Buying 7D - My shopping list Opinions/Criticisms please

[Daniel Browning]

I took some bird pictures with 7D,300mm2.8,2XTCII combo, I didn't like most of the pictures cause the IQ got degraded very much, they were not considered "pretty good " to me even for a web sized picture.

I'm surprised to hear that. I've seen photos from the 300mm f/2.8 L IS with a 2X TC, another 2X TC, and a 1.4X TC (all stacked at once for shot of the moon) and the 100% crop (on a 5D, if I recall) *still* had contrast from pixel to pixel.

the 2XTC makes the speed of AF a lot slower.

That's true -- makes it less accurate, too. Also darkens the viewfinder and if you don't have IS it makes the viewfinder a lot more shakey. These effects will be smaller with the 1.4X that Homer ended up getting.


If you compare 2X TC versus cropping, on the 70-200 f/2.8 L IS II, the 2X TC wins for image quality by a mile. Not only does it have far more detail and contrast, but it will have less noise. For example:


70-200 IS II with 2X TC = 400mm f/5.6 1/250 ISO 6400


vs.


70-200 IS II with no TC = 200mm f/2.8 1/250 ISO 1600 (cropped to the same angle of view)


Some people would think that the ISO 1600 shot is going to have less noise than the ISO 6400 shot. In fact, the reverse is true! Less noise in low light is one of the advantages of the TC.

I would hardly believe that the IQ from 70-2002.8II or with 2.0TC combo will be better than the IQ from 400mm 5.6 in a constant basis if we talking about bird/wildlife.

Agreed. If we set aside weather sealing, and he got the 400mm f/5.6, then he could only use it when there's enough light for hand-holding speeds (at least 1/640 on the 7D, personally I would want over 1/1000). If he needs 1/2000 to get a tack-sharp photo on the 7D+400mm f/5.6, then he could use 1/125 or 1/250 with the 70-200.


If he got the 100-400, he would have to make do with the older 2-stop IS, miss the 70-100 range, and make do with worse quality/bokeh/autofocus in the 100-200 range. Wildlife is only 30% of what he's shooting.

if weather seal and IS are not the priority, then what's the whole purpose of choosing version II over version I? the IQ right?

Yes.



<meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="content-type" />

isn't that the version I +400mm5.6 a lot better than version II+ TCII in the whole range of 70-400 if we talking about bird/wildlife for a given price range?

Yes.