Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM + 2x Extender (II or III)

[Click]

Love the combo takes some great pics.Wish I had more reach sometimes but it's a really versatile combo

Beautiful shot. Well done Runnerguy... and Welcome to CR

 

[LJ3Jim]

As an aside, I have a healthy respect for anyone who has mastered BIF with a 600mm focal length, be it with an extender or a bare lens, it was a dismal first attempt for me.
Keeping your quarry in the lens field of view requires a steadier hand and a sharper perspective than I ever would have anticipated. Going to take more than a bit of practice.

Here's what I do with my 70D. I typically shoot in manual mode - 1/1000, f/5.6 (with 2xiii), and auto-ISO. Sometimes I dial in the ISO for the lighting conditions. I use IS mode 3 on the lens; it seems to give better results than mode 1. I do shoot handheld. I use AI-Servo mode, and I use high-speed continuous shooting. Eagles are pretty easy; their movements are reasonably predictable. Something like a swallow is very hard! Practicing on anything moving helps a lot.

Regards, Jim

 

[nineyards]

Thanks for the advice, I've not tried the IS mode 3 yet.
I have heard that keeping one eye on the viewfinder and one on the sky is a good habit to adopt for BIF, I'll try incorporate that also.
Plan on practicing a lot on our seagulls and crows just as soon as I can figure out how to get them to sign a model release ;D

 

[Runnerguy]

This shot taken with 300 ii +2xiii not cropped ,love how sharp compared to my 100-400 but did get some nice shot with that lens too

 

[AlanF]

This shot taken with 300 ii +2xiii not cropped ,love how sharp compared to my 100-400 but did get some nice shot with that lens too

Not cropped! How did you get so close?

 

[AlanF]

I get my share of very sharp close ups, seeing the barbs on the feathers, the rings around the eyes etc. But, it is just as much fun catching a scene at low resolution. On Saturday I went for a walk with my son and grandson and saw for the first time fledgeling barn owls, which I have been trying to see for the past 5 years, but always missed them. Here they were and I was able to swing the 5DIII and 300mm/2.8 + 2 xTC into action hand held (iso640, 1/320, f/5.6). You can't get closer than about 50-60 metres, and you could barely make them out by eye. But, here is a nice memory, and my son immediately took it as a screen saver. Went back yesterday with my new monopod for assistance, but the birds were gone again.

Their faces occupy only 90x90 pixels. Without the 2xTC you would hardly resolve their eyes.

 

[mackguyver]

Wow, I'm really enjoying the photos in this thread - very impressive work by everyone - I guess I should have started it a long time ago!

 

[Runnerguy]

This shot taken with 300 ii +2xiii not cropped ,love how sharp compared to my 100-400 but did get some nice shot with that lens too

Not cropped! How did you get so close?

he did not take me serious and allowed me to get fairly close and when he decided to fly he went towards me angling away and gave me a great string of shots

 

[AlanF]

It is so easy to cycle with the lens at the ready. I use the Canon supplied strap through the lugs of the lens, sling the shoulder section round the right hand side of my neck with the camera and lens dangling at the left hand side of my waist. The camera and lens don't waggle around too much while I am cycling and I can quickly stop and swing the camera up for a shot. The twin lugs hold the lens much better than does a Black Rapid, which is fine for walking but not for cycling. I have a nice cycle ride to the lab and take the 300+TC with me regularly in the hope of seeing something worthwhile.

 

[Runnerguy]

I use a dual camera strap to walk trails and dikes with my 300ii and extenders and handhold most bif pics so the lighter weight and size works perfect for what I do but would still like to get the 600 f4ii but that's got to wait for awhile for added reach.

 

[candyman]

Here's a few more from this morning:

Very nice!
The 300 f/2.8 MKII + ext 2.x is producing very good quality.
What kind of post processing did you do?

 

[candyman]

I use a dual camera strap to walk trails and dikes with my 300ii and extenders and handhold most bif pics so the lighter weight and size works perfect for what I do but would still like to get the 600 f4ii but that's got to wait for awhile for added reach.

What a great photo!

 

[mackguyver]

Very nice!
The 300 f/2.8 MKII + ext 2.x is producing very good quality.
What kind of post processing did you do?

Thanks and my PP tool of choice is DxO. I'm able to process about 90% of my work using it alone, but will use PhotoShop CC if I need to do additional work like compositing, portrait retouching, and such. With my wildlife and landscape photos, I don't do any cloning or retouching, so DxO does it all for me .

 

[candyman]

Very nice!
The 300 f/2.8 MKII + ext 2.x is producing very good quality.
What kind of post processing did you do?

Thanks and my PP tool of choice is DxO. I'm able to process about 90% of my work using it alone, but will use PhotoShop CC if I need to do additional work like compositing, portrait retouching, and such. With my wildlife and landscape photos, I don't do any cloning or retouching, so DxO does it all for me .

So you only apply the lens profile module (300 + ext 2.x) in DxO for those photos? Nothing else?

 

[neuroanatomist]

So you only apply the lens profile module (300 + ext 2.x) in DxO for those photos? Nothing else?

Personally, I often apply a variety of corrections in DxO – exposure, WB, vibrance, level and crop, etc. However, with the exception of dust removal all of DxO's tools are global. For local edits, I use CS6.

 

[mackguyver]

So you only apply the lens profile module (300 + ext 2.x) in DxO for those photos? Nothing else?

Personally, I often apply a variety of corrections in DxO – exposure, WB, vibrance, level and crop, etc. However, with the exception of dust removal all of DxO's tools are global. For local edits, I use CS6.

Same here, and there's no profile for the 300 f/2.8 IS II with or without extenders - hopefully someday, but the (auto-)corrections would be fairly minor - a bit of vignetting, a tiny bit of CA with the extenders. The automatic sharpening with the lens profiles in DxO is really nice, however, and that would save me a lot of time tweaking the unsharp mask settings.

 

[mackguyver]

Some new work:

 

[Click]

Really nice shots mackguyver, I especially like the Osprey. Well done.

 

[mackguyver]

Really nice shots mackguyver, I especially like the Osprey. Well done.

Thanks, Click. Ospreys were everywhere this morning - I bet I was at least 6 of them in the space of 20 minutes this morning. That's a uncropped photo as well, and it's very sharp - can't wait to print it.

 

[nineyards]

One of my first attempts with this combo, I was on the fence with the 2x 111 or 1.4 X 111
Pleasantly surprised