Frustration with Canon 100-400 (Page 7): Wow I couldn't find Artie using that high an ISO with the 7d anywhere! Guess I better re-read his manual:(...

jimtidd Loc: Kitchener Ontario Canada

Lorendn wrote:

I just looked at his blog and I was wrong - the ISOs for the blog photos were from 400 to 3200. That is a little high for my blood and I try to stick to the 400-800 range when I shoot hand-held with a long telephoto lens.

Obviously, the goal is not a high ISO but rather a moderate aperture (f/8-f/11) and a fast shutter speed (>lens focal length) for stationary birds (is there such a thing?) and faster for birds in flight.

Wow I couldn't find Artie using that high an ISO with the 7d anywhere! Guess I better re-read his manual:(

Bruce with a Canon Loc: Islip

I find tripod is very useful for my 100-400, when using a 1.4 extender I use gimbal mount.
If you can't use a tripod, try a hide, or blind. The birds will vanish form a few minutes then they will come back and if you built a small blind you can get frame filling bird shots.

JayB Loc: Northeast US

jimtidd wrote:

Why would I increase shutter speed and ISO to take... (show quote)

Actually, I'm flipping through Art of Bird Photography II right now and I'm routinely seeing still bird portraits at shutter speeds upwards of 400 and up to 1250 (and this is just flipping through a few pages), and higher ISOs as well. And from another well-known bird photographer, whose name escapes me at the moment, I've noted in my notebook routinely used shutter speeds upwards of 500. By nature, birds are not static. They may be still for a second or two but generally they're full of movement. And the 7D is well reputed for handling noise at higher ISOs. And of course if you're not using support and you're using even a medium telephoto, that's a fair amount of waggle to control. So even if you're shooting a doorknob, higher shutter speed.

JayB Loc: Northeast US

Bruce with a Canon wrote:

I find tripod is very useful for my 100-400, when using a 1.4 extender I use gimbal mount.
If you can't use a tripod, try a hide, or blind. The birds will vanish form a few minutes then they will come back and if you built a small blind you can get frame filling bird shots.

Yep. I'm definitely going to start looking at tripods. And there's a good recent post on them too!

JayB Loc: Northeast US

Lorendn wrote:

I just looked at his blog and I was wrong - the ISOs for the blog photos were from 400 to 3200. That is a little high for my blood and I try to stick to the 400-800 range when I shoot hand-held with a long telephoto lens.

Obviously, the goal is not a high ISO but rather a moderate aperture (f/8-f/11) and a fast shutter speed (>lens focal length) for stationary birds (is there such a thing?) and faster for birds in flight.

Really? I was trying to stay under f8 for auto-focus. Give that up?

Wabbit Loc: Arizona Desert

jimtidd wrote:

Why would I increase shutter speed and ISO to take... (show quote)

Hey Doc ..... what's your guarantee doc ..... ya gonna pay us, buy us dinner, what do you feel like losing tonight?

49er Loc: Applegate, Oregon

Lorendn, thanks so much for the advice. Starting out doing this high techie kind of stuff at age 63 has been difficult. I appreciate the help like yours anytime. Terry in Oregon

Dun1 Loc: Atlanta, GA

I would try a good monopod, or tripod, that lens is a beat to handle for long shoot. Try to set your 7D on AV, and use spot focus, you might try tweaking your settings also increasing your sharpness, you could also try bracketing your exposure settings and those three bracketed images would give you a choice on which one you think looks the best to your or fits your needs.
http://support-au.canon.com.au/contents/AU/EN/8200578900.html

Lorendn Loc: Jackson, WY

Terry - Thanks and I know what you mean!

Dun1 - I agree about the spot focus and had not mentioned that previously. The picture style settings, of course, have no effect on RAW images.

Dun1 Loc: Atlanta, GA

Ya welcome, I did not start at 63, but I am a few years past that mark, but I come here to get advice and learn, at my age you have to learn how to shoot smarter and get better with every shot, or session. I don't think you can stop learning photography skills, if you do then you will be a dinosauris photographysauris, frozen in time and will to settle for the auto settings on a camera out of the box cause it is easy, I hear so many times at baseball games now, when I see a MWC (mommie with a camera or DWC (daddy with a camera) banging away with a camera and the flash is going off on a bright sunlit day, "I don't know much about my camera, I just use auto" Many times I try to help if they are willing to listen or try to give some hints, most of the time I might as well be trying to fill the Gulf of Mexico with a sand pail full of water.

Wabbit Loc: Arizona Desert

Dun1 wrote:

Ya welcome, I did not start at 63, but I am a few ... (show quote)

Hey Doc ..... ? Flash on a bright sun lit day helps remove shadows my friend ..... why are you finding fault with that?

..... "you don't know much about your camera", "you just use auto", "you try to help others but you feel that you are wasting your time" .....

..... you're losing me doc!

Bill gomberg

aerides wrote:

My 100-400 is challenging me to get clear hand-held shots (on 7D). It's me, for sure - every now and then I do get sharp images. Maybe I should just give it some more time. Bought a good monopod too, that could help. No clear question here, just inviting comments. I'm frustrated because I had a pair of pileated woodpeckers in my back yard last week and didn't get one single clear shot. Not much time to practice.

I had it and dumped it due to finding it too cumbersome and therefore slow to use , having much to do with the trombone zoom control and image quality nowhere near as good as prime L lenses .

RichardSM Loc: Back in Texas

I have had a soft focus issue with my 7D that is when I first got it I went up on the web to see if others had the same problem to my surprise lots did. I did make some of the changes to my settings on focusing and what a difference it made for me in getting sharp pictures using AF. I still like to manual focusing the lens on certain things like landscape shots and a few others. I do think the WEB can be your best friend at times maybe give it a try.

aerides wrote:

RichardSM wrote:

Hello
Can you get to f8 or so this might help a lot!

It's something to think about. I just realized that my 7D has a focusing beep that works with manual focusing as well as auto. Generally I'm not a pro-beep sort of person, but it's worth checking out. I was wondering how these great bird photographers take amazingly sharp photos with 600mm F4 lenses with 2x teleconverters. Well, aside from using tripods and gimbals that cost as much as my camera. 8-)

49er Loc: Applegate, Oregon

Dun, you got it right. To me,being willing to teach and being teachable is the best of both worlds.

TDC223 Loc: Texas

How is the 100-400 doing now? I have one that is tack sharp on a Canon 20D that refuses to die. The same 100-400 is soft on 1DMKIIN and 1DMKIV and OK on 5DII. Need to do tests with micro adjustments. May need to try tests on the 600L. From reading, micro does not help a lot.