CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

For the Chicago Air & Water Show, I rented an EF 500mm f/4L IS II. Using my own gimbal head, lens plate, tripod and 2x / 1.4x extenders, the following images were captured in RAW using an EOS 5DIII, processing in Adobe LR6 and Topaz DeNoise6. All images were captured from the gimbal with the IS active in mode-3. I did not experiment with my ability to hand-hold this lens. The lens was used straight from the box with no tuning. The gelatin drop-in filter was replaced with my own B+W XS-Pro UV drop-in.

Slow shutter speeds with 2x extender, tracking moving subject

Susan Dacy in Big Red by Paul Sager, on Flickr


The limiting factor at 1000mm was keeping the subject within the frame while panning. I had more success with jets that tended to travel in a straight line making panning easier.

Knutson, Chapman & Stein


An extender is like a powerful magnifying glass. In the case of the 2x, it didn't add another 500mm to a 500mm lens creating a "1000mm lens". Rather, the extender magnifies the image creating an equivalent field of view of an 1000mm lens. This "equivalent field of view" is similar to the crop factor of APS-C cameras where the magnified image is projected over the sensor and only the center of the image is captured. The quality of the center portion of the native lens is the primary driver of the resulting image after this magnification.

Low light / slow shutter / high ISO / 1.4x III extender

Madagascar Golden Orb Spider


The 1.4 extender magnifies the image by 40% where the extended 500mm is equivalent to an 700mm lens. The light transmission is lessened by 1-stop of light. In the case of the 500 f/4L, the result is a max f/5.6 aperture lens.

Blue Dasher (female)


Details with 2x III extender

Exposure and focal length details of each image are available from the Flickr host page via the URL link of each image title.

Bullfrog


A drawback of extenders is the lessening of the light passed to the camera sensor to drive the auto-focus system. Many cameras struggle, or are completely unable, to autofocus a lens with an effective maximum aperture of f/8, the configuration of the 500 f/4L after adding the 2x. Canon's newest models provide this f/8 functionality, even into the entry level EOS T7i.

Eastern Amberwing


For reference, the 500L with no extenders, with Extension Tube EF 25 II to shorten the minimum focus distance for the butterflies.

Julia


All of the images in this post are cropped to create the resulting composition. I've tried to limit the repetition of images shared in other posts. Although the distances to the subjects where extremely different (such as planes of Lake Michigan vs butterflies near the minimum focal distance of the lens), consider the various images and whether the processed result show any obvious differences caused by an extender, the type of extender, the IS mode or the native lens.

Zebra Longwing


LensRentals.com was used for the rental. The $8999.00 retail lens arrived to my local FedEx office to assure someone was available to sign for the delivery and secure the package until my pick-up. The lens was safely packed within two cases, a padded soft case within a padded hard case within a shipping box. The return label and even packing tape were enclosed to simply return the lens using the original shipping box back to FedEx at the end of the rental. If you sign-up for their email list, you'll receive periodic discount offers for 10% to 15%.

In addition to the stabilizing tripod and gimbal with the EF mode-3 IS active, the camera was always configured for Back Button Focus (BBF) with either a single AF point or AF expansion used. The 2x configuration on the 5DIII retains only the expanded center point where the distance to the subject assisted in creating off center compositions. Again, newer EOS models also provide AF functionality at f/8 using AF points away from the expanded center. With the tripod assist, the spider and the dragonflies were manually focused using the 10x zoom and LiveView and a wired remote shutter release.

Ali


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jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Apparently the rental worked excellently.

khorinek

Those are great photos! Thanks for sharing.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Excellent!

lamontcranston

Excellent Photos. All are outstanding! Thanks for posting.

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

Very, Very, Very Good! Enjoyed your range of subjects the most.

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

Fine job on the photos, but your narrative was even better!

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Thank you John, khorinek, Jerry, lamontcranston, bob, Dave! I had the lens for a week, so I tried to find something 'worthy' every day beyond the 3 days at the airshow. Glad you enjoyed.

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

Beautiful set, Paul.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Thank Ken, glad you enjoyed!

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

Very nice write up and great shots...