Another New (Old) Lens

The RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM is a lens I've previously owned but didn't hang on to for long. I decided to give it another try with a trip to Maine coming up soon. 

This lens was introduced in 2021 and is considered a "bargain" option. If Canon's date code embedded in the serial number is still the same, this copy was manufactured in August of this year.

After picking the lens up at Best Buy I headed to Vischer Ferry Nature Preserve to test this copy a bit in between rain showers. So far, so good.

RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 at 270mm, f/8, 1/180 sec., ISO 400

RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 at 259mm, f/8, 1/125 sec., ISO 400

RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 at 141mm, f/11, 1/125 sec., ISO 400

RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 at 300mm, f/11, 1/125 sec., ISO 400

RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 at 100mm, f/11, 1/500 sec., ISO 400

RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 at 100mm, f/11, 1/500 sec., ISO 400

And here is a Green Heron shot cropped in to 2135 x 1423 pixels (about 3 megapixels) from the original 6000 x 4000 pixels.

RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 at 400mm, f/8, 1/125 sec., ISO 400

One of Those Mornings

Sunny days that start out with fog are my favorites for hiking around Saratoga National Historical Park. There was even some frost on foliage this morning before the sun melted it.

The first photo, from the visitor center, shows the fog lifting over the Hudson River in the distance. The photos that follow are from the area of the British headquarters field, lower down and closer to the river, about a two mile walk over the fields and through the woods. Hiking back up the hill is not as much fun.

RF 24-105mm f/4L at 105mm, f/8, 1/350 sec., ISO 100

RF 24-105mm f/4L at 25mm, f/11, 1/1000 sec., ISO 200

RF 24-105mm f/4L at 98mm, f/11, 1/125 sec., ISO 100

RF 24-105mm f/4L at 67mm, f/11, 1/125sec., ISO 100

RF 24-105mm f/4L at 29mm, f/11, 1/1000 sec., ISO 100

RF 24-105mm f/4L at 33mm, f/11, 1/1000 sec., ISO 100

RF 24-105mm f/4L at 53mm, f/11, 1/1500 sec., ISO 100

RF 24-105mm f/4L at 32mm, f/11, 1/180 sec., ISO 100

500D Closeup Lens/Filter

In the earlier years of the blog I posted quite a bit about various methods of getting lenses to focus closer than intended to achieve greater magnification. Methods include extension tubes, macro lenses, reversing a normal lenses in front of a telephoto lens, reversing lenses and auxiliary or diopter closeup "filters".

My only current method of increasing a lens magnification is the Canon 500D closeup lens/filter. I have them in 72mm and 77mm diameters. When screwed on the front of my 24-105mm lens the maximum magnification increases from .24X to .39X.

The cost of this increase in close focusing ability is the loss of focusing beyond the closeup range. This is also true with extension tubes which fit between the lens and the camera body and are much more cumbersome to install and remove.

I haven't been using the 500D much at all in recent years. Most modern lenses have decent native magnification so the moderate increase of the 500D isn't often worth the bother. A lens that I would probably use it more often with is the 50mm f/1.2L which has only a .19X magnification but .31X with the 500D. This lens is also hefty enough that the added 250 grams added to the front filter threads wouldn't be too noticeable.

Here is a photo of the 500D on the left compared to a UV filter on the right.

Here are photos demonstrating the increase in magnification the 500D provides with the 24-105mm lens t 105mm and at the minimum focus distancce.

without 500D

with 500D

without 500D

with 500D