70-200 f/4.0 close ups

[Jere Lee]

I've read in different places about close up photography with the 70-200 4.0. I don't however recall the technique. I think maybe extension tubes. Can anyone give me first hand information on their personal experiences of close up photography with this lens, and the results?

Thanks in advance, Jere

[Jere Lee]

Is anyone on this site interested in helping someone with photography? I think sometimes the majority only want to bragg about their lenses, compare this versus that etc. You know " mine is great and the've problems with the one you have " and so on and so on. How about some information that I'm asking for!

[Madweasel]

Insulting the people you're asking for help from sounds like a sure way to gain support?!?

The 70-200 f/4 focuses down to 1.2m, giving 1:0.21 reproduction at the sensor. You don't say what camera you are using, but assuming it's a 1.6x crop APS-C sensor, then that means at closest focus your full image frame is roughly 110mm x 75mm (4x3 inches roughly). That's already pretty small, and a teleconverter will magnify that image further, or as you say, extension tubes will let you get closer. The EF12 takes you to 1:0.29, and the EF25 gets you to 1:0.36, so about 3x2 inches frame size.

I hope that helps.

[sf1]

Hi Jere Lee,

This lens has a minimum focusing distance of 3 feet.

I have never tried the extension tubes, but I would assume you would still have to be 3 feet from the subject.

The lens does take fantastic shots. Getting close ups may require you to focus on one point - depending on the DOF you want to achieve, so you may want to use the center point for focusing.

I have taken some nice flower shots with this lens at about 3 1/2 feet away at 200 mm. The DOF at f4 can be small - depends on what you are looking for. If you decide to go for f8, you want to have good light, if not then a tripod is a must.

[Familiaphoto]

I would agree, insulting people is not going to get them to help you. This is the best forum for Canon on the web in my opinion, the amount of technique help I've received here is tremendous. Be patient and see what you can learn.

Also, think about the section you are posting in. I know your question was specific to a lens, but perhaps posting this quesiton in one of threads on Photo Sharing might of gotten a quicker response. Perhaps someone the macro forum would have been of help even though this is not strictly a macro question.

[segasaturn]

I've always found this forum to be filled with the most helpful and polite members around.

[nan3182]

This is a artical that helped me to understand the use of extension tubes on lenses for close up photography.
http://www.shutterfreaks.com/Tips/ExtensionTube.htm

From my understanding is that you will recieve better results (increased magnification) from a shorter lens than a longer lens. By placing the extention tubes on your lens your decreasing the minimum focusing distance and alowing you to move in closer to your subject. I can not offer you any first hand experience, I have been considering getting a set of tubes to use on my 50mm and 70-300mm. I would love to here and see from someone what a set of tubes are capable of.

[djrambis]

Jere...patience dude. Give folks a little more than 8 minutes to respond to your post.

[pagnamenta]

Some people don't post responses if they have no experience with your question. I own the 70-200 f4 lens but I haven't done any close up (macro?) work with it. Because of your post I took some flower shots they came out well. You can focus at 3 feet which is really good, especially at 200mm.

I might also add that you posted the thread at 10 pm. I don't check the forum until 4 o'clock pm, so you can't expect results over night.