The 100-400L... First Day of Shots and Thoughts..... Images Included!!

[Sean Dempsey]

Drove 560 miles to the Fish Springs bird refuge yesterday and shot the 100-400 L IS exclusively. I like it alot, anything I don't like isn't the lenses fault, it delivers 100% of what it promises. I love the lens, and the next thing I buy will be the 70-200 2.8 IS.

at 400mm, the images aren't razor sharp. Some are better than others, but until I can afford a 600mm prime, I can't really get much better than this lens, so oh well. The IS works like a charm. AF works pretty good too, except when I focus on the wrong area. Alot of shots were junked because the subject wasn't in focus. I don't manual focus very much, but maybe I'd get more focused shots if I did.

The refuge was pretty nice, in september they say there will be a few thousand birds there, so it should be exciting. I wanted to get a few of the Great Blue Herons that were there, but never could get close enough.



The Snowy Egret


A pair of image stabilized Snowy Egrets =D


A desert fox... found a den, but didn't stick around. Forgot to get the GPS coords too =(


Redtail...


A Coyote on a Bird Refuge. It's like a buffet for him.


Just a duck with a nice reflection and wake.

[Jakkar]

Very nice. You are obviously getting the hang of your new lens very quickly.

[kkraczek]

Wow Sean, these are very nice. The clarity is awesome! I'm so jealous.... ;)

[Sean Dempsey]

Thanks kk. At full size, they don't look quite as clear, part of the downside to shooting at the full 400mm. I need to work on getting CLOSER, so I can pull the zoom back a little bit, heh. I hate working at the max zoom and max aperture, but that's all I can do unless I get a prime zoom, or a bigger subject =P

[paulnj]

Sean.

first the black "duck " is a coot ;)

I find 400mm on the 100-400 to be quite sharp, but I NEVER USE F 5.6! Try F7.1 even handheld at 1/125th if need be.

Another thing I find troublesome is moving subjects (SMALL in frame) are OOF at times, but that is error on my part, not the lens or body

[Sean Dempsey]

Thanks Paul, I'll try that. Most of those are at 5.6 =( I am still going through the wildlife stages... first I was excited to be getting ANYTHING at all... now I actually take time to compose and make sure focus is good... next I need to learn to set my settings for maximum exposure and sharpness quality...