new 70-300L - am I nuts?

[hodnik]

ahh...they were both shot at f/8...I am not going to feel too bad....

A quick comparison for the OP of these two lenses at f/8 at 135 mm....

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/R...mp=2&APIComp=3

Ok, so I see a difference, but the centers are pretty good at both, still much better for the L. But the 18-135 is falling apart at the edges. So, I suspect we are comparing center crops.

Also, hodnik, do you have a remote shutter release? If not, you may want to get those shutter speeds up or use a count down timer. General rule of thumb is 1/(focal length x 1.6) or faster for hand held. Being on the tripod will help, of course, but you can still get vibration from pressing the shutter release at 1/15 second.

the ISO test you linked is what I am trying to replicate. it obviously shows a better IQ, sharpness, contrast when comparing the L and the standard lenses.

10 second count down timer was one, there was no camera shake, at least no visible camera shake looking through live view.

[Steve U]

Also, hodnik, do you have a remote shutter release? If not, you may want to get those shutter speeds up or use a count down timer. General rule of thumb is 1/(focal length x 1.6) or faster for hand held. Being on the tripod will help, of course, but you can still get vibration from pressing the shutter release at 1/15 second.

Good point.
#4 image is quite good.
While both #1 and #2 are not good shots to make a comparison of because of the textured surface, it all looks a bit shakey. I would suggest a minimum shutter speed of 1/200sec or higher, use some artifical lightsource to keep your ISO down.

[ahab1372]

I actually think 1 and 4 do look better than 2 and 3, but I knew which was which, so I might be biased. Did you try the manual focus in Live View? Maybe with Mirror Lock-Up?

Arnt

[HDNitehawk]

1 and 4 are slightly better IMO to.

Hodnik; here is a lesson I learned when I started buying L lenses. It is the Canon cost rule of thirds (3x), when you go from the normal non L lenses the new L version cost 3x as much. However, the improvement you get from going up to the more expensive version isn't 3x as much. It is fractional. You pay allot of extra money to get just a small amount of improvement.

[ahab1372]

1 and 4 are slightly better IMO to.
[...] You pay allot of extra money to get just a small amount of improvement.

That is actually true for most things

Arnt

[HDNitehawk]

Brant

I think it should also be noted that the 18-135 is falling apart at the edges on a crop body. The 70-300mm is holding up on the edges with a full frame body.
Overall the 70-300mm L should be giving noticeably better results on a 7d.

[Sheiky]

Overall the 70-300mm L should be giving noticeably better results on a 7d.

I'd say that #4 is significantly better than #3. Especially if this is a center crop. The edges probably have even more difference in them.

[hodnik]

Overall the 70-300mm L should be giving noticeably better results on a 7d.

do you suggest that it should be noticeably better than the crops I posted?

[Kayaker72]

Hodnik,

HDNitehawk has a very good point. The 70-300 L was taken with the 1DIIIs, a full frame camera while the image with the 18-135 was taken with the 50D, a cropped sensor camera. This does two things 1) at least part of the difference in image quality is due to the superior camera and 2) the image for the 70-300 represents a much larger image circle. In other words, the "mid" points for the 70-300 image are probably closer to equivalent (in terms of distance from center) to the edges on a crop sensor camera.

For your tests, I'd encourage you to look at the edges and not just the center, to look at wider apertures, check AFMA, and find a subject with a little more detail.

That said, I agree with others, improvement isn't linear with cost.

Good luck and enjoy your new lens.

[cls]

so today after shooting at the airport, i set the camera up on the tripod, set the 10sec timer, set the exposure, focal, aperture all the same and took some shots. i will attach them below.

i do not want to come off as a 'troll', or a complainer, whiner, whatever. i want to make sure i am getting my money worth here.

thanks for looking

Hi, at f/8 you will find most lenses are very good IQ-wise, and the difference between an average lens and a high-end lens is small at f/8 (if f/8 is OK you don't really need the expensive lenses). Another test you could do to see what the 70-300L gives you would be to compare shots at 250 mm f/5.6 between your new lens and the EF-S 55-250. You could use some of the popular test shot subjects (e.g. a focus test chart), and since aviation seems to be your thing you could also take some test shots at a subject that has bright sky in the background (e.g. a flagpole or a chimney) to see field-like differences in CA etc.

The EF-S 55-250 is not bad at all, but I'm sure you'll notice the difference - probably a more significant difference than in the shots above.

Good luck with your new lens!