5D. I've already been caught out (Sigma 500 f7.2 APO works fine on my older bodies, but not on the current crop) and wouldn't want to get caught again. As the Sigma 500 f4.5 works on your 350D it should work on my older 10D.

This morning's weather seems favourable so I'm off to do some more shooting and to see if I can raise my hit rate of superbly sharp shots!
 
Last edited:
postcardcv said:
From reports I've heard I'd be cautious about buying a Canon 500 f4.5. It has been suggested that the lens is not as sharp as the current models and also is not as sharp wide open as the Sigma 500 f4.5. I've also heard that this model is no longer supported by Canon so if it were to go wrong you might have problems getting it repaired.

Regarding performance, I've heard the exact opposite. Although all 3 lenses mentioned should perfom just fine. I don't know about the service in the UK, but Canon USA told me a year ago that at least 10 shops in the US were still listed as being able to fully service the 500/4.5.
 
Thanks to both of you for your help.

I think I may now have nailed my AF problem with the 5D. I think there is a slight mis-alignment between the centre AF square and the position of the AF sensor. If I select the centre spot, and aim to get the area just below the square onto my (small) bird, I get a much higher ratio of sharp results. It's very slight and on general photography goes totally un-noticed, but with a large aperture long lens, the DoF is small enough for it to matter.

(This may explain why my EOS3 appeared to do better, apart from the EOS3 being a more professional body.)

Once again, my thanks.
 
Just like to say a good word about Sigma.

I had a 170-500mm lens that I used on film. When I got a 10d Canon and went digital this lens would not autofocus (quite old by then - was one of the first made). Sigma re-chipped it for free, it still wasn't right and they worked on it again all for free. They even rushed to get it back for my holidays. Had some cracking sharp shots since and no further problems. Can't get better service than that can you?

James
 
Warning! This thread is more than 17 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top