Birds in the back yard.

[anand]

A few pigeons have set up their home in my apartment. I photograph them every day.
Canon 7D
EXIF of both images.
Aperture-Priority AE
( Shutter Speed ) 1/1250
( Aperture Value ) 2.8
ISO Speed 100
Auto ISO Speed OFF
Lens EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
Focal Length 200.0mm

 

[Menace]

Nice! Thanks for sharing

 

[sootzzs]

Great. Like how the grey pigeon accentuated by the pinkish background.
One of mine below. Taken with the 55-250 EFs from not more than 1.5 meters. Really great lens for its price.

 

[DJD]

We've got pigeons that visit the feeders in our back yard as well. This juvenile one tried to fly through our window several times before I got my camera out to take his portrait.

 

[ozscorpion]

Hi Guys, find some photos from my backyard. There are plenty of Spotted Doves visit our backyard along with Noisy Miners every day.

 

[rwmson]

Nice first post, welcome! And thanks for sharing.

 

[InterMurph]

My backyard birds.

 

[InterMurph]

And some more.

 

[sootzzs]

Wow! InterMurph nice shots. Which equipment did you use to take them?

 

[InterMurph]

Thanks.

Canon 5d Mark III and the70-200mm L F2.8 II IS USM. I had to get pretty danged close, and even so, these are cropped a lot.

I have some shots with my 2x III teleconverter also. That made it harder to focus on the birds who won't sit still, but I did get some decent shots. I'll try to find some to post.

 

[JBeckwith]

Good, sharp pictures with nice depth of field. My critique would be not to be afraid to zoom out a little to sacrifice a little detail and show a little more of the bird. It's a little awkward when part of the bird is cut off.

 

[DJD]

One more from my back yard.

Model: Canon EOS 7D
ISO: 800
Exposure: 1/500 sec
Aperture: 7.1
Focal Length: 300mm

 

[Aglet]

Playing w 7D and 100-400mm in back yard, caught this blue beastie with a guilty look on his beak.

 

[serendipidy]

Java Sparrow taken this afternoon in my back yard (hand held while balancing at the top of an 8 foot step ladder).
7D, 70-200mm L f/2.8 II @200mm, Av f/4.0, 1/250, ISO 200. Moderately cropped and PP in DPP.

 

[serendipidy]

Another shot.

 

[serendipidy]

Last one. Thanks for looking

 

[DJD]

Playing w 7D and 100-400mm in back yard, caught this blue beastie with a guilty look on his beak.

Aglet,
Love your picture. I've been thinking of getting a 100-400 for my 7D. How do you like yours?
Cheers,
Doug

 

[Aglet]

Love your picture. I've been thinking of getting a 100-400 for my 7D. How do you like yours?..

Thanks Doug

I really like it, and there's nothing else out there like it. I'd love to find something in this range that's affordable to try on my Nikon gear but so far I don't see that option.

It's not TOO heavy, the slide zoom takes a bit to get used to but once you do it's very quick for things like running animals and even birds and bugs in flight; I could use more practice.
I was getting some decent images from it with my older bodies but it didn't really shine for faster work until I put it on a 7D. After I got used to the AF system, or at least got better with it, it's been quite amazing with that lens. I've been getting bang-on AF using servo tracking for small subjects using spot-AF. Not easy to keep single spot AF point on target but I've found the assist/group AF doesn't tend to work as well for my shooting with busy backgrounds. But that's just me and the 7D..
AF performance on a 5D3 or 1Dx should be really good. On 40D, 60D and even 350D it worked quite well too, just not up to fast tracking like the 7D (or other fast bodies.)

The lens is really sharp up to 200mm then gradually softens towards 400mm. Not much, mind you, it's still quite decent and I'm often shooting with it at the long end.
Bokeh can be rough in transition zones with fine detail like grass or branches but acceptable otherwise.
CA isn't bad and easily corrected.
The IS could be improved for handheld static subjects but at least it helps. I'm usually panning with it so IS is of limited value. Surprisingly, with birds in brush or clutter I'm often manually focusing too with decent results.

It's definitely great for bird close-ups at typical backyard distances, wildlife, even some kinds of landscape shots. I tried a few long range shots with a 40D and 1.4 extender on it but the AF missed a bit and subject (running fox in evening light) was not in sharp focus. Longer range work tends to require fast and pricey 600mm glass.

OTOH, some say the 70-200 f/2.8 L IS II with a 1.4x or 2x extender (latest versions) works pretty well too if you already have that lens. I haven't tried it to compare since I only have the 1.4x v2 and already had the 100-400mm.

So, it's not an ideal lens, but it covers an extremely useful range and performs pretty well optically and AF.
If you can find a used one in good shape and good price I think you might enjoy what it can do for providing a new perspective.