70-200f4 or 70-300DO

[sharky]

I've currently got the 70-200f4L and while I love it, I do find that it comes up a bit short sometimes, and that handholding becomes an issue when the light begins to fade. Lately I've been thinking about selling it and getting the 70-300DO IS, so I'd really love to hear the opinions of anyone who has used both.

[TheObiJuan]

Why not get the f/2.8L and a 1.4tc?

[sharky]

The main thing stopping me from going for the 2.8 + 1.4 is size and price. Here in Oz the DO retails for about $1900, while the 2.8 combo comes in at $3400.

[lmele]

Hi Sharky
I'm new to this forum and man what a great forum it is. i have picked up so much information its been great. I just purchased a 20d with a 17-85mm and a 70 - 300mm DO . The 70-300 DO is a great walk around lens for taking photos ,its a little heavy but its all in the centre no overhang weight. I,m very happy with it and it takes great shots. I just recentlly bought a tamron 2x sp af teleconverter for it and wow its great. I live in Sydney and on the weekend i went to the harbour and gardens and shot photos to my hearts galour :) :) I have only converted to digital after having all my photo eqipment stolen when i went on holidays:cry: but infact its turned out to be a blessingim now into digital.:D

[Salleke]

Hi Sharky
I'm new to this forum and man what a great forum it is. i have picked up so much information its been great. I just purchased a 20d with a 17-85mm and a 70 - 300mm DO . The 70-300 DO is a great walk around lens for taking photos ,its a little heavy but its all in the centre no overhang weight. I,m very happy with it and it takes great shots. I just recentlly bought a tamron 2x sp af teleconverter for it and wow its great. I live in Sydney and on the weekend i went to the harbour and gardens and shot photos to my hearts galour :) :) I have only converted to digital after having all my photo eqipment stolen when i went on holidays:cry: but infact its turned out to be a blessingim now into digital.:D

Hi Imele, Can you please show us a few of your real life pictures taken with the 70 - 300 DO?
I am to in the process of buying one but I'm esitaiting a little bit.

When you attach the Taron 2X Teleconvertor to this lens do you have any problems with AF?
Or AF in low light? Is picture quality still acceptable with the 2X Tamron TC?

Thank you.

[condyk]

Welcome lmele

Be good to see a shot from your DO with the 2x and without ... even a couple of unrelated ones. I can't help thinking a 2x would degrade things too much and impact on usability, but would be very intrigued if it didn't and also pleased for you. It does have a useful set of characteristics for sure. My question mark is only value/performance ... but then the criteria does change when all you have is a backback and every extra gram is an issue!

[lmele]

Dumb question how do you insert a photo or do you have to have a link

[condyk]

Dumb question how do you insert a photo or do you have to have a link

Scroll down a little at the reply screen and you will see a 'manage attachments' button. Click it and then follow the instruction at the top. You click 'choose' to find the image on your drive and then you 'upload' it. You can do two at a time. Max 100kb each so a cropped image at 100%, not resized, and then compressed as little as will get you to 100kb. A smaller area 100% cropped from the main image, ie the area best in focus, is better than the full image really heavily compressed.

You can also link to the full image if you have server space somewhere. Then, for me at least, a file straight from the camera and unprocessed is best so people can and do any post processing themselves under their own conditions and settings. :)

[lmele]

Thanks for the welcome Condyk
OK here goes hope this works
I will try and post some photo shots with the DO and the 2x .The first one is outside the store testing before i bought it , shot using the DO at 70mm with the 2x connected, the second is shot with the DO set at 300mm with the 2x tamron connected i have compressed the files down for the web so i dont know if this will help. The third one is again at 70mm2x and the fourth is at 300mm2x all hand held no tripod used, the last one is at 195mm2x with the 2x tamron connected the . I bought the 2x on Saturday morning in the city and set of to do some photo shooting, and within an hour the weather changed and rain set in, so only some shots with the 2x connected. I did practice inside, and the Autofocus worked good maybe slightly slower up until low light conditions then i had to got to manual focus but in normal light conditions it was ok. The rest of the weekend i spent reading the manual for the 580ex speedlite. The last month or so has been a steep learning curve:confused: .
http://www.users.on.net/~lmele/images/70mm2x.gif (http://www.users.on.net/~lmele/images/bridge70mm2xlow.gif)
http://www.users.on.net/~lmele/images/300mm2x.gif
http://www.users.on.net/~lmele/cactusIMG_0160-01.jpg
http://www.users.on.net/~lmele/cactusIMG_0159-01.jpg (http://www.users.on.net/~lmele/images/IMG_0138.CR2)

[Nikolas]

save them as .jpg not gifs

[condyk]

I checked the TIFF file and very, very hazy. Hard to see the focus point: I could not see it anyway. It looks OK at small size but as soon as you look 100% it's just not a good focused shot. I wonder if the 2x is really screwing it up. Maybe try shooting at best JPG settings in the camera without the 2x and then post your best image.