EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM Review WOW!

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Old Pollen Beak is back. Obviously, honey eaters don't sneeze!

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...reminds me of most politicians...

I was approx. 1/8 mile for this one=super crop

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Wandered around the San Diego Safari Park in Escondido, CA earlier this morning. I complained a lot about the 7D Mark II for a long time, but I'm coming to find that it was all user error... this camera is insane, especially paired up with the 100-400 II. Forgive the noise, as this is my first time shooting anything over 400 ISO and I didn't bother to try to clean anything up.

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Got this one with the help of someone pointing 'em out to me. A reminder the IS on this lens is just wow! This was at 1/50th, ISO 1000, F5.6 Canon 70d, overcast, early in the day:

MedicineMan4040 wrote in post #18117043
I was approx. 1/8 mile for this one=super crop

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/LHQg​9f Osprey perched by MedicineMan4040, on Flickr

Can you post an uncropped image, please?

What am I doing wrong?

The 7DII with the Canon 100-400 II and Canon 1.4x III. Did microadjustment of both the camera with the lens and with the TC. Still, I cannot get a sharp picture from the distances similar to yours. Shooting in raw, processing in LR. Just did some noise reduction and sharpening.

Two shots, one uncropped, the other - 100 percent. For whatever reasons the EXIF got stripped, so it was shot at 1/1000, F8, ISO 800, 560mm).

Should I send the whole thing to Canon? Everything is still under warranty.

Edit: I guess the EXIF was not stipped!

That looks like a bunch of heat shimmer... have you tried on a cooler weather / overcast day?

markesc wrote in post #18117254
That looks like a bunch of heat shimmer... have you tried on a cooler weather / overcast day?

Looks like heatwaves to me too. Nothing you can do about that but get closer or see what it's like at a different time of day. Take along a pair of binos next time and take a look through them first to keep your prospects for a shot real.

Lbsimon wrote in post #18117191
Can you post an uncropped image, please?

What am I doing wrong?

The 7DII with the Canon 100-400 II and Canon 1.4x III. Did microadjustment of both the camera with the lens and with the TC. Still, I cannot get a sharp picture from the distances similar to yours. Shooting in raw, processing in LR. Just did some noise reduction and sharpening.

Two shots, one uncropped, the other - 100 percent. For whatever reasons the EXIF got stripped, so it was shot at 1/1000, F8, ISO 800, 560mm).

Should I send the whole thing to Canon? Everything is still under warranty.

Edit: I guess the EXIF was not stipped!

Hosted photo: posted by Lbsimon in
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Certainly *some* of it is heat shimmer, but it looks like the TC is fighting against you there, too. Personally, I would send the whole kit (body, lens and tc) in together and let Canon look at it. You should be able to get much better results than that from that combination.

When you say "with the lens and with the TC" for MFA, you do mean lens and TC on the body at the same time, right? Not asking to be mean, just trying to ascertain how you did your MFA.

And, before sending it in, have you tried manual focus from a tripod at that distance to rule out the lens/TC combo just not focusing correctly, period? If *that* doesn't work, it won't matter how much you tweak MFA, since that only affects the AF system.

Snydremark wrote in post #18117629
Certainly *some* of it is heat shimmer, but it looks like the TC is fighting against you there, too. Personally, I would send the whole kit (body, lens and tc) in together and let Canon look at it. You should be able to get much better results than that from that combination.

When you say "with the lens and with the TC" for MFA, you do mean lens and TC on the body at the same time, right? Not asking to be mean, just trying to ascertain how you did your MFA.

And, before sending it in, have you tried manual focus from a tripod at that distance to rule out the lens/TC combo just not focusing correctly, period? If *that* doesn't work, it won't matter how much you tweak MFA, since that only affects the AF system.

Trying a manual focus off a tripod, both through the VF and LV, is a good suggestion. In my frustration I was not thinking about it. Will try to do it today. It will have to be a different target though, I am already at home. There on Cape Cod I did not have the tripod with me.

I did the MA as two separate sets. One - the camera and the lens, and separately the camera with the lens and the TC.

And no, I don't think I can blame heat for the results, it was not a hot day at all. The temperature was around mid 70's (that's about 24C everywhere else), and the nest was sitting over salt marshes that cooled things down even more. So a shipment to Canon may be in order.

I find that distortion does not have to be due to heat, it can also be due to temp differences between you and the subject, over water, hills and valleys, over houses, over towns, etc.

This was on a cool day, temp diff between land and water.

Lbsimon wrote in post #18117675
Trying a manual focus off a tripod, both through the VF and LV, is a good suggestion. In my frustration I was not thinking about it. Will try to do it today. It will have to be a different target though, I am already at home. There on Cape Cod I did not have the tripod with me.

I did the MA as two separate sets. One - the camera and the lens, and separately the camera with the lens and the TC.

And no, I don't think I can blame heat for the results, it was not a hot day at all. The temperature was around mid 70's (that's about 24C everywhere else), and the nest was sitting over salt marshes that cooled things down even more. So a shipment to Canon may be in order.

Just be sure to find a subject that has a fair amount of fine detail, roughly the same distance to try it out on. Also, I wouldn't bother w/ the VF for this; just use live view @ 10x mag for manual focus. That'll tell you what you need to know. If you get nice, critical focus, then your MFA settings need a revisit; otherwise, I'd go to Canon and see if they can clear things up a bit.

Mid-70s is enough to get heat mirage when down that low to the ground, but I'd agree it wasn't your primary enemy.

John_T wrote in post #18117688
I find that distortion does not have to be due to heat, it can also be due to temp differences between you and the subject, over water, hills and valleys, over houses, over towns, etc.

This was on a cool day, temp diff between land and water.

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Could be atmospheric shimmer, but could also be the funky bokeh of the 100-400mm (orig and II both exhibited it). A kind of double vision occurs varying with distance and aperture.

I just did AF MA, using a sign across the street as a target, about 40 meters (130 ft) away. Looks good today, but I need to test it in a real world. Will it be able to get a sharp shot of a bird's feather?

Again, two shots, full and cropped. I think this time it should be fine. I cannot read the sign, and it looks yellow on black with naked eye, but I can see the bolts on the crop!

Lbsimon wrote in post #18117837
I just did AF MA, using a sign across the street as a target, about 40 meters (130 ft) away. Looks good today, but I need to test it in a real world. Will it be able to get a sharp shot of a bird's feather?

Again, two shots, full and cropped. I think this time it should be fine. I cannot read the sign, and it looks yellow on black with naked eye, but I can see the bolts on the crop!

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i don't want to say it should be sharper - but it should be sharper (my experience) - I am assuming this was handheld