135L with TCs

[Dave Throgmartin]

Here are a couple from the 70-300L:

277mm @ f/5.6



300mm @ f/5.6



One of the things I really like about this lens, and any especially nice lens really, is that there is no fear to shoot wide open.

[Dave Throgmartin]

As described before I'm interested in the 135L. It's primary interest for me would be in taking great bokeh and sports photos. Its ability to work with extenders was a secondary interest and I was generally interested in how prime lenses work with the 2x extender.

I stopped by my local camera store today and they had a used 200mm f/2.8 L mark I (it is very old, I think they stopped making those in 1993) and a EF 2X II extender. I tried the combo, resulting in a 400mm f/5.6, on my 60D using center point autofocus. My initial impression is that autofocus is most definitely slowed down with the TC.

It slowed to the point where it is slower than my 55-250. I'd estimate the 55-250 was focusing 30% faster. What was nice, however is the 200mm didn't appear to overshoot then have to come all of the way back. I have the overshoot issue with the 55-250 periodically. The 200mm was just slower getting to the destination.

Unless there is something about the 200mm lens I used or my camera body that makes focusing operate more slowly, I find it hard to believe that people are able to use the 70-200 f/2.8 IS II + EF 2x II teleconverter for bird in flight work and get satisfactory results. That is unless they pre-focus and make slight adjustments when then the bird happens to pass through their area. I could see it working well for static objects.

Does anyone disagree? I saw Arthur Morris notes on how well the 70-200 works for BIF work, but I can't believe it. Am I missing something? Is it the better focusing system of the 1D?

Dave

[Dave Throgmartin]

Today I was closer to the Chicago suburb area and checked out a 135L at Calumet Photographic. The lens is quite impressive to see in person. f/2.0 is very fast and the overall quality in test images was excellent with a superb ability to melt the background away.

I put a EF 2x III extender on it and was reasonably happy with the results. The focusing, although not fast, was accurate with no hunting. The resulting image quality at f/5.6 looked reasonable on the camera LCD. I'm going to take a look at the pictures I've taken with my other lenses and do some walking around with one of lens fixed to 135mm for a dry run. I think the 135L is is the lens for me.

Thanks to everyone for their help.

I'm not sure if this is just my observation or if there is fact behind this, but the 135L appeared much more impressive to me than the mark I 200mm f/2.8 I looked at yesterday.

Best Regards
Dave