PQ BIF question. 50D+300/4.0 L IS or 40D+400/5.6 L ? (1 Viewer)

Dear all,

Let me rephrase my question.
How do the COMBO's compare for BIF? I mean contrast and resolution.
I lost my D40 400/5.6 L combo. Now I consider to go for the D50 and a 300/4.0 IS L combo. Thus more pixels, but shorter lens.

Best regards,

Ton

(using my wife's account)

I have a 40D and a Canon 400mm f5.6 lens and I am very happy with it.

Both work very well. The extra pixels of the 50D will allow you a little more crop to make up for the shorter lens.

I have the 50d with the 400mm f5.6 I like it alot, 400mm f5.6 probably the best BIF lens.

For birds in flight I'd go for the 400 f5.6 over the 300 f4, the AF speed is just a bit faster which can make all the difference. I've not had the 50D long enough to make comparisons over AF performance of the two cameras, though my initial impression is that they are similar in performance.

Yes the 400 is a great lens but i feel beeing 300 owner the IS and F4 offers a little extra for low light when hand holding. The shorter focus can be a bonus too.

Paul Jarvis said:

Yes the 400 is a great lens but i feel beeing 300 owner the IS and F4 offers a little extra for low light when hand holding. The shorter focus can be a bonus too.

Click to expand...

Really. An f4 aperture and IS gives you extra low-light performance does it?

I'm glad you're here to tell us these things. 8-P

The reach is not a problem. You can put on a 1.4X to the 300 to make a 420 f5.6. The difference lies in the speed of focus and the IS. I have only the 300 f4 and 1.4X combo, so cannot commend on the 400 f5.6. I am happy with the combo, especially I can shot close objects without putting on an extension tube. Not much difference between 40D and 50D, but may be I am a pixel-mania. for trips with a definite object in mind, I usually take both along, and if I have to choose one, I prefer the 50D, a personal bias, may be.

I have both 300mm f/4.0 and the 400mm f/5.6, I would highly recommend the 400mm because of the faster AF, which is crucial on BIF especially if you are shooting those very fast birds. Secondly the extra focal length will give your 50D more details and youcan crop a little more.

In my opinion, real leaps in IQ come from projecting a larger image onto a larger area of the sensor. The only way to do that is to get closer or use a longer focal length. Cropping in tighter on more densely packed pixels, with a lens that is shorter than ideal, is not a recipe for the best IQ. Given the options you present I'd go with the 40D and 400L. The 400mm lens will give you 33% more "real magnification" than the 300mm lens, which is a lot more attractive than a "fake" 22% increase that smaller, noisier pixels will offer.

Look at it this way - suppose a 400mm lens could fill your frame and give you a perfect composition without cropping. With the 40D that would give you an image of 3888x2592 pixels, and each of those pixels would be relatively low in noise. If you were to do the same thing with a 50D and a 300mm lens the image would only fill 3/4 of the frame left to right and 3/4 of the frame top to bottom. You would need a hefty crop to make your composition match that which the 400mm lens gave you. You would turn your 50D from a 4752x3168 camera into a 3564x2376 pixel camera and each pixel would be noiser than that from the 40D. So you'd have less pixels in your frame and each one would be lower quality.

p.s. I have a 40D and a 50D so I speak from experience with those cameras, but I'm afraid I have not tried either of the lenses mentioned. I have the 100-400L.

Here are a few BIF shots with the 50D and 1-4 all at 400 ISO, bar one, which is at 1600 ISO. Obviously the IQ is poor, what with all that pixel level noise from the 50D and the soft optics and slow AF of the zoom lens, but I do what I can

You sarky git adam.