From: "Art Searle" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: RE: EOS If you only had one prime lens....which one?
>I'd often be using a couple of 25mm tubes on the 1200/5.6 . . . I'd
love to have it.
>Small birds at 15-20 feet, waterfowl at about 70 feet and large birds
like eagles and >herons out to 120 feet. It would be very useful.
>Those sound like very tight shots. Difficult to locate with a 1200mm
>lens, difficult to track and impossible to include much environment at
>all.[rest snipped]
"Tight shots" is what I want, what I like and very much what I do . . . my web site is
full of them.
Most were taken at 1120mm/f8. The hummers were shot at 17 feet, the blue jays at about
23 feet. Herons at
120 feet for full birds and about 80 feet for head shots. The waterfowl were shot at
about 70 feet.
Obviously 1200mm is pretty much indistinguishable from 1120 and the full extra stop in
speed would not
exactly be useless. So I am hardly unknowledgeble at what the subject looks like in
the frame at this focal
length. I am not deaf to the difficulties in lugging heavy gear about either. My
photography is not done in
high traffic areas where birds are tolerant of close approach . . . I am always a tad
incredulous at
seeing phalanxes of "big glass" trained on birds at distances of 50 feet and less at
places like Ding
Darling. Being too close is
NEVER a problem in my neck of the woods! Getting close enough is always the problem.
If you've ever mounted an EF2X to your 600, I can not fathom why you would not prefer
to shoot at 1200/5.6
without an extender to compromise quality rather than at 1200/8 with an extender in
the optical train. I'll
grant IS would be nice . . . wish my 800 had it.
The sheer mass of the 1200 (about 35 lbs) likely helps a lot to minimize vibrations,
although it sure would
be subject to wind buffeting.
Only the price prevents me from getting, and making very constructive use of this
wonderful, useful lens. I
just wish I could rent it
from time to time. Buying it, of course, is not in the realm of possibility at all!
Yes, I rather bridle at seeing it being described as "pretty useless." We very much
have a difference of
opinion here.
--
Terence A. Danks
Nova Scotia, Canada
Wildlife and Nature Photography
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/danksta/home.htm
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