T E C H N I Q U E

L E N S E S

Extra long
Choosing and using a super-telephoto lens
The most exotic (and most expensive) lenses available for your EOS are super-telephotos powerful optics with focal lengths ranging from 300mm to an incredible 1200mm. Such lenses give you the power to fill the frame with distant subjects for dramatic images. This power, though, needs to be treated with respect and you need to learn special techniques to get the best from a super-telephoto.
Info
For a listing of the full range of Canon EF super-telephoto lenses (and, indeed, the full range of EOS products) turn to Everything EOS, EOS magazines unique guide to the complete EOS system, starting on page 72.

Realising the power

If youve never used a super-telephoto lens before, you probably dont realise just what they can do. The two pictures on the right will give you an idea. At first sight, they appear to be quite different but they were, in fact, both taken from exactly the same spot, one after the other. So whats the difference? Well, the top photograph was taken with a 50mm so-called standard lens which is considered to take in a similar view to the human eye (in fact, what we see is closer to a 38mm lens on a 35mm camera). The lower picture, on the other hand, was shot with an EF 500mm f4.5 USM super-telephoto lens. Look closely at the top image and you will see the fishing boat right in the centre of the frame, way in the distance. And if you think thats impressive, an EF 1200mm f5.6L USM would have just about filled the frame with the boats wheelhouse! These photographs also illustrate the narrow angle-of-view of a super-telephoto lens in other words, the amount of a scene they take in. A 50mm lens has an angle-of-view of 46, whereas the 500mm lens used for the lower shot has an angle-of-view of just 5. There is a danger that a super-telephoto lens can be used instead of moving closer to the subject. In wildlife photography, for example, it is better to spend time creeping close to the subject than relying heavily on long lenses. However, there are situations, such as the one shown here, where it is not easy to move closer, and a long lens is the answer.

Do you need a supertelephoto lens?

Super-telephoto lenses dont come cheap prices vary from 1200 for the relatively modest EF 300mm f4L USM to around 60,000 (no, really!) for the made-to-order EF 1200mm f5.6L USM so think carefully before buying one. Do you really need a long telephoto lens? What are you going to be using it for? How often will you have a need for it? If you only have an occasional requirement for a long lens, you may be better off hiring one. All Canon Professional Centres offer a hire service, along with some EOS Specialist Centres. On the other hand, if you decide a super-telephoto lens would be a worthwhile addition to your photographic armoury, dont rush out and buy the longest one you can afford it may actually be too long for your requirements! Thats right, a 600mm lens, for instance, may get you too close to the subject in situations where you cant move back far enough. You may, therefore, be better off with a shorter lens. And, the longer the focal length, the heavier and more expensive the lens will be, and the more problems you will have with camera shake and narrow depth-offield. For many photographers, a 300mm lens is an ideal first super-telephoto optic. It is long enough for a range of distant subjects, but not too big and clumsy to carry around, and does not limit depthof-field by a restrictive amount. And, most importantly to many people, perhaps, its not too expensive.

A question of aperture
If you scan through the list of super-telephoto lenses in Everything EOS (starting on page 72), youll notice that there are two 300mm lenses and two 400mm lenses. Youll also notice a big price difference between them. The essential difference between these lenses (apart from the price) is the maximum aperture the widest aperture that can be set. One lens has a wider maximum aperture than the other. Lets have a look at the advantages and disadvantages of the two options:

PHILIP RABY

Info

APS bonus
All the photographs shown in this feature were shot with 35mm EOS cameras. If, however, you own an EOS IX (below) or EOS IX7 Advanced Photo System (APS) camera, youll find that a super-telephoto lens is even more effective. Of course, the focal length will not change a 600mm lens is a 600mm lens whatever film size you are using but it will appear more powerful with the smaller APS film format. This means that you may get away with a shorter focal length lens than if you were using 35mm film. For instance, a 400mm lens on an APS camera will have about the same effect as a 600mm on a 35mm EOS. Very handy!

Extend yourself
There is a simple, low-cost way of increasing the power of a Canon EF super-telephoto lens. A Canon Extender fits between the lens and camera body and extends the lens focal length. Two Extenders are available: Extender EF 1.4x (449.99) increases the focal length by 1.4 times, so a 300mm lens effectively becomes a 420mm lens. Extender EF 2x (349.99) doubles the focal length. For example, when used with the EF 600mm f4L USM lens, it gives an incredible focal length of 1200mm for a fraction of the price of the EF 1200mm f5.6L. And, if you had the latter lens, Extender EF 2x would increase its focal length to 2400mm! Canon Extenders retain the lens superb image quality, but reduce the maximum aperture so, ideally, you should use one with a super-telephoto lens that has a wide maximum aperture, such as the EF 400mm f2.8L USM. Do not confuse the superb Canon Extenders which are optically matched to EF super-telephoto lenses with cheap teleconverters from independent manufacturers. These will compromise image quality and are not an ideal match for Canons high quality lenses.

Wide maximum aperture

EF 300mm f2.8L USM and EF 400mm f2.8L USM II

Tip
If youre taking photographs of both near and far away subjects at the same time at a football match, for instance, when the action may be right in front of your face one moment, and way down the other end of the pitch the next youll waste valuable time changing from a super-telephoto to a less powerful lens. Its far better in such situations to carry two camera bodies, one with a long lens on and a second with a shorter one. This way you can switch between the two lenses very quickly. Thats how professional sports photographers work.

Canon Lens EF 300 I.4 IS

Lets more light to the film, enabling higher shutter speeds in low light. Working at a very wide aperture with a long lens reduces depth-of field to a minimum to make the subject stand out. Even when an Extender (see next page) is attached, the maximum aperture is still relatively wide. $ The front of the lens has to be very large to let the extra light in, making the lens big and heavy. $ A wide maximum aperture comes at a price the EF 400mm f2.8L USM II is five times the price of the EF 400mm f5.6L USM! $ The massive front element means that conventional filters cannot be used (see page 41).

Smaller maximum aperture

EF 300mm f4L USM and EF 400mm f5.6L USM

Canon Lens EF 400 2.8

The lenses are much smaller and lighter the EF 400mm f5.6L USM, for example, is almost one-fifth the weight of the EF 400mm f2.8L USM II. A smaller maximum aperture makes the lens less costly to manufacture compare the EF 300mm f4L USM at 1199.99 with the EF 300mm f2.8L USM which costs 4499.99. A smaller aperture means greater depth-of-field although, of course, you dont have to use the fast lenses at maximum aperture. Conventional filters can be fitted to the front of the lens. $ In low light, youll end up with long shutter speeds which can cause problems with fast-moving subjects. $ The maximum aperture becomes very small indeed when an Extender is used.

You may come across so-called mirror or catadioptric supertelephoto lenses. As the name suggests, these contain mirrors to fold the light so that they can be made shorter than conventional long focal length lenses. The reason that Canon does not make such EF lenses, though, is that image quality is compromised slightly. You can often recognise photographs taken with mirror lenses because points of light appear as distinctive rings (below).

Flexible alternative
If youre considering a 300mm super-telephoto lens, theres an zoom lens which is worth looking at as an alternative. The EF 35-350mm f3.5-5.6L USM (right), which costs 1999.99, is an incredibly flexible lens which, as well as having a longer focal length than a prime 300mm, also gives you a range of shorter focal lengths, right down to 35mm. To good to be true? Not at all we know of professional photographers for whom this is their only lens. The disadvantage, though, is that this is a big, heavy lens although, you could argue that its lighter than a collection of prime lenses to cover the same focal length range!

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TREVOR PAYNE

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T E C H N I Q U E

L E N S E S

Focusing and depth-of-field

DAVIID CANTRILLE

Getting it into perspective

Perspective is the effect which makes distant objects appear farther away than nearby ones. You may hear people say that telephoto lenses squash perspective, making distant and close objects appear to be on top of each other. This is not actually true. Perspective depends on viewpoint, not focal length, but because most telephoto pictures are of distant scenes, subjects at different distances from the camera appear to be the same size and in the same plane, giving the characteristic compressed perspective effect. In fact, if you enlarged just the centre of an image taken with a wide-angle lens from the same point of view, you would see the same perspective. However, the effect is very useful. Take a look at this photograph (right). The re-enacted battle took place on a field and the participants are spread out over a wide distance. By using an EF 500mm f4.5L USM lens, however, the photographer has made them appear to be almost on top of each other, creating an immensely busy and exciting photograph.

Its a fact of life that depth-of-field reduces as focal length increases. This means that when you get into the realms of super-telephoto lenses, depth-of-field becomes very narrow indeed, even at small apertures. However, this phenomenon can be used to very good effect. By focusing on a subject you can make it stand out strongly against an out-of-focus background. In fact, youd be hardpressed not to end up with a blurred background! This lack of depth-of-field means that you must take great care to focus on the most important part of the subject to ensure that this part of the picture is sharp.
DAVID CANTRILLE

Jargon buster
Depth-of-field: The extent of an image that appears to be sharp in a photograph. As well as focal length, depth-of-field is determined by aperture (the smaller the aperture the greater the depth-offield) and camera-tosubject distance (depth-of-field reduces as you get closer to a subject).

Above: This picture shows just how effective the limited depth-of-field created by a super-telephoto lens in this case a 300mm lens plus 1.4x Extender giving 420mm can be. The kingfisher stands out strikingly against a completely blurred background. Right: If you are photographing two subjects at different distances from the camera, it can be difficult or even impossible to ensure that they are both sharp. These puffins were photographed with an EF 500mm f4.5L USM lens. Look carefully at the left-hand bird and you will see that it appears slightly unsharp. This is because the photographer focused on the right-hand puffin and there was not enough depth-of-field to ensure the one on the left appeared sharp it just shows how little there is to play with when using these long lenses. What saves the picture, though, is the fact that one of the birds really is pin-sharp

Making focusing easier

Because it is so important to focus carefully with super-telephoto lenses, the EF 300mm f2.8L USM, EF 400mm f2.8L USM, EF 500mm f4.5L USM, EF 600mm f4L USM and the EF 1200mm f5.6L USM lenses all have the following additional focusing features:

Focus range limiter Tip

Canon super-telephoto lenses do not have a very short minimum focusing distance. The EF 600mm f4L USM, for instance, will not focus on subjects which are closer than 6 metres from the camera. This, of course, is not normally a problem because these lenses are normally used to capture distant subjects. You can, however, reduce the minimum focusing distance by using a Canon Extension Tube. These are designed for macro photography, but are also ideal for getting in close with long lenses. Even with the speed and efficiency of specially matched ultrasonic motors (USM), these lenses can take some time to run from closest focus to infinity. Were only talking a matter of seconds, but it could be long enough to miss some vital action, especially if the lens hunts to find correct focus. To avoid this problem the Focus Range Limiter allows you to set a distance range that the lens will focus within in many situations youll know roughly how far away the subject will be. There is a choice of three settings: the complete range from closest focus to infinity in other words, unlimited; mid-range distances; and far distances to infinity.

Three-speed Manual Focus

As good as the EOS focusing system is, there will occasionally be times when you will want to focus manually. As with most EF lenses, these supertelephotos have a manual focus setting. Whats different, though, is that when you turn the manual focusing ring you are not physically moving the lens elements you are simply controlling the USM which drives the lens, which gives much finer control than if you were trying to move the heavy elements yourself. Youve even got a choice of three focusing speeds. Set the Manual Focus Speed switch to its midpoint 2 for normal use, 1 for half-speed critical focusing, and 3 for super-quick double speed focus control.
MAX EAREY

Focus Preset
Imagine youre in a situation where youre spending most of your time focused on one point on a corner at a motor race (right), for instance, and then, suddenly, you see something happen elsewhere and you swing your EOS around to take a shot. The lens will refocus and then, when you return to your usual point, you will lose valuable time as it refocuses. The solution is to use Focus Preset. This allows you to use either manual or autofocus to focus on a point, and then store that setting in memory. The setting can be recalled at any time by twisting the Focus Preset ring on the lens barrel.

34 EOS magazine December 1998

Tip
Canon produces a 300mm lens with a built-in Image Stabilizer. The EF 300mm 4L IS USM (below) costs 1499.99 (just 300 more than the non-IS version). It compensates for the effect of camera shake and allows you to take hand-held photographs with confidence even at shutter speeds as long as 1/60 second. Its well worth paying extra for this facility the lens is identical to the conventional version in all other respects.

Filters
The fast maximum apertures of the EF 300mm f2.8L USM, EF 400mm f2.8L USM, EF 500mm f4.5L USM, EF 600mm f4L USM and EF 1200mm f5.6L USM lenses demand very large front lens elements. The 400mm lens, for example, has a diameter of 167mm, while the massive 1200mm lens is 228mm across wider than this magazine page! You cant buy filters to span such sizes. Instead these lenses have filter holders which slide into a slot at the rear of the lens rather like a drawer. This filter holder will accept thin gelatin filters cut to size. Gelatin filters usually come as square sheets (2x2 inches is common), which are cut to the size required by the photographer. The filter sheets come in a vast range of strengths and colours, suitable for anything from a minor colour correction to a strong colour effect. However, graduate and special effect filters are not available. Canon produces a limited range of 48mm glass filters, including a polariser, which will fit into the slot. These are listed in Everything EOS starting on page 72. Having filters located at the back of the lens also means that they cannot cause flare a common problem with front-mounted filters. Slight marks on the gelatin are also less likely to cause problems with a rear-mounted filter. NOTE: The lens comes with a clear piece of glass in the filter holder. This must be in place when no other filter is used, otherwise the optical qualities of the lens will be affected.

Super-telephoto lenses magnify the image. They also magnify any movement of the camera. Look through an EOS with a very long focal length lens attached while youre hand-holding the camera and youll find it very hard to stop the image shaking about. Any movement of the camera during the exposure will lead to an unsharp photograph. Add to this the fact that super-telephoto lenses are large and heavy and youll see why some form of camera support is absolutely essential. Ideally, you should use a sturdy tripod, but a monopod or beanbag is better than nothing. If you attach the tripod to the socket on the base of the camera in the normal way, the weight of the lens would make the setup very unstable. Instead, you should use the tripod mount on the lens. This rotates around the lens barrel so that you can switch from horizontal to vertical format very quickly. If you must hand-hold the camera, use Shutter Priority mode and set a shutter speed which is at least 1/focal length. In other words, if you are using a 600mm lens, for instance, your shutter speed should be 1/600 second or faster.

Above: Some super-telephoto lenses have a rear-mounted filter holder which accepts special Canon 48mm filters, or gelatin filters cut to size.

Above: Canon super-telephoto lenses have their own tripod mount so that the camera and lens are perfectly balanced on a tripod. The camera can be rotated in the mount to enable you to switch from horizontal to vertical format.

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