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View Full Version : Switch on Canon 70-200/2.8L

jeveos
28th of September 2003 (Sun), 15:52
Hi group,

I was able to buy the magnificant 70-200/2.8L yesterday (time to hit the gym - this thing is heavy!). It's a used lense without the original manual.

There are two switches on the lense. One is pretty straightforward: AF/MF. The other one though puzzles me. It says: "1.5 - infinity" and "3.0 - infinity". When asked in another group, I was told the 3.0-infinity setting focusses faster than the 1.5-infinity setting. I don't notice the difference (it's focusing very fast anyway!), but is that really all there is to this switch?

TIA, Joost.
chris maddock
28th of September 2003 (Sun), 17:20
It's to restrict the range over which the lens will try to focus. If you set it to 3m-infinity it will not try to focus any closer than 3m, saving the time that it would otherwise spend going from minimum focus to 3m if it can't quickly find a lock.
Note that the manual says (logically really) that you shouldn't switch to the 3-infinity setting unless the lens is already focussed to beyond 3m.

KRs
Chris
gs121002
28th of September 2003 (Sun), 19:56
Was this by any chance one of the $1169 lenses from Dell?

Gary in San Diego
jeveos
29th of September 2003 (Mon), 02:29
chris maddock wrote:
It's to restrict the range over which the lens will try to focus. If you set it to 3m-infinity it will not try to focus any closer than 3m, saving the time that it would otherwise spend going from minimum focus to 3m if it can't quickly find a lock.


That's what I thought. I guess the lense focusing system is slow in the 1.5 - 3m range than eh? Didn't really notice it, but than again, I didn't buy this thing for use on short distances anyway :)

Thanks Chris!
jeveos
29th of September 2003 (Mon), 02:30
gs121002 wrote:
Was this by any chance one of the $1169 lenses from Dell?

Gary in San Diego

Nope, I picked up a non-IS, used one.
sjprg
29th of September 2003 (Mon), 13:04
Here is an example of what the lens can do.

http://www.pbase.com/image/21789527

Paul
CyberDyneSystems
29th of September 2003 (Mon), 14:37
sjprg wrote:
Here is an example of what the lens can do.

http://www.pbase.com/image/21789527

Paul

SWEET!
Belmondo
29th of September 2003 (Mon), 22:17
sjprg wrote:
Here is an example of what the lens can do.

http://www.pbase.com/image/21789527

Paul


Do you mean the lens will fly? If so, I suspect landings are critical.