70-200 f4 ?

[thekingb]

Here is another question then. If i have a crop sensor and shooting 300 mm is 1/320 shutter speed my minimum or hould i multiply by 1.6 ? I will post some of my pics tonight when i get home .its mostly when things are far and im at 250+ mm that i find it is not sharp at all. Even in bright sunlight ive tried from f6.3 to f11 and cant see much of an improvement. Im hoping thats the best this lens can do and an L series will give me more sharpness , or maybe ill get lucky and find out im just doing it wrong lol

The rule of thumb without IS is 1.6x the focal length for a minimum shutter speed on a crop body. It's just a rule of thumb though. Some people have surgeons hands and still subjects and can pull off slower shutters. But the shakier your hands, and the more your subject is moving, the more speed you need. This really starts to come more naturally with lots of experience.

Also, subjects that are moving laterally require a much faster shutter to stop motion, whereas subjects moving towards you dont require quite so fast a shutter.

It will be very helpful to see some of your images and the corresponding exif data. People should be able to help you a lot with those two things.

[Kombi]

Here is another question then. If i have a crop sensor and shooting 300 mm is 1/320 shutter speed my minimum or hould i multiply by 1.6 ? I will post some of my pics tonight when i get home .its mostly when things are far and im at 250+ mm that i find it is not sharp at all. Even in bright sunlight ive tried from f6.3 to f11 and cant see much of an improvement. Im hoping thats the best this lens can do and an L series will give me more sharpness , or maybe ill get lucky and find out im just doing it wrong lol

We'll have to peak at your pics when you post them, but here is a tip for helping a bit with focus/sharpness.

focus on the object you want in the distance- where you think it is in focus.
Then switch to live view
and zoom in 10x and manually adjust as needed.

[sedwards]

re a few from this past weekend. uncropped , but i just noticed something . when i look at the size of the pic , its only 1.4 mb. an i doing something wrong when exporting with lightroom ? these were shot RAW of course. am i being to picky ?
300mm f6.3 1/800 and iso 100

_MG_7132-2 by sedwards679, on Flickr

300mm f6.3 1/320 iso 100

_MG_7150 by sedwards679, on Flickr

[peety3]

If i have a crop sensor and shooting 300 mm is 1/320 shutter speed my minimum or hould i multiply by 1.6?

As others have said, non-IS rule of thumb is 1/EFL, so in your case EFL = 300 * 1.6 = 480, so ideal shutter speed is 1/480th, aka 1/500th.

With an early-edition IS lens capable of 2-stops IS, rule of thumb is 4/EFL, or 1/125th if we're talking about 300mm.
With a middle-edition IS lens capable of 3-stops IS, rule of thumb is 8/EFL, or 1/60th for 300mm.
With a recent-edition IS Lens capable of 4-stops IS, rule of thumb is 16/EFL, or 1/30th for 300mm.

There's a shot in my personal favorites bin that's EFL of 260mm, and shutter speed of 1/13th, subject ~1.25 miles away, solid as a rock. I got lucky that night, though I give the lens lots of credit too.

[Dave Throgmartin]

70-200 f/4 L USM is a nice lens. I think it'd be a big improvement over the 75-300 USM III. Most of shots are full frame now or on crop I often used a 1.4x extender with it often, but here's one on the crop that I think shows some of what it is capable of. This is just a test shot, but shows the potential.


2013_01_04_2314_upd by dthrog00, on Flickr

The question is what do you want to use it for? Outdoor sports? Good pick. Outdoor portraits? Good pick. Wildlife? Typically, not the best pick.

That said, it can do bird feeder stuff if shooting from close enough. This one is with an extender on a crop camera.


2013_01_06_2431_upd by dthrog00, on Flickr

This one was just plain lucky because the eagle was so close, again with an extender.


2013_01_26_2730_upd8x10 by dthrog00, on Flickr

Dave

[sedwards]

i do a lot of wildlife stuff. is it not long enough that makes the 70-200 f4 not the best pick or not fast enough ? if money way not a problem i would just get 600 f4L but that aint happenin anytime soon lol
those pics you posted look pretty much like what im trying to achive. my images almost look ok but if i crop them even just a little bit you really start to see how sharp they arent.

[thekingb]

my images almost look ok but if i crop them even just a little bit you really start to see how sharp they arent.

This is always a challenge. The smaller percentage of your frame that your subjects accounts for, the harder it is to get it sharp - especially with entry level lenses.

[btaylor]

Good advice here as always. I'll be short and sweet and say that the 70-200mm f/4L IS is one of the finest lens' I've owned. I now use the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II, I only upgraded because I needed the extra couple of stops of light when shooting weddings. I have used the non-IS version in a limited capacity but I wasn't nearly as impressed with is as the IS version. If it were me, I'd save up/ shell out a few more bucks for the IS version. It's an excellent lens.

I don't have the T3i but I did have the 40D and here's a couple of old shots with the IS version. This first one was pretty heavily cropped. The third was with extension tubes so I'm not sure how relevant it is but I don't have any others on my flickr page with that lens.

Hope this helps a little, although it doesn't entirely address your OP.

Ben


Bush Canary (found out what it actually is) by Ben__Taylor, on Flickr\


First Aiders by Ben__Taylor, on Flickr


Rawr!!! by Ben__Taylor, on Flickr

[peety3]

I now use the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II, I only upgraded because I needed the extra couple of stops of light when shooting weddings.

How'd you get a couple stops out of this one-stop upgrade?

[btaylor]

Errr....Magic? Excuse my brain function (or lack thereof), I'm on holidays.