Sample Canon 500mm 4L IS USM

[Per Johan Naesje]

As promised in a previous thread, I have uploaded a sample shoot with Canon XLH1 and a Canon 500mm 4L IS USM lens.

This sample was shoot in poor light, had to open the aperture all the way (4.0). Shutter speed 1/50. Distance was approx. 10 meter.
In the sample you can see 2 different presets used: OUTSIDEN and EOSPHOTO.

Sample is edited in Avid Liquid Pro, reduced to a speed of 25%, converted to QT-format with Sorenson Squeeze Suite 4.5.

Link: http://www.video-film.no/snutter/500mmHD_720.mov (25.1MB)
Please download before viewing!

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

The Great Tit clips looked better than the Coal Tit - mainly due to the brighter plumage and slightly better natural light. The static bird looked OK, but I didn't like the affect of the wings at speed or the look of the footage when the head or body moved fast. It might be worth experimenting with slightly different iris/shutter setting and presets.
There was also much more lens movement and tripod vibration in the Coal Tit, which softened the image and also produced some fine line-barring with each head movement.

[Mick Jenner]

Per,
This is a preset I posted in August. I Used Lauri's outsiden as its basis and adaptered for the conditions here in August.
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=74176

Regards

Mick

[Per Johan Naesje]

Tony & Mick, thanks for your replay :-)

I gonna try out your preset Mick.

Tony, I agree with your comment of blur in the movements.

The biggest problem with this shoot was the lack of light. Even in Oslo the day light is not good specially in overcast weather this time of year. Fortunately we got more and more daylight here for every day.
I'll hope to be able to get some shoots in better light the next couple of days, where I'm able to use a better aperture setting and get a more suitable DOF.

This rig is HUGE! I measured it to 85 cm in lenght. It looks more like a telescope than a camcorder.
Even though I find it suitable to carry it in a backpack, so I'm able to transport it a long way out in the bush (where I belong ;-)

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

Per, I don't think that DOF is the problem.

[Ken Diewert]

Per Johan,

Some of the blurring may be caused by the 25% slowdown in post. I think that some is caused by the 1/50 shutter speed. In my limited use with the EF adapter, you can open up the gain (though you don't want to). I like the saying 'G(R)ain Up'. So either way you will have a problem. If you mounted a white bounce board near the feeder, you would kick back more light. I think if you have snow around it will definitely reflect more light, but with the shot of your birds, the lens is struggling (at f/4). I think it will very different when you get back to the Musk Ox and the snow.


While primes provide superior resolution, they lose the ability to compose the frame. I think where the musk ox or in the Serengeti where you need all the reach you can get they are best. In the case of the birds, at the feeder, it would have been nice to be able to recompose the frame.

[Bill Taka]

Hi Per,

I'm glad you are using using your new equipment (congrats by the way on your sponsorship). For me, and as you are aware, proper lighting is the key in using the long lenses with the H1. It's a trade-off between enough light and too much. On sunny days, even with ND filters, the only time I use my 500 and 600mm are the magic hours. The atmosheric distortion especially over snow prevents any kind of acceptable footage. I plan my long shoots on "bright" overcast days. I try to keep my long shots around f8 and at least 1/100. ND's will help with this. I noticed in some of your stills that you are using a ronsrail and scope. With this heavy rig it is a "must have". I have ruined a bunch of yellowstone bison footage by not balancing my 600mm prior to recording. Funny how you can see your heart pulse, as you pan, through the viewfinder with the long lenses. One other thing that I found important. I must use different presets between lenses.

Stay warm my friend - Happy Holidays!

[Will Griffith]

Nice shots.

Just curious... is the effective focal length of the L series
500 actually 3500mm with the EOS adapter?? Or in other
words a 100x lens?

thanks

[Per Johan Naesje]

Will, I was told by the Canon rep that to multiplay with 7.2, so the actual focal lenght of the 500mm is 3600mm!
The sample above is just a first tryout. I have been shooting alot with it recently in my muskox project. I got very nice close-ups with it. The picture is a screen capture from a shoot I made. The distance to the muskox was approx 40m and this was the framing I got! Very scary to view on my HD-TV.

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

It is actually X 7.8 in 16:9 mode and X 9.6 in 4:3 mode.

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Tony,

Are those the values for an XL H1, or are they for the XL2?

[Will Griffith]

so in 4:3 it's 4900mm. does the curvature of the earth
begin to be problematic at that point?? :)

thanks for the info.

-will

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

Dan - Chris states in the Watchdog articles that the XL1 provides X 7.2 (4:3), and the XL2 provides 9.6 (4:3 mode) with 7.8 X in 16:9. He also gives 7.2 with the Xl-H1 in his Watchdog article, so maybe I'm wrong; although at that extreme magnification it wouldn't make a great difference with an extra 0.6 magnification factor.

I havn't done bench tests to view the exact magnification factors at 4:3 and 16:9 using the EOS and Nikkor 35mm SLR XL adapters, although I would have thought both XL2 and H1 are providing almost exactly the same X mag factor at 16:9.
Maybe Chris can help here?

[Per Johan Naesje]

Originally Posted by Tony Davies-Patrick

He also gives 7.2 with the Xl-H1 in his Watchdog article, so maybe I'm wrong; although at that extreme magnification it wouldn't make a great difference with an extra 0.6 magnification factor.

Tony, I discovered that the H1 gives a slightly less magnification than the XL2. So I believe that it is 7.2 and not 7.8.
The sample of the moon over at http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...t=83055&page=2 (scroll a bit down) shows the whole moon with the H1 + Sigma 300mm. When I took the same shoot with the XL2 + Sigma 300mm I couldn't get the whole moon in the picture do to the higher magnification.

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

Thanks for the info, Per.