canon 100-400

[jingler]

hi
i have just bought the canon 100-400 lens
what shutter speed should i be aiming for to get the best out of this lens?
both for hand held and tripod use.

thanks
tom

[Canon_Shoe]

Originally Posted by jingler

hi
i have just bought the canon 100-400 lens
what shutter speed should i be aiming for to get the best out of this lens?
both for hand held and tripod use.

thanks
tom

I usually use mine in aperture priority or manual mode, but mine really shines at f/5.6. It has IS so I can handhold a shot at 400mm f/5.6 and get a great shot......you're really going to to like that lens! It's heavy, but anything with a 400mm focal length will be heavy

[watt100]

Originally Posted by jingler

hi
i have just bought the canon 100-400 lens
what shutter speed should i be aiming for to get the best out of this lens?
both for hand held and tripod use.

thanks
tom

depends, when I shoot sports the faster the better. That's why most recommend selecting the ISO and aperture and then letting the shutter speed go to the max.
Basically for sports you want whatever freezes the motion, for other things, not so much.

this is at 1/4000

XSi (450D)
f5.6
ISO 400

[angryman]

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...8#post14556478

Check out this thread - heaps of great shots and plenty of advice

[TeamSpeed]

Originally Posted by jingler

hi
i have just bought the canon 100-400 lens
what shutter speed should i be aiming for to get the best out of this lens?
both for hand held and tripod use.

thanks
tom

Shutter speed <> getting best out of a lens

Shutter speeds are what you need them to be to stop your own hand shake as well as freezing action, if that is the look you are going for.

The typical guideline you will see is that your shutter should be at or faster than 1/(focal length * crop factor). However it is a guideline, one that is affected by whether you use a tripod or not (could use slower speeds if using a wireless remote or mirror lockup), you use IS, or whether you really want a bit of blur action in your shot to give it a bit of life.

I am guessing you really mean that you would like to know what aperture to use the lens at? I have found that the 100-400L is pretty good wide open, but again the guidelines are that lenses perform very, very well at +2/3 to 1 stop smaller apertures than wide open.

[amfoto1]

If your lens didn't have IS, if used on a full frame camera you should try to keep to 1/100 shutter speed at the short end and 1/400 at the long end of the zoom. On a crop camera, you should try to keep to 1/160 at 100mm and 1/640 at 400mm. These are mere guidelines, though... some people need to use a little faster shutter speed, others can get by with a little slower. Practice and good techniques make a difference, too.

However, your lens does have IS and that should help you hold it steady a bit slower shutter speeds. How much slower depends upon you. It probably is good for two or three more stops. So, on a crop camera you might be able to handhold 1/40 at 100mm and 1/160 at 400mm. Or on full frame camera 1/25 at 100mm and 1/100 at 400mm.

But, again, these are just general guidelines. Your actual mileage might vary.

And they don't take other things into consideration. For example, as mentioned, IS does nothing to freeze subject movement. Only an adequate shutter speed can do that, if that's your goal. Also, cameras can "prefer" certain shutter speeds. Canon has noted in a white paper that the 18MP crop cameras are more sensitive to motion blur than some of the lower resolution models, and recommend using a little higher shutter speed whenever possible. I tend to keep my 7Ds to ISO 200 and 400 minimum, where I use 100 and 200 on 50D and 5D Mark II (Note: At 21MP the 5DII is actually higher overall resolution than 7D. However since it's a full frame camera the 5DII's sensor is considerably less crowded, nearly half as densely packed with pixel sites as the 7D's crop sensor).

On a tripod and locked down to prevent movement, the 100-400 is one of those lenses with the less sophisticated form of IS that has to be manually turned off. If you don't do that, IS can get into sort of a feedback loop where it actually causes movement and image blur. So remember to turn it off when the lens is locked down on a tripod (if panning on a tripod, using a gimbal mount, or using a monopod, I'd leave IS on).

A couple responses mention aperture, rather than shutter speeds. It's true, most lenses also have optimal apertures. The 100-400 isn't a particularly fast lens (f4 to f5.6 if memory serves) so probably is pretty good even wide open. But it also might be even sharper closed down a stop or so. If you set it to f5.6, it's stopping down at the shorter end, anyway. Best thing to do, give it a try. Find a really detailed subject, such as a brick wall or weathered wood fence, etc. Set up carefully and make a series of shots at different apertures and focal lengths, to learn what the lens can do. This is best done on a tripod, so don't forget to turn off IS. Also, you might want to use Live View (if your camera has it), since it's the most accurate method of focus, though it's pretty slow.

Shoot a series at 100mm, another at 200mm, still another at 300mm and finally a set at 400mm. Compare them carefully and see what apertures seem best at the various focal lengths. Then you will know what to try to use, to get the best out of the lens.

Oh, and many 100-400 users report that the lens really doesn't like filters, often gives soft images if fitted with one. Try to avoid using a filter, especially for silly things like "protection" (just how much can a thin piece of glass "protect", anyway?). Use the lens hood instead, for protection. It's much better than a filter for that purpose.

[crn3371]

I've always thought in terms of aperture when trying to get the most out of my 100-400. For me, f7.1 is kind of a sweet spot. Shutter speeds are primarily based on subject matter. I really only depended on IS for about 2 stops advantage. As far as tripod, whatever I needed for the correct exposure. Just make sure to turn IS off while on a tripod.

[thephotographynut]

Originally Posted by jingler

hi
i have just bought the canon 100-400 lens
what shutter speed should i be aiming for to get the best out of this lens?
both for hand held and tripod use.

thanks
tom

Tripod Use: Any speed you want. Just make sure IS is OFF or it will create ghosting. Also if you are slower then 1/100 I would suggest using mirror lockup and remote triggering. The light has a long way to travel down the tube at that focal length so you will get shake.

Hand-held: The rule of thumb to live by is the Inverse Reciprocal rule which states 1/FL, where FL=focal length. So at 400mm you should be 1/400s. Also, if you are using a Crop Frame, since the field of view from the circle of light is smaller, you will need to bump this up by the multiplier of the crop factor. So if your Crop Frame is APS-C you multiple the focal length by 1.6. So the formula is 1/FL x CF or 1/(400 x 1.6) which equals 1/640s. If the camera can't shoot at that speed, you use the next fastest shutter speed.

That lens also has IS and while it says it can do 3 stops of light lower (if your camera is set to use 3-stops, this would be 9 clicks of the shutter speed down), the real IS is much lower then the advertised. I found that this lens can only do about one stop well. That would be 3 clicks down in shutter speed. If possible, I still recommend using the rule above even with IS.

I hope this helps.

[Nature Nut]

With the 100-400, all things are possible. Just realize when shooting moving subjects that IS can actually impair you and not help you.

1/60 (w/ IS 1) Wide open at 400mm


Bald Eagle by Nature Nut 84, on Flickr

[HKGuns]

I generally shoot for 2x the focal length. Very few surprises that way in post. Your technique will influence that substantially. I shake like a leaf in the wind.

[Lowner]

Originally Posted by HKGuns

I generally shoot for 2x the focal length. Very few surprises that way in post. Your technique will influence that substantially. I shake like a leaf in the wind.

Me too. In fact thats my minimum shutter speed. As far as aperture is concerned I try to stay near f/8.

[Scott M]

I have no issues shooting the 100-400L wide open at f/5.6, but like Lowner and HKGuns I tend to be more conservative than 1/focal length for the shutter speed when using this lens handheld due to its added size and weight. I try to maintain at least 1/1000 when possible on my 7D, and 1/800 on the 5D3.

This was shot handheld with the 5D3 and 100-400L -- f/5.6, 1/1000, ISO 3200: