Even More of the Same

The real purpose of this blog entry is so that I get four entries done in July. Not that the photos are really bad but they're the usual. These are all made with my 5D Mark III and EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM lens Friday evening a few blocks from my home.

160mm, f/4, 1/250 sec., ISO 200, 5 image HDR

125mm, f/4, 1/500 sec., ISO 200, 5 image HDR

200mm, f/4, 1/125 sec., ISO 200, Single image HDR

200mm, f/2.8, 1/30 sec., ISO 400

More of the Usual

I don't seem to be getting out to shoot much other than on my morning walks. These are all shots from the past six days, some with the SL1 and some with the 5DIII.

Canon SL1, EFS 24mm f/2.8 STM, 3 file HDR

Canon 5DIII, EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM, 3 file HDR

Canon 5DIII, EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM, 3 file HDR

Canon 5DIII, EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM, 3 file HDR

Canon SL1, EFS 55-250mm f/4-5.6 STM at 250mm

Canon's Little SL1 DSLR

I decided that the G1X was really not adequate as a smaller option to my 5D Mark III. So, the G1X will be going on the market. I sold my extender 2XIII a few weeks ago but am going to keep my 1.4X extender to use with my full frame body for sports this Fall.

I came up with a plan which will both give me a small carry around option as well as providing longer focal lengths without the need to resort to big, expensive lenses. My solution is the super small SL1 APS-C sensor DSLR. Paired with my 24mm f/2.8 pancake lens it is very small and has the field of view of 38.4mm with a fast aperture. Paired with the very inexpensive EF-S 55-250mm STM lens it also has an equivalent range of 88-400mm with image stabilization.

Here are some shots from this morning, all at 250mm, or 400mm equivalent.

f/5.6, 1/750 sec., ISO 800

100% crop of the above image.

f/6.7, 1/90 sec., ISO 800

f/6.7, 1/1500 sec., ISO 400

f/5.6, 1/90 sec., ISO 400

Backup Closeup options.

My daughter will be taking my 100mm macro lens and her EOS 7D to Costa Rica for three weeks. So, I decided to investigate my current other options for making closeup photos.

One of my past favorites for closeups was a 300mm f/4 IS lens with a 1.4X extender. I also used a Canon 500D closeup filter on the 300mm lens without the extender.

I no longer have the 300mm lens but I have the 500D filter and a 1.4X extender. The longest lens I currently own is a 70-200mm f/2.8L lens without image stabilization.

One of the problems with using the 500D filter is that there is a very limited in focus range. Using it with a zoom lens creates more options than with a prime lens however.

Here are a bunch of samples. From the 100mm macro at minimum focusing distance to various zoom shots with the closeup filter, with and without the extender.

100mm macro lens at minimum focusing distance (MFD)

70-200 zoom at 200mm w/500D w/o extender at MFD

70-200 with extender at 140mm w/500D at MFD

70-200 with extender at 140mm w/500D at Infinity Focus

70-200 with extender at 280mm w/500D at MFD

70-200 with extender at 280mm w/500D at Infinity Focus

UPDATE 7/19/16:

Another closeup option is the crop sensor SL1 and the EF-S 55-250mm lens which focuses pretty close.

55-250 at 250mm (400mm EQ) at MFD (33.46" from sensor to subject)