• 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.

Have 7d, but so confused over lens...help? (1 Viewer)

S

Suzanne Walsh

Member
I have just upgraded from my old Fuji finepix bridge camera to a 7D. I debated doing this (got confused over that, so had a thread for that too lol) between another bridge, and a DSLR. However, after considering what I was told in my other thread I was cheeky and went to a local large change electricals shop to do some testing.

Being the control freak that I am I liked the control of the DSLR over the bridge camera a lot. The chap in the shop was great, and an actual photography enthusiast (has a 5Dmii and such), and was great with me. He said that an 18-55mm, and a 55-300mm lens would be fine for what I want.

As I explained in my other thread; I'm a fine detail portrait artist with a love of birds, and particularly want to try getting some BIF pics. I want sharp detail rich images (and I know my skill, or lack there of will play a big part in this too) if I can. The trouble is the following;

I have got a bundle of the camera, and three lenses. A Macro ef-s 18-55mm, ef-s 18-135mm, and a ef-s 55-250mm, all Canon. So am I right in thinking that I could not bother with the 18-135, and just use the other two? Also, instead of buying the ef 55-300mm lens said chappy told me about, I could just stick to the 55-250, and then use the money to go towards a 100-400mm lens?

Speaking of the 400mm.....I'm getting impression from reading threads that there are two different ones that people take about, though both made by Canon. I see 100-400mm and 400 f5.6 (which I thought were the same) talked of as though they are two different lenses. I can't seem to find a guide that simplistically tells me what each lens is, what difference EF and EF-S is, and what each lens is for regarding the mm measurement, and then the f+#.

I don't want tons of lenses to carry around with me. Just one for close to mid range, and one for distance good for BIF.

Sorry to have waffled on. Any thoughts appreciated.

Suzanne
 
Short answer the 100 - 400 mm is a zoom lens. (I have this lens and find it gives excellent results).
The 400 f5.6 is a fixed or prime lens (you can't zoom with this lens).
Hope this helps and I am sure there are many who will give a better answer.
 
The 100-400L is a zoom and as is a very good all round lens for anything from BIF and dragonflies to large animals I do have one and think its great the aperture changes as it zooms it also as Is which does help in the uk .The 400mm f5.6 is a prime lens so stays at the same length. It does not have Is but dosn't really need it as it is much lighter than the zoom and being a prime it is sharper ,but that is not saying that the zoom isn't sharp it is, just not as sharp as the prime.The difference between Ef and Efs is if you put a Ef lens on a crop camera ,lets say a 100mm then it would give you the field of view of a 160mm lens because of the size of the sensor and how far away the lens is from the sensor the Efs lens actually petrudes slightly into the bayonet opening so the lens is nearer to the sensor so you get the correct field of view.Thats why you carn't use Efs on non Efs cameras because the mirror in a non Efs camera would smash into the lens where it would petrude into the beyonet. So a 100mm Efs gives a true 100mm field of view.I hope this helps and isn't too rambling .
 
Last edited:
Thanks guys, having had a chance to use the camera today (in very dull light) with the ef-s 55-250mm I can see that I'd need to be very close to my subjects to get the type of pics I want. I was trying to get pics of Long tail tits in the trees in my front garden (which is long enough to park two cars in front of each other very comfortably on) while stood at the house. Even at the 250mm full reach they were still specs with too much space around them. Report card says I must try harder lol

I actually made a mistake above with the 300 lens, it should actually have said ef 70-300mm which probably makes more sense to people.

Just need that 100-400mm lens for sure now then, and some more nice days.

My thanks again.

Suzanne
 
If you are mainly photographing birds you will be at 400mm virtually all the time so go for the prime, its sharper than the 100-400 and better for bif, wouldn't be without mine you wont regret getting one but you may regret going the other way? TC
 
Just a personal view - but I would favour either the Canon 300mm F4 L IS or the Canon 400 F5.6 L over the 100-400. I had the 100-400 for around 5 years and it is a great lens, the other 2 are just better in terms of image quality. A friend of mine quickly traded his 100-400 for a 300 F4 L IS once he tried mine!
I have not found the lack of zoom to be an issue.
 
I'm probably upgrading from 100-400 to a 400 prime. My 100-400 has been in for repair 3 times in ten years and now needs to go for a fourth time, every time it's the same problem with a collar or screw falling loose inside the barrel. Hopefully a 400 prime has less tendency to do this plus its lighter, cheaper and I shoot 90% of the time at 400 anyway.
 
Thanks for that guys.

I've been out today with just the ef-s 55-250mm as it's the longest range I have. Apart from some messing about shots I was of the frame of mind that even if I'd had the extra of the 400 I'd have been at the end of it all the time.

Looks like it's the prime for me then when the budget allows.

I did get some shots that for my first time using the camera I was rather pleased with. Considering that I am a complete point-and-click photographer who does not think of composition, or basically most of the stuff other people do, I was happy with what I got. It's nice knowing that as I get to know how the camera works correctly, and such my pictures should get better.

I shall try to post a couple, but have no idea how that will work out......please don't laugh!

Suzanne
 
So if this works there should be a Mallard (which I liked the best), a Goldfinch (I think, it was quite far away), a Pigeon, and my first BIF, a Gull. Nothing exotic I know, but there weren't many birds out today.

Suzanne
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1377crop.jpg
    IMG_1377crop.jpg
    132.4 KB · Views: 121
  • IMG_1424crop.jpg
    IMG_1424crop.jpg
    186.4 KB · Views: 125
  • IMG_1455crop.jpg
    IMG_1455crop.jpg
    391.8 KB · Views: 146
  • IMG_1469crop.jpg
    IMG_1469crop.jpg
    171.9 KB · Views: 111
  • IMG_1520resize.jpg
    IMG_1520resize.jpg
    451.9 KB · Views: 113
You actually have a few more options than the 100-400.

To my mind there are 5 options:
Sigma 120-400
Sigma 150-500
Sigma 50-500
Canon 100-400
Canon 400

The last lens is perhaps the best if ALL you're doing is birding. The others are much more versatile. The other lenses range from Very Good to Excellent and simply put, the more expensive the lens, the better it is.

I chose a cheaper lens and used the money I saved on a birding holiday.

If you can wait, Tamron is about to start selling a 150-600 lens.

Enjoy!
Robert
 
primeone said:
You actually have a few more options than the 100-400.

To my mind there are 5 options:
Sigma 120-400
Sigma 150-500
Sigma 50-500
Canon 100-400
Canon 400

The last lens is perhaps the best if ALL you're doing is birding. The others are much more versatile. The other lenses range from Very Good to Excellent and simply put, the more expensive the lens, the better it is.

I chose a cheaper lens and used the money I saved on a birding holiday.

If you can wait, Tamron is about to start selling a 150-600 lens.

Enjoy!
Robert
Click to expand...

Actually both the Sigma 50-500 and the Canon 100-400 are more expensive than the Canon 400mm f5.6L Neither has better IQ. For birding the 400mm is by far the best lense. I do agree that the zooms have their place.
 
I have to agree that prime lenses are sharper than zooms. I have the 100-400 and unless you get the focus absolutely spot on and fairly close it can be a bit soft.
I have seen above someone recommending the Sigma 150-500 now I have only seen 3 of these and they had the noisiest autofocus on the planet so I wouldn't go for that. In my opinion save up for a second hand 300mm 2.8.
 
The 400mm is clearly the BIF lens...period..... While zooms have their place, honestly, you are not going to find you use the lower end of the zoom much and if you find yourself in a hummingbird haven, you have your other lens to select from.
 
Gashead said:
I'm probably upgrading from 100-400 to a 400 prime. My 100-400 has been in for repair 3 times in ten years and now needs to go for a fourth time, every time it's the same problem with a collar or screw falling loose inside the barrel. Hopefully a 400 prime has less tendency to do this plus its lighter, cheaper and I shoot 90% of the time at 400 anyway.
Click to expand...

the 400 prime has zero tendency to do this
 
My thanks again Guys!

Malcolm, yes this is me all over, if it's difficult I'll probably be trying to run before I can walk lol I had a go at your suggestion too, however, I found it rather fiddly to try and get to grips with. Not only did it mean that the camera was constantly trying to focus on the foreground rather than the bird, but by the time I'd done trying to set it up the bird was gone. I didn't find any of my shots better for trying to use the AF.

This of course could totally be that I still need practice, and/or that there is something that I'm not understanding in the set up. All I do know is that I became just as frustrated by the lack of control as I did in my Bridge, which is why I didn't get another in the first place. I do see the benefits of this though for tracking BIF shooting, so I shall certainly get more practice in. Thank you for posting the link for me!

Suzanne
 
Hi Suzanne:
I've been using a 100-400 since 2008. Have you changed the default settings to include the fine focus point? For some reason the 7D comes with the 2 most useful focus screens unavailable by default and must be enabled to use. The first is the fine or spot focus which is perfect for focusing through grass or branches and the other is the AF point expansion: use this for birds in flight.. See C.Fn 111-6. to activate these.
Another suggestion is to set your Multi-controller to control the AF focus point CFn1V -1. Moving the focus point to enable better framing of an image helps a lot.
Stephen Powell
 
Stephen Powell said:
Hi Suzanne:
I've been using a 100-400 since 2008. Have you changed the default settings to include the fine focus point? For some reason the 7D comes with the 2 most useful focus screens unavailable by default and must be enabled to use. The first is the fine or spot focus which is perfect for focusing through grass or branches and the other is the AF point expansion: use this for birds in flight.. See C.Fn 111-6. to activate these.
Another suggestion is to set your Multi-controller to control the AF focus point CFn1V -1. Moving the focus point to enable better framing of an image helps a lot.
Stephen Powell
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for these tips as they had me playing with my 7d in about 30 secs to turn these features on and particularly to move the AF focus point control as suggested.

Hope you have a really good Christmas, you've certainly improved mine!

John
 
Warning! This thread is more than 10 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.

Similar threads

B
Canon EF 400/f5.6 L USM + EOS 7D Mk II combo anyone???
Replies
2
Views
958
BoldenEagle
B
O
Canon EOS 80D always slightly "fuzzy"
Replies
14
Views
2K
nikitasius
N
BenjiS
Budget Canon lens
Replies
8
Views
1K
nikitasius
N
A
Beginner camera recommendations?
Replies
6
Views
739
Ash Anne
A
M
R8 or R7 for grid photography
Replies
6
Views
2K
omaksimenko
omaksimenko

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top