500mm F/4L II vs 600mm F/4L II

[Richard Lane]

I agree with the 7D and the Canon 10-22 is a great landscape lens. It sounds like the 600mm worked for you, but that is still a pretty heavy lens for backpacking. If you got the 7D and used your 300mm f/2.8 that would give you an effective focal lenghth of 480mm and with the 1.4X, you will be at 672mm. An even lighter lens for backpacking would be the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II with 1.4X and a 7D (up to 448mm). If you need longer, then the 500mm on the 7D (800mm) would be obviously lighter than the 600mm for backpacking.

Cropping the MKIV can help, but the MKIV is pretty heavy too and then for landscapes you would need a 16-35mm and that would give you 21mm on the wide end as opposed to 16mm on the wide end for the 7D with the 10-22mm.

I believe Mode2 and Mode3 IS are the same except that mode2 is always active and mode3 is only active while shooting. It sounds like Mode2 has also been improved with a new algorithm to prevent the bump/jump in the viewfinder.

Rich

[Vern]

Thanks Richard and Sean for the 7D suggestion. My typical backpacking kit is the 5DMKII, 16-35mm 2.8L II (great for shots while hiking w/o taking off my backpack to work with the TS lens), 24mm 3.5L TS ( a must to me for landscapes and panos), 70-200mm 2.8L IS II, 300 2.8L IS II and 1.4X and 2X teles + Gitzo tripod w Arca Z1, pano bar and Wimberly sidekick. My wife thinks I'm crazy to carry this plus all the other gear, but as long as I can walk, I pack it along. The 600mm would be the straw that broke even this camel's back, so if I backpack where a real supertele is needed, your compromise is a great idea. If I was really disciplined, I could get by with the 24TS and the 70-200 w the tele's. Age will force this eventually anyway. I guess from a weight perspective carrying a 7D body along to use with the 300 to give a supertele equivalent with the converters and a 5DMKIII to use with the 24TS might be an flexible package (would probably still want the 70-200 for the midrange - I find myself shooting lots of panos in the 70-100mm focal length).

Cheers