I took the new lens to AT&T Park on Tuesday night, this time with my 7D instead of the 5DIII. The extra reach was nice on the cropped frame camera, but I did see some drawbacks. The results are still pretty good for the most part, especially on subjects that are stationary or moving slowly. I needed more shutter speed (more than 1/500 – 1/800 to stop the ball) which I could not get.

Due to fast motion capture, I had to push the 7D to its limits with this lens by increasing shutter speed and ISO which left most shots with too much noise (grain). It was a night game and surprisingly enough, the lower artificial light (compared to the day game) limited my shutter speed to 1/500 to 1/800 with ISOs of 1250 – 1600 at around 500 mm. I needed to be up around 1/4000 which was not possible. With the lower light conditions of a ballpark at night, this f 6.3 lens struggled. While the lens works okay on the 7D during the day, it works much better on the 5DIII at night.

My findings are completely understandable and in my opinion (not trying to sound like a snob) performed as expected for a large lens of 600 mm costing only $1059. The lens is great for use with lots of light, but I prefer my Canon 100-400 at night. Here are a few shots: