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Canon EF 400mm F4 DO lens + Canon 60D combo - advice needed (1 Viewer)

Hor Kee

Penang birder
Dear all,

My dad uses the above combo for bird photography and wants to improve the quality of the pictures he takes. He is of the opinion that the 400mm DO lens + 1.4TC gives rather low contrast shots even when stopped down to F7.1 or F8 or so. There is also some loss of detail compared to my sister's 300mm F4 and my 400mm F5.6. He shoots mainly using Av mode and sometimes overexposes the picture by +0.33 EV. The IS on the lens is often turned off when tripod-mounted.

Is there any way to improve the quality of pictures obtainable through this setup? From reviews on the net, I gather that the 400mm DO lens is a rather touchy one to work with, that is it can be absolutely superb or downright lousy. Can the IS be used on a tripod like Canon's other L-grade telephotos?

Appreciate your comments greatly. :t:

Regards,

Hor Kee
 
Get your father to try this: I'm assuming the use of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, and Unsharp Mask - USM. Instead of using the typical sharpening parameters of around (300, 0.3, 4) as recommended by Canon or (200, 0.7, 4) which is where I normally start;

try (30, 60, 0). You'll find it raises contrast and reduces haze - I use it quite often if I feel that my shots have been degraded by shooting by the coast etc. If you don't like the effect don't confirm the operation of the filter. If you do, you can apply normal sharpening later.
 
Get your father to try this: I'm assuming the use of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, and Unsharp Mask - USM. Instead of using the typical sharpening parameters of around (300, 0.3, 4) as recommended by Canon or (200, 0.7, 4) which is where I normally start;

try (30, 60, 0). You'll find it raises contrast and reduces haze - I use it quite often if I feel that my shots have been degraded by shooting by the coast etc. If you don't like the effect don't confirm the operation of the filter. If you do, you can apply normal sharpening later.

thats a great tip ( thanks ) it really does cut the haze out .
Rob.
 
Up until 5 months ago, my primary birding setup was a Canon 7D with the 400mm DO+1.4. Regardless of the aperature setting, the lens will always deliver low contrast images because of the diffractive optics design. However, as mentioned above, the contrast can usually be compensated for in either your RAW converter (I use Breeze Browser Pro) prior to going to Photoshop or directly in either Photoshop or Elements.

And yes, I'd recommend using IS on when on the tripod. When shooting birds with it, I usually kept it on Mode 2.

Chris
 
Like Chris B (Hi, Chris!) I use the 400DO + 1x4 with the 7D and am pretty happy with it but I deal with the contrast in Photoshop. I still think it's a great combination. This lens had some problems when it was first on the market (years ago) but the recent versions seem to be fine. I also use the 300 f4+1x4 as my walkabout. I like both set ups.
 
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