Canon 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 IS users

[fike]

I have borrowed a Canon 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L IS.  I have a few questions for folks who have used it for awhile.

* Does the IS make your battery wear down faster?
* Is it normal to have a small amount of play between the 1.4x teleconverter and the body when a 100-400 is attached.  I don't have the same issue with my 70-200 F/4 L.
* I am using a 30D.  Is it a bad idea to continue attaching the camera body to the tripod, or will the whole thing fall over.  
* I use Really Right Stuff clamps, so I will need to get a plate for it.  I also do a lot of panoramic work with the RRS spherical head, so I will want to mount the lens clamp in the same orientation that the clamp would normally fit on the body, is that possible? advisable?
* Does the locking ring loosen up over time.  After a few years will it still work as well as it does now?


That's all for now.

thanks

[francois]

…* Does the IS make your battery wear down faster?

In theory, the power drain should greater especially if you keep the IS system humming for long periods. I never bothered to do any test. If the drain was dramatic I would have noticed it immediately.

* Is it normal to have a small amount of play between the 1.4x teleconverter and the body when a 100-400 is attached.  I don't have the same issue with my 70-200 F/4 L.

Mine has some play but nothing to worry about.

* I am using a 30D.  Is it a bad idea to continue attaching the camera body to the tripod, or will the whole thing fall over. 

I would not attach the body to the BH. It could put some stress on your lens mount. IQ won't be the best using your system.

* I use Really Right Stuff clamps, so I will need to get a plate for it.  I also do a lot of panoramic work with the RRS spherical head, so I will want to mount the lens clamp in the same orientation that the clamp would normally fit on the body, is that possible? advisable?

I don't understand this. FWIW, I've used the RRS pano head with my 100-400 without any problem (using RRS 100-400 lens plate).

* Does the locking ring loosen up over time.  After a few years will it still work as well as it does now?
…

Mine still works fine, as new.

[fike]

IQ won't be the best using your system.

I don't understand this. FWIW, I've used the RRS pano head with my 100-400 without any problem (using RRS 100-400 lens plate).
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=167315\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Why would IQ be compromised on a 30D.  I would think the cropped sensor would make it a appear a bit better by using the central area (sweet-spot) of the lens.


As for the RRS plate, let me try to explain again.  Using a RRS clamp, you need to orient the camera so that it fits into the clamp.  Although there are some clamps that fit at a 90 degree angle, most of the RRS plates would not fit if I turned the camera 90 degrees to the right or left (in the yaw axis).  

Now, for the lens, the direction of the clamp typically would run parallel to the axis of the lens.  So, if I try to put it into the same clamp that I would put the body into, the camera will end up pointing 90 degrees left or right of where it should.  For a ballhead, this is no problem.  For a spherical panoramic head, this is a problem.  So, I need to mount the clamp on the lens 90 degrees off or perpendicular to the axis of the lens this would not provide a very strong clamping surface and may result in the camera slipping in the clamp.

Does that make more sense?

[francois]

Why would IQ be compromised on a 30D.  I would think the cropped sensor would make it a bit better. 

The problem has to do with stability of the lens+camera if it's attached via the body.

As for the RRS plate, let me try to explain again.  Using a RRS clamp, you need to orient the camera so that it fits into the clamp.  Although there are some clamps that fit at a 90 degree angle, most of the RRS plates would not fit if I turned the camera 90 degrees to the right or left (in the yaw axis). 

Now, for the lens, the direction of the clamp typically would run parallel to the axis of the lens.  So, if I try to put it into the same clamp that I would put the body into, the camera will end up pointing 90 degrees left or right of where it should.  For a ballhead, this is no problem.  For a spherical panoramic head, this is a problem.  So, I need to mount the clamp on the lens 90 degrees off or perpendicular to the axis of the lens this would not provide a very strong clamping surface and may result in the camera slipping in the clamp.

Does that make more sense?

You can use RRS bi-directional plates. I doubt that stability will be as good as with the dedicated  plate but it might work.

Edit: using the "normal" plate at 90° is not possible, I just checked on mine (100-400 plate and RRS clamp).

[fike]

You can use RRS bi-directional plates. I doubt that stability will be as good as with the dedicated  plate but it might work.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=167323\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Yep, that's my problem.  I am afraid that the small, square bi-directional plate wouldn't work very well.  I am afraid that my only choice is to rotate the clamp on my rail, and this requires an allen wrench to accomplish--kind of a pain in the field.

[stever]

you really want to use the lens mount ring on a tripod - otherwise balance is way off and the camera is stressed - if you need to adjust nodal point of the lens (which is not necessary for distant subjects), the neatest solution is to use a longer RRS rail rather than the recommended B86.

i don't worry about clamp orientation, and with a bit of use, i think it's a non-issue

i've never noticed battery drain to be an issue on my 20D, and during serious shooting i leave the camera on with a long auto power-down

i believe the 100-400 is better on crop-frame cameras than full-frame

autofocus works slowly on my 20D with the 1.4x and pins taped, but autofocus does not work on my 40D

[francois]

…
autofocus works slowly on my 20D with the 1.4x and pins taped, but autofocus does not work on my 40D

I can add that even on EOS-1 serie bodies, AF is slow!

[francois]

Yep, that's my problem.  I am afraid that the small, square bi-directional plate wouldn't work very well.  I am afraid that my only choice is to rotate the clamp on my rail, and this requires an allen wrench to accomplish--kind of a pain in the field.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=167362\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Marc,
Why don't you call RRS? They may suggest a solution.

[Jonathan Wienke]

* Does the IS make your battery wear down faster?

Technically, yes, but you probably won't notice the difference unless you normally go out for several days at a time and go through several batteries and memory cards before returning.

* Is it normal to have a small amount of play between the 1.4x teleconverter and the body when a 100-400 is attached.  I don't have the same issue with my 70-200 F/4 L.
* I am using a 30D.  Is it a bad idea to continue attaching the camera body to the tripod, or will the whole thing fall over.

The lens is heavy, and you should use the foot on the lens for mounting, NOT the tripod mount on the camera. If you do stitched panos, using the camera mount will be WAY off the nodal point anyway.

* I use Really Right Stuff clamps, so I will need to get a plate for it.  I also do a lot of panoramic work with the RRS spherical head, so I will want to mount the lens clamp in the same orientation that the clamp would normally fit on the body, is that possible? advisable?
* Does the locking ring loosen up over time.  After a few years will it still work as well as it does now?

If you're referring to the ring that attaches the tripod mounting foot to the lens, it will last quite a long time. I have a couple of lenses with rings and they still lock as firmly as when new.

Regarding the clamp/plate issue, you do NOT want to use any kind of L-bracket or bi-directional plate. Those are intended for mounting the tripod to the camera body. You don't want to do that. Just use a normal plate on the lens' tripod foot and use the ring on the lens to rotate between vertical and horizontal.

[Tim Gray]

I have one of these:

http://www.kirkphoto.com/supports.html#rail

this let's me rotate the QR plate depending on if I'm mounting the camera plate or a lens collar plate to the rail.

Having said that, the 100-400 is long enough that foreground parallax hasn't been a problem for me (ie rotating over the collar attachment point is fine), but if you wanted to move the point of rotation back farther this would work.

[marcmccalmont]

Marc,
Why don't you call RRS? They may suggest a solution.
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I use their panning clamp for this purpose it works well
[a href=\"http://www.reallyrightstuff.com/rrs/Itemdesc.asp?ic=PCL%2D1&eq=&Tp=]http://www.reallyrightstuff.com/rrs/Itemde...PCL%2D1&eq=&Tp=[/url]
Marc

[fike]

I have one of these:

http://www.kirkphoto.com/supports.html#rail

this let's me rotate the QR plate depending on if I'm mounting the camera plate or a lens collar plate to the rail.

Having said that, the 100-400 is long enough that foreground parallax hasn't been a problem for me (ie rotating over the collar attachment point is fine), but if you wanted to move the point of rotation back farther this would work.
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

You understand the issue perfectly, and that rail solves the problem.  What do you need to do to rotate the clamp?  Is it an allen screw, or is it more readily adjusted in the field with a thumb-screw or something.  I use a  [a href=\"http://www.reallyrightstuff.com/rrs/Itemdesc.asp?ic=MPR%2D192&eq=&Tp=]RRS MPR 192[/url] with a B2-FAB mounted to it.  To rotate the clamp 90 degrees I would need to unscrew the mount with an allen wrench.  Not impossible, but definitely a nuisance. Does the kirk stuff work well with RRS?  I have heard some mention from RRS that it may not be a perfect match.  $125 was a bit more than I had hoped to pay to solve this little problem.  Oh well.

While I understand that panoramics taken at the limit of the 400mm range will have minimal parallax error, I like to shoot panoramics with some foreground, or even in macro, so I need to be well calibrated.  This means, of course, that I will need to mount it with some precision.  

Basically, I use this setup: Omni-Pivot Package What a lot of people are missing is that if I were to mount the lens with the standard rail orientation in that clamp, the camera would be facing directly up into the sky.  Rotating around the lens collar will not put the camera in the right orientation to use the spherical panoramic head to look toward the horizon.

[fike]

If you're referring to the ring that attaches the tripod mounting foot to the lens, it will last quite a long time. I have a couple of lenses with rings and they still lock as firmly as when new.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=167527\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Thanks for your comments.  Actually, I was referring to the tension ring that controls the ease with which the push/pull zoom works.  I know it is an L, so it should be good for a long time.  

My other possible lens is the 300mm f4 IS.  Not as flexible, but simpler and lighter for backpacking and hiking.

[fike]

I have been messing with a borrowed sample of this lens for two days.  

I like it.  
It is heavy for packing around.  
The push/pull isn't as bad as I thought it would be.  
IS is better than I expected.  
1.4x teleconverter is worse than I expected.  
Again, It is heavy for packing around.  

Manual focusing with the teleconverter at long focal lengths is not always easy for me.  Trying to catch some wildlife or birds without auto focus is a real challenge.

I was taking pictures from my jeep.  After going home, I wondered if the vibration of the engine was problematic at this long a focal length.  This morning I tried some wildlife shots without the engine running but with IS on. I will see tonight how it went.

I expected that I would frequently couple this lens with the teleconverter, but I am reconsidering that plan.  400mm on a 1.6 crop body is fairly long.  

I guess the most significant obstacle for me is that the price and weight for the next higher range of long lenses is nearly double.

[Tim Gray]

Allen wrench required to rotate

I have mixed RRS and Kirk without much issue.  The only piece of nastiness is when my 100-400 with a Kirk plate slid out of the RRS QR - fortunately onto soft sand.  Since then I've replaced all the Kirk plates with newer versions that have 2 small screw heads (removable)  on the bottom of the plate that prevents it from slipping out.

[fike]

Allen wrench required to rotate

I have mixed RRS and Kirk without much issue.  The only piece of nastiness is when my 100-400 with a Kirk plate slid out of the RRS QR - fortunately onto soft sand.  Since then I've replaced all the Kirk plates with newer versions that have 2 small screw heads (removable)  on the bottom of the plate that prevents it from slipping out.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=167584\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Yes, I use the little stops on most of my RRS rails and plates.  Useful little gadgets.