100-400L IS: Handheld or monopod?

[photofinish]

For those of you who have this lens, what percent of the time do you handhold it? What reasons do you have for handholding rather than use the monopod? At what point would you then switch to a monopod?

I'm just curious...:-) Thanks.

[xuxu1]

For those of you who have this lens, what percent of the time do you handhold it? What reasons do you have for handholding rather than use the monopod? At what point would you then switch to a monopod?

I'm just curious...:-) Thanks.

I have the 100-400L and a Manfrotto 681B monopod. Most of the time i prefer to handhold rather than use the monopod. Although if it a long shooting session (and my hands get week), thats when i take the monopod out and use it. If you want it as percentage...

approx. 90% handheld and 10% monopod.

ED

[Rob612]

Dunno yet. Mine arrived 15 minutes ago and its still in the box :D :D :D

[xuxu1]

Dunno yet. Mine arrived 15 minutes ago and its still in the box :D :D :D
So what are you doing here ???
Grap your new monopod and get out shooting/testing :lol: :lol: :lol:

Regards
ED

[Rob612]

Waiting to get out of the office... :(

[photofinish]

I have the 100-400L and a Manfrotto 681B monopod. Most of the time i prefer to handhold rather than use the monopod. Although if it a long shooting session (and my hands get week), thats when i take the monopod out and use it. If you want it as percentage...

approx. 90% handheld and 10% monopod.

ED

Ed, why do you use handheld most of the time? What types of pictures are you shooting? The reason I ask is I guess I'm looking to gain some confidence to shoot handheld when I need to. I'm so paranoid of motion blur... If I shoot someting as small as a bird I have very little luck with clarity, but if I shoot autoracing, I'm better at it..

[robertwgross]

I use mine better than 95% of the time on a tripod. Once in a while, if I am rushing, I will leave the legs together so that the tripod acts as a monopod. This lens is not very light in weight, so I can't handhold it much and expect results. Part of the reason is that I tend to use one or two x1.4 teleconverters on the lens. As a result, autofocus is gone, so it takes me a few seconds of manual focus work before I have a shot, and it is rough trying to handhold and do that unless the subject is very still.

"Motion blur" is ambiguous. There is subject motion blur, and nothing is going to help that except a fast shutter or else perfect panning technique. There is blur from camera shake, and I.S. will mitigate that to a degree.

---Bob Gross---

[photofinish]

Hi Bob,
Thanks for the info. When the lens is set to manual focus, how are you able to tell that what you are seeing actually IS in focus? With the old SLR's, you used to be able to tell with the split prism lining up...Maybe my eyes "ain't what they used to be". :-)

[CyberDyneSystems]

I'm about 60% Hand held. and 40% monopod.

[Daya]

I use it Handhelp 95% of the time and tripod mount the rest of the time...Use it mostly for birds in Flight ...

Daya

[Daya]

I meant 95% of the time hand held ...

Daya

[xuxu1]

Ed, why do you use handheld most of the time? What types of pictures are you shooting? The reason I ask is I guess I'm looking to gain some confidence to shoot handheld when I need to. I'm so paranoid of motion blur... If I shoot someting as small as a bird I have very little luck with clarity, but if I shoot autoracing, I'm better at it..
Hi Jerry,

well i use my 100-400L mainly for wildlife and aviation shooting. Also taking pics at the zoo as well as outdoor sports now and then. Since the lens has IS (which works very well) i seldom have any need to use the monopod. Panning (IS mode 2 set) when taking pics of landing aircraft works superb.

Just to give you an idea what kind of shooting... here are two example shots that i took with the 100-400L (handheld with IS mode 1 activated).

http://members.aon.at/aircanon/mypics/example_1.jpg

http://members.aon.at/aircanon/mypics/example_2.jpg

I have sized down the pics and saved for web. Therefore no quality discussion please :lol:

Hope i´ve been of some help and answered your question.

Best Regards
ED

[ghocking]

100% all of the time handheld. I use it for zoo's, birds, and any sort of wild animal parks. I tend to keep the shutter 1/320 or above and bump ISO up to max 400 as required. Have used it at slower speeds, but not often. The IS is fantastic, when you see it work it is unbeliveable. Have just bought Powershot S2 IS for carry round, in pocket, in car point and shoot, and was showing someone at work the 12x zoom at arms length, one handed, he said look at your hand shake, then his jaw dropped when he saw the result in the screen.
The 100-400 L IS is my favorite and best lens, a must have in my view, until Canon bring out my dream lens 200-500 L IS f3.5

[photofinish]

Thanks everybody for the feedback. This will give me a little more confidence to try it handheld more often. I just have to keep that shutterspeed above 250. :-)

Ed, those photos are great. Where'd you take them??

[robertwgross]

When the lens is set to manual focus, how are you able to tell that what you are seeing actually IS in focus?

Well, when I look through the viewfinder at the subject, if it appears to be in focus, then that means that it is in focus. If I twist the focus ring and it gets worse, then it was probably right to begin with. If it appears to be out of focus, then that means that it is out of focus, or else I've suddenly twisted the diopter dial.

My eyes still function, but then, I'm not as old as Belmondo.

---Bob Gross---

[TammieO]

90% of the time handheld, 10% on a tripod.

[ssim]

I would guesstimate that I use mine greater than 95% of the time handheld. The lens is light enough to do this. I find that the tripod or monopod is just too limiting. It is somewhat dependant on the shooting conditions at the time . If you are shooting in low light the mono/tripod makes sense.

Now if I am lining up on a fairly static subject (ie. birds nest) I may set it up on the tripod.

I've put thousands of images through mine handheld and haven't regretted very many of them.