Got my first L...

[polarsusd81]

Hey guys, while stuck inside during the snowstorm... I was searching around looking for deals. I came accross a 70-200 F4 L with the tripod ring included. I got the lens for 450, and it is in pristine condition. The guy sold it to me to help finance the purchase of his 70-200 f2.8 IS...Lucky man. He let me try that lens and it is a tank. The F4 is nice and I can't wait to get out and shoot with it. I will most likely be out in the snow later this afternoon. I will post up some pics when I have a chance to shoot them.

Tom

[Dbl]

Congratulations on the new lens. No doubt you will be very happy with it. Can't wait to see a few shots with it.

Dan

[Steve Foss]

Good one, Tom! That's a couple hundred bucks off a new lens, and since you know it's in good shape, you got a good deal. L series lenses really hold their value.

The 70-200 series is Canon's sharpest telephoto L series, and of course you'll get better contrast and color saturation with the L, too.

Also, a good addition would be a Canon 1.4 TC. No matter what body you're shooting, you'll still be able to autofocus with the 1.4 (non 1-series bodies will only autofocus if the lens/TC combo is f5.6 or wider, which yours would be). That way you'll get a bit of a boost in power and the 1.4 won't degrade image quality on that lens much at all, since it's so sharp to begin with.

Have LOTS of fun with it and, as Dan suggested, show us what you get when you can. What body are you shooting it with?

[polarsusd81]

Steve,

I have the original Digital Rebel (300D). I was looking at the EOS lens chart pdf this morning before I went to get it to make sure the 1.4 would work. I plan to get that sometime in the future here, but for now, I am really happy to have the new lens. This thing is just like new, the guy really took great care of it. It looks like brand new, not a single scratch anywhere, even around the hood connection. I set the tripod plate on the ring and with the body, it balances perfectly sitting on the tripod plate. I might get some snowmobile shots yet this afternoon at a buddy's place. Anyway, gonna gear up and head out into the small backyard for a bit. I think I am gonna be trigger happy for a bit.

Tom

[Steve Foss]

Good deal. The original DRebel will not focus the lens quite as quickly as the XT/XTi or other Canon bodies, but it will still focus more quickly than the lens you are used to, and the 1.4 will work on it just fine when you get around to picking one up. Enjoy!

[polarsusd81]

Here are a couple shots I just got. It was getting dark fast so I didn't get to fire too many shots, but I will be out this weekend.

Doesn't look like I will be in the boat anytime soon.

The neighbor boy out in the driveway.

Just thought it might be interesting. This was shot at ISO 400, 1/60th sec @ 200mm f4 handheld.

All were shot with the white balance set to Auto. Is there some way to get the snow to be brighter without blowing out the image? These were also taken between 5:30 and 6:00.

Tom

[Steve Foss]

Tom, your meter exposed for the snow, which is properly exposed, but which underexposed the other portions of the image a little.

Check your manual and set your meter to center-weighted metering. The Packer fan in particular would have benefitted a little from that, but only a little, because it's not only overcast light, but low overcast light.

The other thing you can do is get a reading on auto, then switch to manual and overexpose by a half stop up to 1 1/2 stops, depending on how things look when you experiment. That'll brighten up the snow. If you overexpose too much it'll blow out, so just experiment on still subject to get your settings.

[MARINERMAGNUM]

i have a new L on the way and it should have been here by now i suppose the weather has played a big role in the slow delivery. i have a friend who owns a small town newspaper and i let him use my 100-400L IS and he wouldn't let me off the hook,he had to have it! so i sold it to him. he gave me a little more than i paid for it and he is a good friend so all is good. now if the new L would just get here!