Thursday, 21 March 2013

NEW LENS- some experimental pics

I took my new lens into work with me a couple of times this week, along with my Canon 7D. The lens is a Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS L USM mark ii. Quite a brute even though it features a very modest focal length at the long end. I'd hoped to take some pics of a Pied Wagtail out of my office window as there's frequently one nearby. Sure enough it didn't put in an appearance on either of the days that I took the kit in! I had to resort (desperate times call for desperate measures, sorry Gavin and Steve) to GULLS. Not 'interesting' ones unfortunately, but it's the sort of thing I'm intending to use the lens for (birds in flight) so it was worth a try. Here's a few of the pics. Please note that they were taken through a VERY dirty window. Thankfully I was quite close to it so it hasn't affected the image quality too much, but it would have been better without the dirty glass in the way. Still, I think the resolution is simply stunning, despite the sub-optimal circumstances.
The top three images are the same picture, cropped to different extents.

Un-cropped image

50% view cropped

100% view cropped




It's worth clicking on all of these to enlarge the pics. I think the detail is amazing!
Okay, so it's a short zoom and I'm into birds, so why did I buy it you may ask... Well I also like dragonflies and butterflies (as regular readers will know) and the super fast focussing, f2.8 wide aperture and 4-stops of image stabilisation are HOPEFULLY going to enable me to get some decent insect-in-flight shots. That's the plan anyway. Obviously it'll be okay for birds, but it'll be pretty restrictive. Just have to hope for some tame ones this year!

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