Upgrade 400 or add a 600?

Hey everyone. Looking for some thoughts/insights/opin​ions on my admittedly first world problem.

I picked up a gig for the next couple months that should allow me to either upgrade my Canon 400mm f/2.8 IS v1 to the v2, OR add a 600mm f/4 v1.

Main use for the lens would obviously be field sports (football mainly, little bit of soccer, track, motorsport, whatever else).

I shoot with 1DX's. And find myself pretty much always shooting football with the 1.4x extender on the 400 when light allows. I do however shoot a lot of high school football where the light isn't always the best.

I have been trying to weigh the pros/cons of upgrading the 400 vs adding the 600 (with and without the 1.4x).

The weight of the v1 400 has not been an issue for me, but the weight savings of the v2 is something that can't be ignored. A lighter 400 would certainly be welcome.

But being that I really like the 1.4x on the 400 for 560mm eq., I can't help but think that I would really enjoy using the 600.

I can get a CPS rental of the v2 400 to try. But I don't know anybody that has or rents a v1 600 to try and compare with. Since the weight of the v1 600 is the same as the v1 400, I would think that its use/handling would be pretty much the same as well.

How is the IQ of the 600 compared to the 400/1.4x combo? Anybody have any 600mm football samples?

So, what are your thoughts/ideas on the matter?

Thanks.

Lensrentals.com likely still have some V1 to rent.

Me, I'd want the flexibility and get two lenses. Why swap t-cons on and off when you can have both ready to go?

All that said, I have not shot any of the new MkII IS lenses, so I don't know what I'm missing (and might have to keep it that way)

rdalrt wrote in post #17044422
Anybody have any 600mm football samples?

I've got the 600/4L v1. Love it.

Last year I was playing more with my Sigma 300-800, but I switched back to the 600/4L for the lacrosse state championships and forgot how much I liked it.

I've shot a lot of football with it, I'll check to see what else I have, but I did a quick check of my previous posts and found this one:
https://photography-on-the.net …?t=944341&highl​ight=600mm

The 600mm v1 doesn't always work well with the 1DX. If you are going 1DX or might in the future, I wouldn't get the older 600.

When I shot the Derby last year, CPS has a booth with free rentals from the event. Grabbed a 600 and everything was soft. Took it back and talked to the CPS booth and they confirmed the old 600 doesn't work well with the 1DX in many cases. They traded it out for the new 800, which was amazing. Fantastic lens that served me well. But 400mm to 800mm was a huge gap and what I really needed was a 600 for my main assignment in the main race.

Thanks for the thoughts so far.

CDS: i like the idea of the added versatility with adding the 600.

Clarence: Thanks for the link to the shots. Love em!

Thomas: I hadn't heard about the 600 v1 not working well with the 1dx. Any idea why that may be? This is a concern as I already shoot with a couple 1dx's. Have a couple 1d4's too, but would prefer using the x's on it.

At this point I am leaning towards adding the 600 for a couple of reasons. Selling my 400 up here where I am will not be easy. And as luck would have it, I have found a relatively local 600. A minor miracle in itself.

No clue. But at the Kentucky Derby, the Canon reps said it was really common that the 600 v1 doesn't work well at all with the 1DX. I wasted an entire day with soft images. It was super disappointing and that they didn't warn me about that known problem was a big reason I switched. Canon's reps acted like it was a known problem I should have been aware of.

Luckily, they swapped out the loaned 600 v1 for a 800L, which was fantastic.

All below are 800L+1DX with Facebook's fantabulous compression.

This Double-trucked in SI.

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