G'day welcome back to my blog, as usual the mid-week blog will be all about what gear I have and why, for the next few weeks I'll run though my lenses what I have and why. I'm going to start with the lens I use the most and sitting down to this I was surprised to find out it wasn't the lens I thought it was or would be. Light room collects a lot of data about each photo and has a really useful database of it all, for each shot it not only collects your camera settings but what lens you used and the focal length at the time as well, so sitting down here to write this today I thought I’d be righting about my macro lens but turns out not the case, and by quite a long way in fact. So it turns out my most shot with lens is my 70 to 200 f2,8 IS USM II coupled with the 1.4X extender.

Looking at the lightroom count I’ve taken 13665 shots with this lens with and without the extender, the macro lens is next but that comes in at 7648 shots so the long lens has taken way more shots. At first I was surprised but then thinking about it, not really, the long lens I use a lot for bird shots and these are often in burst mode, so the count soon adds up.

The lens is the heaviest I have so I certainly know about it carrying it around, but it certainly gives great results and the image stabilisation is something else hand holding down to lower shutter speeds of 1/30 of a second at times at full reach. Thou some of those shots aren’t always the best. I’ve used the lens for some close up mushroom shots and a lot of bird shots, I’ve found that my best results are still found with it mounted to the tripod with the tripod mounted at the lens collar not the camera body, the collar nicely balances it out so less stress on the camera lens mount. The 1.4 extender gives you the extra reach but you sacrifice the f2.8 to an f4 so loose some light, but I can still get some nice background blur with f4 and often find I need to step further down to get a complete bird in focus with depth of field being somewhat limited at f4. I’ve also used this set up of the 70 to 200 with extender for a photo shoot for a works soccer match with the office vs the factor match held annually, and from the side lines got great results and some close ups.

The down side is certainly the weight and I may be needing to replace a camera strap soon as it’s starting to show signs of wear where the strap joins the camera even though I usually hold the camera while walking there is still signs of wear there now and I don’t like the idea of camera and lens taking a tumble. The only other issue is the size of the len extender and lens hood they make for a decent length and if I need to change out the lens I have to take off the lens hood and then it’s a stretch to fit in the Lowepro slingshot bag I use. These are minor things but still something to consider, but I find the shots I get with this lens and extender are still making me very happy, At times I’d love a little longer reach and I’m waiting to see what the new Canon 100 to 400mm will be when it turns up, also its price, there are a few alternatives to longer lenses like the Sigma and Tamron 150 to 500mm which I’ll be having a look at before I decide which way to go when the time comes for a longer lens. But for now the 70 to 200 with 1.4 extender is doing a great job and I’m happy with the results, and it’s easy to see why It’s the lens in my bag that’s not in the bag so often.   

Thanks for dropping by, and I’ll be back on the weekend with more on how I came by a shot I took then, The paper daisies are in full flower now at the gardens this weekend by the sounds of it so could be the place to be.  

Glenn.