Using the XL Adapter & tamron 500mm

[Darren Kelly]

One of the reasons I bought the XL2 was to use it for some nature documentary stuff, and I was keen to be able to add the XL adapter and use some longer glass.

The first one I tried was the Tamron 200-500 zoom. I headed down to the park and did a comparison of the 20X that came with the camera vs. the Tamron.

The long glass was great at getting in close, but the image seems a little soft for me.

Tell me XL adapter users, is it inherent in the XL adapter, or is it the lens I choose, and I do better with rreal Canon glass.

Please advise.

If someone wants to host the clip for me, I'd be pleased to email it. It's 11 seconds long, and sits in 2.7mb of space(Quicktime sorenson3 as HQ as I could make it)

DBK

[Barry Goyette]

My guess is that the problem is the tamron lens. The 200-500 isn't one of their best lenses, and all 35mm lenses are essentially designed to deliver a much larger field of view on a larger sensor or film. By cropping to less 1/7 of the diagonal field of view...you are exposing the lens's weaknesses. Clips I have seen from Canon 35mm Lenses show that they are as good as, and possibly better than, the IS II lenses of the xl series.

Additionally, by shooting for the moon with a 500mm lens that is now equivalent of 3500mm and counting...you are bringing a lot of atmospheric elements into the picture, which could also be degrading your picture.

what fstop were you using...?

Barry

[Darren Kelly]

<<<-- Originally posted by Barry Goyette :

Additionally, by shooting for the moon with a 500mm lens that is now equivalent of 3500mm and counting...you are bringing a lot of atmospheric elements into the picture, which could also be degrading your picture.

what fstop were you using...?

Barry -->>>

I tried a few different f stops, almost all the way closed. The distance between me and the birds was about 100 yards, that's not that far away.

I'll give it another try this afternoon.

Thanks for the response.

[Barry Goyette]

I'm still almost willing to bet that its the lens, but try an fstop in the middle of the range...you may need to shoot in the shadows to get this.... By stopping down all the way, you could be introducing some softness.

Depending on the atmospheric conditions (hot or humid weather)...100yds can be a very long way when you're only looking at an angle of view of one degree or so...but if the view looks clear to your eye, then it shouldn't interfere significantly.

Barry

[Darren Kelly]

OK,

Tried it again. This time, I brought the heaviest tripod I could find to minimize any motion. It is a clear bright day - tons of light.

I can report outstanding results.

It is sharp and clear at most if not all apertures. My problem yesterday was operator error. The tripod was not as stiff as todays(Proving my earlier statements on the HD1 DVD of over buying a tripod). The focus point is really really small. Possibly 1-2mm of rotation on the focus ring. You need to have a really stable tripod, and be very careful.

If someone can host, I've created a 10 second clip at 500mm using the XL2 of a seagul's head. And I mean head.

Loving this camera....


DBK

[Darren Kelly]

One last point.

barry was quite correct when he warned about shooting through alot of air. Looking at some of my footage that is about a mile away, you can see the same effect as heat rizing off a paved road, except in this case, I'm shooting over water, and you can in effect see the wind, as the motion is across the shot.

Still it's an outstanding shot, and the effect is useable.

Sorry, I'm just pretty excited about this combination.

DBK

[Jeff Donald]

Darren you can send me the clip and I'll make it available.

[Jeff Donald]

Here is the link to Darren's two clips.