600mm f4.5 FD

[wickidwombat]

I went out last weekend and did some shooting with this and I have to say for a lens of it's age it is amazing
I would be posting pics with this thread but during the week my hard drive in my laptop seems to have taken a dump and killed lightroom I hope to get it fixed tonight or over the weekend then i can post up some pics.

but onto my question, wide open with bright background there is very heavy CA and obviously LR doesnt have a preset for this lens. so my question is how do you make you own lens profile to fix this stuff in LR (I'm quite new to LR so be gentle)

The other scary thing that happened was i nearly dropped my 1D when it detatched itself from the edmika adaptor, not quite sure how it happened as the camera seems to lock on fine and not come loose when i checked it out afterwards so I dont think its a fault of the adaptor. maybe it was the way i was carrying it with the lens strap over my shoulder and camera still attached i felt it come loose and caught it between my arm and body which was very lucky!
Anyone else had a lens and body detatch unexpectedly? its damn scary

 

[ontarian]

I went out last weekend and did some shooting with this and I have to say for a lens of it's age it is amazing
I would be posting pics with this thread but during the week my hard drive in my laptop seems to have taken a dump and killed lightroom I hope to get it fixed tonight or over the weekend then i can post up some pics.

but onto my question, wide open with bright background there is very heavy CA and obviously LR doesnt have a preset for this lens. so my question is how do you make you own lens profile to fix this stuff in LR (I'm quite new to LR so be gentle)

The other scary thing that happened was i nearly dropped my 1D when it detatched itself from the edmika adaptor, not quite sure how it happened as the camera seems to lock on fine and not come loose when i checked it out afterwards so I dont think its a fault of the adaptor. maybe it was the way i was carrying it with the lens strap over my shoulder and camera still attached i felt it come loose and caught it between my arm and body which was very lucky!
Anyone else had a lens and body detatch unexpectedly? its damn scary

So glad your camera is safe. Carrying around bigger lenses attached to big bodies is a lot of work for the little body pin. My 1D4 came off my EF 400mm 2.8 L IS two weeks ago when I was walking with the pair slung over my shoulder. I figure the release button was hit by the side of my belt and there was enough torque from the movement going on that the lens popped off. If I didn't make it a point of always having both the lens strap and body strap secured it would have turned out much worse than just having the separated pair dangling for a second. My ultra low profile 0.5mm FD-EOS adapter design has even less material to work with in holding that little pin so this safety strap practice would even more advisable.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

LR4 will have a on the fly CA removal, rather than a fixed preset. With LR3, do it manually. Its actually more accurate that way, due to lens to lens differences.

I had the original EF 600mm f/4 (non IS), it was a nice lens, but the subsequent versions each get better. However, It was a very good lens at a reasonable price. I have no idea as to how the FD and the EOS f/4 compare, but I'd expect that they are both excellent.

 

[wickidwombat]

here is a kookaburra shot with the 600

 

[wickidwombat]

another one

 

[wickidwombat]

and another

 

[wickidwombat]

and some kangaroos

 

[wickidwombat]

these are just raws, cloudy white balance brought into LR and exported as JPG no post processing

 

[ontarian]

The FD 600mm 4.5 lens was my first super telephoto lens ever. It was great but I sold it when I got the 800 5.6 L. I regret that sale. Yes the CA of the 600 was quite pronounced but the sharpness was notable and the closer minimum focal distance and from my testing really double the speed, it was a worthy lens to grab out the door.

Really nice shots by the way. Try getting that amazing imaging result from any other sub 1500 lens.

 

[wickidwombat]

Thanks, yeah I love how sharp this lens is wide open. Really the only issue is the CA which i am sure once i can get a profile sorted out for lightroom will be a complete non issue. There is something nice about the old simple manual focus only lenses too

 

[wickidwombat]

also another thing what teleconverter do you use on the FD superteles because my kenko 1.4 wont fit due to the FD aperture lever protruding and i dont reall want to grind that lever down

 

[ontarian]

also another thing what teleconverter do you use on the FD superteles because my kenko 1.4 wont fit due to the FD aperture lever protruding and i dont reall want to grind that lever down

Based on my rather extensive testing, the only single extender that actually resolves more detail than simply cropping/up scaling is the FD 1.4x-A mounted on the lens and then the EdMika 0.5mm adapter mounted on it. The EF 1.4 version gives about the same fine detail as scaling. Even with my older original 0.75mm adapter design the aperture lever would dig into the shallow plastic face of the extender. The FD super telephoto optics don't play well with the 2X extender types, IQ is really degraded.

 

[pj1974]

Hi wickidwombat

Phew!!! I'm glad that your lens and camera are safe. Good catch!

I like the photos in this post, particularly sized down a bit they look very decent. And usually a 600mm lens is huge and expensive, so for what it is, looks like you've got a good setup to reach 600mm.

The first photo of the kookaburra (with the lighting on it's head) and both kangaroo photos are well composed. Thanks for sharing some of our awesome Aussie fauna on this thread. 8)

My longest lens is my 70-300mm L. While I would love a longer lens, (eg in the 500mm to 600mm area) - I can't justify the cost and weight. As I try to get as close as I can to birds and wildlife, often 300mm is long enough (anyway on my 7D it is equivalent to 480mm in 35mm format, so that's not bad).

Best wishes

Paul

 

[wickidwombat]

thanks paul, the Fd lens is really nice to use it is massive and heavy and manual focusing take some getting used to I have found its alot easier to focus accurately with the 1D than with the 5D2 on this lens even with the EG-S screen installed in the 5D2. I think the lens might be older than me! but I was lucky and it is in absolutely mint condition wih not even a scratch on the paint or a mark on the glass

I also have the good old 300 f4L IS which i picked up cheap and I use that with a kenko 1.4 TC for extra reach giving me 420mm on FF the combo would equate to 672mm f5.6 with IS on your 7D! i paid $800 for mine and I have seen a couple going locally on gumtree for around that mark too so might be worth a look. even with the Teleconverter on its vey snappy with the autofocus. it is a really nice lens to handle and the built in lens hood is awesome I cant understand why they stopped doing this design.

I found when i had my 28-300 i was using it mostly at 300 so i got the 300f4L and realised i didnt really need the zoom that far so sold the 28-300 as when i'm going to be shooting longer distance i'm either at 300 or putting the TC on for more reach anyway.

 

[ScottyP]

Nice shots, Wickedwombat.

You guys have a distinct advantage in the wildlife photography as far as access to the exotic fauna. Kookaberra and Kangaroo shots, posted like it's no big deal. Cool.