Canon 100-400L 4.5-5.6 - The Infamous Beer Test - Is my lens too soft at 400mm?

While there certainly are some other technique issues going on in this test series, as has already been pointed out, your lens is a good copy, and that's what you needed to know.

Get a sturdy tripod for those times you need a tripod. And IS is no excuse for sloppy technique. I'm not saying yours is, I'm saying that as a reminder to myself and everyone that IS AND good technique are a deadly combination. Sometimes I rely too much on the IS and get a little careless with technique.

After four years with this lens, I can't remember a single time I shot it without the hood. Flare and light issues aside, it makes a great protective feature.

Crypto wrote in post #3616074
the ones that look really bad seem to be motion blurr. Did you have the IS off? Remember, it should be off on a tripod.

Why IS should be off when you're using a tripod?

eaglesnest wrote in post #3619496
Why IS should be off when you're using a tripod?

Apparently, It can cause erratic effects because it trys to detect movement where there is none. I have not tested this, just got into a habit of turning it off.

Come on guys, there's nothing wrong with his technique or his camera or his tripod. Its his BEER thats the problem.

The biggest beer producers in the world meet for a conference, and at the end of the day, the presidents of all the beer companies decide to have a drink together at a bar.

The president of Budweiser naturally orders a Bud, the president of Miller orders a Miller, Adolph Coors orders a Coors, and so on down the list.

Then the bartender asks Arthur Guinness what he wants to drink, and to everybody's amazement, he orders tea!

"Why don't you order a Guinness?" his colleagues ask suspiciously, wondering if they've stumbled on an embarrassing secret.

"Naaaah," replies Guinness. "If you guys aren't going to drink beer, then neither will I."


From an Ex Miller Employee

If I can add an Amen, to the above comment about the problem being the beer ... everybody knows that too many beers will make you bleary-eyed. Well, shooting too many beers can have a similar effect on the camera.

bill boehme wrote in post #3617536
I suddenly learned that the combination of the lightweight tripod and the massive lens do not work well together even though I use a remote shutter switch. The weight of camera and lens on this tripod can result in a lightly damped low frequency oscillation. While motion may not be visible to your eyes, it is nevertheless still there and can show up as a very tiny amount of fuzziness in the image. Even the shutter operation can send a vibration through a lightweight tripod. This does not mean that the lightweight tripod is not any good -- it just means that it is overloaded.

I think yet another culprit is the crappy tripod that I used. It was a no name brand that my dad has had for years, lightweight aluminum and plastic, and no head, just a threaded fitting for the camera/lens ring to attach too. I'm going to try and repeat the test with the methods mentioned here.

Here are a couple 100% crop* shots of an ISO 12233 test target from 12 feet away. The first shot is with the camera sitting on a granite counter top and the second is with the camera mounted on a tripod with a remote shutter switch. The tripod is the one that I described in a previous post (Velbon Sherpa). The lens is a EF 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM with a 2X Extender. The lens is set to f/5.6 and 400 mm and IS turned off. The camera shots were saved in RAW format. The ISO speed was 400 and the shutter speed was 1/15 second. All of the images received identical post processing in ACR 4.1.

The thing that is evident from these two images is that even being indoors, the lightweight tripod induces some motion blur. Outdoors, where wind disturbance is more likely, would result in worse IQ.

* editing correction

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

you might want to try using MLU together with a remote release when doing the shots.

Paul, if you feel you have to duplicate the test with a sturdier tripod (don't know why, really, because the test already shows you have a sharp copy of the lens), use the remote shutter release or self-timer to remove any possibility of shake. And I'd do it closer to the ground, so the tripod legs are not extended at all, or at least very little, and the center shaft is not extended either. Then make sure you don't have a breezy day going on — and then have fun doing the beer can test all over again.

bill boehme wrote in post #3620593
Here are a couple 100% crop shots of an ISO 12233 test target from 12 feet away ........

Just for comparison purposes, this is the portion of the target that occupied the camera's full frame view.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

[QUOTE=phangcht;361638​1]Hmm...The first photo shot at f5.6 ISO100 looks OOF.....you may want to shoot couple more static objects to determine if it is the lens fault. This time use flash.

Also, from my experience of the 100-400 lens...to get really sharp image, I need to use at less the shutter speed that is twice the focal length. eg if I'm at 400mm, the Tv would be 1/800 with IS turned on (if hand held).[/quote]

Is this typical of this lens, this is opposite of what I would expect with IS. Just a little confused.

It's not what I've been seeing. I've been shooting at 1/200 (low light) and having great results. I'm finding the IS to work very well. I don't have the steadiest hands.

That's what I would think, didn't make sense to have IS and go twice FL. I would like to eventually get this lens to do some handheld wildlife shots. Never heard of anyone with this problem (shutter speed) before with this lens.

Crypto wrote in post #3616074
the ones that look really bad seem to be motion blurr. Did you have the IS off? Remember, it should be off on a tripod.

I think you're right about motion (and the IS as well). The first one (ISO 100) at f/5.6 looks soft, but due to motion. You may have to use mirror lockup and a remote release (or the camera's built-in timer) to eliminate mirror slap.

I think that you're going to find that it operates at its sharpest from around f/7.1 to f/11 at the 400 end. Give it a few days, and experiment a bit more before you make any decisions.