Featuring the 300L and 1.4x extender
Oct 28, 2018 06:21:27 #
This post concludes a discussion of Canon L-series lenses used with Canon Series III extenders, showing examples from the Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 IS II USM and the EF 1.4x III Extender creating a 420mm focal length combination.
The EF 300mm f/2.8 lens refers to a family of 300mm telephoto prime lenses made by Canon going back to manual focus versions first released in 1974. The lens is commonly used by sports and wildlife photographers, but is short enough for use in extreme close-up portraits. Because of its rather high native magnification, the EF 300L can also be used for macro type photography.
Black-handed spider monkeys are one of the largest New World monkeys. Several different sub-species of spider monkeys can be found in locations from Central Mexico to Bolivia. The black-handed spider monkey ranges from Nicaragua into northern Costa Rica.
Black-handed spider monkey by Paul Sager, on Flickr
All Canon EF lenses have a maximum aperture of f/5.6 or wider, so all EOS cameras will auto focus with any EF auto focus lens. The f/8 auto focusing ability is only needed when using a lens and extender combination that reduces the maximum aperture of the lens to f/8 or smaller. The Series III extenders are designed to provide faster auto focusing and improved auto focus precision with compatible EF lenses. Both the 1.4x and 2x extenders feature a new microcomputer to increase AF precision when used with Series II EF super-telephoto lenses. When mounted to the EF 300 f/2.8L, the 1.4x extender creates a 420mm prime lens with an f/4 maximum aperture. All focus points are available with this combination.
The toco toucan, also known as the common toucan, giant toucan or simply toucan, is the largest and probably the best known species in the toucan family. It is found in semi-open habitats throughout a large part of central and eastern South America. The bright orange beak is about 8-inches (19 cm) long, one third of the bird’s total length. Despite its substantial size, the beak weighs less than you'd think. Composed of the protein keratin, the beak incorporates many air pockets resulting in very low mass.
Toco Toucan
Mangabeys are some of the most endangered monkeys on Earth. They dwell only in the remaining large forests of Angola and the Congo in Africa. They look somewhat like guenons but are bigger. As its name suggests, the black crested mangabey can be distinguished from other mangabey species by the prominent pointed black crest of hair on top of its head.
Black-crested Mangabey
The Canon L-series lenses are the pinnacle of the company’s lens technology. Designed for professional use, they incorporate the latest available lens technologies. Superior optical performance is only half the story. A lens destined for professional use must also withstand the rigors of a working professional photographer. A rugged build quality is needed to endure the hard-knocks of everyday use, and weather sealing is needed to protect against adverse conditions. The L-series lenses feature a liberal use of rubber sealing at interface areas, such as the lens-to-camera junction, external switches, and around zoom and focus rings to prevent moisture from getting in and destroying the lens’ electronics.
Matt Chapman began flying aerobatics in 1984 and quickly worked his way up to the highest level of competition aerobatics, the Unlimited category. He was member of the U.S. Unlimited Men’s Aerobatic Team in 1996 and 1998, winning a team silver medal in the 1998 World Aerobatic Championships. Matt is proudly sponsored by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Matt Chapman
The United States Army Parachute Team, nicknamed the Golden Knights, is a demonstration and competition parachute team of the United States Army. The team was designated as the Army's official aerial demonstration unit in 1961. Comprised of the two, 12-member traveling teams, the Golden Knights performance at exhibitions and competitions across the US and internationally. The two performance teams are dubbed the Gold and Black teams, in reference to the official Army colors. Tryouts are held annually for qualified Army men and women. Those selected must complete a 6-week training course and a 1-year probationary period after being "knighted". They serve three year seasons as full-fledged members of the team.
US Army Golden Knights Parachute Team
Like the AF motors from other manufacturers, Canon's USM motors convert an electromagnetic force into a rotational force to drive the lens-focusing group. Ultrasonic motor (USM) lenses appeared with the introduction of the original EF 300mm f/2.8L USM lens in 1987. Canon was the first camera maker to successfully commercialize the USM technology. EF lenses equipped with USM drives have fast, silent and precise auto focus operations. Ultrasonic motors are used by all the major lens manufactures:
USM: Ultrasonic Motor (Canon)
SWM: Silent Wave Motor (Nikon)
SWD: Supersonic Wave Drive Motor (Olympus)
SDM: Supersonic Drive Motor (Pentax)
SSM: In-Lens Super-sonic Motor (Sony/Minolta)
HSM: Hyper-Sonic Motor (Sigma)
USD: Ultrasonic Silent Drive (Tamron)
F-16 Fighting Falcon
The word guenon comes from the French word for monkey. Monkeys in the guenon group are some of the most colorful, graceful, and lively in Africa. Guenons are best known for their striking color patterns, such as hip stripes, brow bands, or a white nose spot or band. Most guenon species live in large groups of females and at least one resident male, with groups having as many as 50 individuals.
Schmidt's Red-tailed Guenon
The emu belongs to a group of flightless running birds known as ratites, the most primitive of the modern bird families. The ratite family includes the kiwi, ostrich, cassowary, and rhea, all birds found only in the Southern Hemisphere. The emu is the second-largest living bird in the world, following only the ostrich.
Emu
Designed for use with lens extenders, the EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens maintains exceptional image quality when paired with either of the Canon’s Series III EF 1.4x and EF 2x Extenders. To get the best out of compatible EF lenses and the Series III extenders, you should attach the extender to the lens first, before attaching the whole unit to the camera. This ensures the combined lens information is transmitted correctly to the EOS body for optimum image quality and focus performance.
Nora was born in March 2013 at the Brookfield Zoo in suburban Chicago. She's the oldest sibling of the three infants at Brookfield, along with Zachary (2015) and Ali (2018).
Nora giving piggie back rides
Canon extenders are constructed with metal bayonets, and engineered plastic ends. They have no moving parts, other than the lens latch lock. The Series III extenders have improved auto focus performance and improved image quality over the Series II models, and their front and rear elements are coated with a fluorine anti-smear coating to be easier to clean.
The beautiful colors from a sunset are caused by the atmosphere. As the sun gets lower and lower in the sky, its light passes through more and more air layers, compared to noontime, when the sun is directly overhead. The layers of air are filled with dust and water particles. This causes the sun’s light to bend as if through a prism, scattering the blue light in favor of reds, oranges, and purples.
California Sunset
The images are sized to fill your wide-screen display. Try using <F11> to maximize your browser window for the full effect. If the images overshoot your display, such as a laptop, just click on the image or the URL link and they'll resize to your screen from the host Flickr site. You can click a bit further into the image details on the Flickr page, if desired. EXIF data is available from the host Flickr pages as well. On the Flickr site, use your <L>key for Large and the <F11> for the full-screen.
The EF 300mm f/2.8 lens refers to a family of 300mm telephoto prime lenses made by Canon going back to manual focus versions first released in 1974. The lens is commonly used by sports and wildlife photographers, but is short enough for use in extreme close-up portraits. Because of its rather high native magnification, the EF 300L can also be used for macro type photography.
Black-handed spider monkeys are one of the largest New World monkeys. Several different sub-species of spider monkeys can be found in locations from Central Mexico to Bolivia. The black-handed spider monkey ranges from Nicaragua into northern Costa Rica.
Black-handed spider monkey by Paul Sager, on Flickr
All Canon EF lenses have a maximum aperture of f/5.6 or wider, so all EOS cameras will auto focus with any EF auto focus lens. The f/8 auto focusing ability is only needed when using a lens and extender combination that reduces the maximum aperture of the lens to f/8 or smaller. The Series III extenders are designed to provide faster auto focusing and improved auto focus precision with compatible EF lenses. Both the 1.4x and 2x extenders feature a new microcomputer to increase AF precision when used with Series II EF super-telephoto lenses. When mounted to the EF 300 f/2.8L, the 1.4x extender creates a 420mm prime lens with an f/4 maximum aperture. All focus points are available with this combination.
The toco toucan, also known as the common toucan, giant toucan or simply toucan, is the largest and probably the best known species in the toucan family. It is found in semi-open habitats throughout a large part of central and eastern South America. The bright orange beak is about 8-inches (19 cm) long, one third of the bird’s total length. Despite its substantial size, the beak weighs less than you'd think. Composed of the protein keratin, the beak incorporates many air pockets resulting in very low mass.
Toco Toucan
Mangabeys are some of the most endangered monkeys on Earth. They dwell only in the remaining large forests of Angola and the Congo in Africa. They look somewhat like guenons but are bigger. As its name suggests, the black crested mangabey can be distinguished from other mangabey species by the prominent pointed black crest of hair on top of its head.
Black-crested Mangabey
The Canon L-series lenses are the pinnacle of the company’s lens technology. Designed for professional use, they incorporate the latest available lens technologies. Superior optical performance is only half the story. A lens destined for professional use must also withstand the rigors of a working professional photographer. A rugged build quality is needed to endure the hard-knocks of everyday use, and weather sealing is needed to protect against adverse conditions. The L-series lenses feature a liberal use of rubber sealing at interface areas, such as the lens-to-camera junction, external switches, and around zoom and focus rings to prevent moisture from getting in and destroying the lens’ electronics.
Matt Chapman began flying aerobatics in 1984 and quickly worked his way up to the highest level of competition aerobatics, the Unlimited category. He was member of the U.S. Unlimited Men’s Aerobatic Team in 1996 and 1998, winning a team silver medal in the 1998 World Aerobatic Championships. Matt is proudly sponsored by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Matt Chapman
The United States Army Parachute Team, nicknamed the Golden Knights, is a demonstration and competition parachute team of the United States Army. The team was designated as the Army's official aerial demonstration unit in 1961. Comprised of the two, 12-member traveling teams, the Golden Knights performance at exhibitions and competitions across the US and internationally. The two performance teams are dubbed the Gold and Black teams, in reference to the official Army colors. Tryouts are held annually for qualified Army men and women. Those selected must complete a 6-week training course and a 1-year probationary period after being "knighted". They serve three year seasons as full-fledged members of the team.
US Army Golden Knights Parachute Team
Like the AF motors from other manufacturers, Canon's USM motors convert an electromagnetic force into a rotational force to drive the lens-focusing group. Ultrasonic motor (USM) lenses appeared with the introduction of the original EF 300mm f/2.8L USM lens in 1987. Canon was the first camera maker to successfully commercialize the USM technology. EF lenses equipped with USM drives have fast, silent and precise auto focus operations. Ultrasonic motors are used by all the major lens manufactures:
USM: Ultrasonic Motor (Canon)
SWM: Silent Wave Motor (Nikon)
SWD: Supersonic Wave Drive Motor (Olympus)
SDM: Supersonic Drive Motor (Pentax)
SSM: In-Lens Super-sonic Motor (Sony/Minolta)
HSM: Hyper-Sonic Motor (Sigma)
USD: Ultrasonic Silent Drive (Tamron)
F-16 Fighting Falcon
The word guenon comes from the French word for monkey. Monkeys in the guenon group are some of the most colorful, graceful, and lively in Africa. Guenons are best known for their striking color patterns, such as hip stripes, brow bands, or a white nose spot or band. Most guenon species live in large groups of females and at least one resident male, with groups having as many as 50 individuals.
Schmidt's Red-tailed Guenon
The emu belongs to a group of flightless running birds known as ratites, the most primitive of the modern bird families. The ratite family includes the kiwi, ostrich, cassowary, and rhea, all birds found only in the Southern Hemisphere. The emu is the second-largest living bird in the world, following only the ostrich.
Emu
Designed for use with lens extenders, the EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens maintains exceptional image quality when paired with either of the Canon’s Series III EF 1.4x and EF 2x Extenders. To get the best out of compatible EF lenses and the Series III extenders, you should attach the extender to the lens first, before attaching the whole unit to the camera. This ensures the combined lens information is transmitted correctly to the EOS body for optimum image quality and focus performance.
Nora was born in March 2013 at the Brookfield Zoo in suburban Chicago. She's the oldest sibling of the three infants at Brookfield, along with Zachary (2015) and Ali (2018).
Nora giving piggie back rides
Canon extenders are constructed with metal bayonets, and engineered plastic ends. They have no moving parts, other than the lens latch lock. The Series III extenders have improved auto focus performance and improved image quality over the Series II models, and their front and rear elements are coated with a fluorine anti-smear coating to be easier to clean.
The beautiful colors from a sunset are caused by the atmosphere. As the sun gets lower and lower in the sky, its light passes through more and more air layers, compared to noontime, when the sun is directly overhead. The layers of air are filled with dust and water particles. This causes the sun’s light to bend as if through a prism, scattering the blue light in favor of reds, oranges, and purples.
California Sunset
The images are sized to fill your wide-screen display. Try using <F11> to maximize your browser window for the full effect. If the images overshoot your display, such as a laptop, just click on the image or the URL link and they'll resize to your screen from the host Flickr site. You can click a bit further into the image details on the Flickr page, if desired. EXIF data is available from the host Flickr pages as well. On the Flickr site, use your <L>key for Large and the <F11> for the full-screen.
Oct 28, 2018 07:11:44 #
Outstanding! If I didn't know better, I'd think I had to switch to Canon. : )
You should send this whole post to Canon.
You should send this whole post to Canon.
Oct 28, 2018 07:18:25 #
DaveJ
Loc: NE Missouri
Thank you Paul for another great series of fine examples. I have enjoyed all your recent posts on the Canon extenders and learned a lot. This set I noticed a lot had slower shutter speeds (1/50, 1/80 sec.). Would you mind sharing if the built in image stabilization and your obvious high skills were enough for sharp photos, or did you use a monopod or tripod?
Oct 28, 2018 07:23:21 #
Oct 28, 2018 07:39:38 #
Excellent set of pictures, and a great explanation of the Canon combination.
Oct 28, 2018 07:42:25 #
jerryc41 wrote:
Outstanding! If I didn't know better, I'd think I had to switch to Canon. : )
You should send this whole post to Canon.
You should send this whole post to Canon.
Well you obviously DON'T know better then. LOL
Oct 28, 2018 08:13:52 #
DaveJ wrote:
Thank you Paul for another great series of fine examples. I have enjoyed all your recent posts on the Canon extenders and learned a lot. This set I noticed a lot had slower shutter speeds (1/50, 1/80 sec.). Would you mind sharing if the built in image stabilization and your obvious high skills were enough for sharp photos, or did you use a monopod or tripod?
Thank you and great question Dave! All the primates are from a tripod on a few different trips to Brookfield. The birds are all using a monopod and everything else handheld. One of the posts should have mentioned the lens will detect a tripod. The primates were with a gimbal too. The IS was switched ON for all the images.
Oct 28, 2018 08:15:14 #
jerryc41 wrote:
Outstanding! If I didn't know better, I'd think I had to switch to Canon. : )
You should send this whole post to Canon.
You should send this whole post to Canon.
Thank you Jerry! There's always time to change ....
Oct 28, 2018 08:16:41 #
Cookie223 wrote:
Excellent set of pictures, and a great explanation of the Canon combination.
Thank you cookie223! This is easily my favorite configuration.
Oct 28, 2018 08:18:26 #
Oct 28, 2018 08:30:53 #
Oct 28, 2018 08:34:56 #
Oct 28, 2018 08:46:01 #
"Outstanding" is not enough of a superlative but I can't think of anything better at the moment. So enjoyable and informative! I am totally humbled by your posts.
Oct 28, 2018 09:50:01 #
I always look at your photos but rarely, if ever, comment. The portraits are wonderful.
Oct 28, 2018 11:00:13 #
Damn, Dave...now you have me scared to post my photos...all superb images, again!! 
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