White Canons

25th October 2007 – the Canon Expo at KLCC Convention Center!


A Canon Event Organizer shot by a Sony Alpha 700 by a Pentax K100D photographer.


Funky photogenic scenery.


I came for this! A chance to test the big whites.


Canon EF 600mm F4L IS USM on the (pulled off shelves due to AF problems) Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III. Fortunately they put this combo on a ballhead; unfortunately, I didn’t get to experience a crop factored 600mm. This was until recently the longest, fastest available lens.

This combo is supposedly the fastest and best in AF, for sports – however, I can’t say it was always good, and sometimes, surprisingly, this high-end lens would take slower than I’d want to get into focus.

AF according to Canon is done by checking focus once and telling the lens where exactly to focus. Once the lens has reached that supposed focus point, it checks again and does a micro-adjustment. It does not tell the lens to keep turning until it sees focus… (which is why camera makers have issues making Contrast-Detect Live View) so I wonder if it was USM on the lens being a bit slow to travel. Ideally, I should not see the view animating from out-of-focus into focus; it should jump in. It also took an uncomfortably long split second to kick in and realize that hey, I’m asking the camera to AF!

Of course, it didn’t hunt, which I’d attribute to the camera. Tracking works as expected, though I guess I have to get in tune with the camera because at times, it wouldn’t keep to the subject I was tracking and focus on something else.

As always, it’s fun to try to figure out how to use a pro camera. Took me awhile to delete pictures!

I also got to try the Canon EOS 40D. AF in Live View was iffy and I had to hold down the AF-On button until I heard the focus beep, and the 6.5 frames per second is a con job because you need a shutter speed of 1/500s or faster to achieve 6.5 FPS!


It can be differentiated from the similiar Canon EF 400mm F2.8L IS USM, which does not appear to have a little teleconverter on its back. That said, I can see the economy of getting a 400mm F2.8 and a 1.4x teleconverter to get 2 ranges.


Canon EF 100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS USM. Push-pull and a birder’s paradise. There’s a Tighten-Loosen ring to adjust how smooth the push-pull zooming is. Very cool.


They also had the Canon EF 28-300mm F3.5-5.6L IS USM, which honestly didn’t interest me. It’s a heavy, heavily priced full-frame lens which is hardly bright, and photographers who can afford this would opt for two F2.8 or F4 lenses instead. It’s also a push-pull zoomer. The Tamron/Sony 18-250mm F3.5-6.3 DT is far more interesting given its price/performance ratio and groundbreaking performance for a superzoom.


I’m not sure whose front element this is.


KJ looking through a Canon EOS 5D and 400mm F2.8.

They also had the Canon EF 500mm F4L IS USM and Canon EF 300mm F2.8L IS USM but they weren’t as noteworthy as the lenses mentioned above, heh.

5 thoughts on “White Canons

  1. Albert Ng Post author

    Grace: It so happens I blogged on your birthday so happy belated birthday yo! Sorry la it was last year I know.

    Frankie: My condolences to you. Happy New Year!

    smashpOp: That is true… I like how the A700 Auto WB will balance out mixed lighting (orange and blue) very very nicely.

    wombok: I be robbin’!

    Reply

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