Canon 70-200 F4 IS and non-IS

anda

anda

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Hello everyone,

I wanted to ask people who tryed the lens, how much difference does IS make on the lens, I dont have any IS lenses so want to find out.

If for e.g i am shooting at F4 1/100 I think thats the best I can do while hand held, how much lower could i go with an IS lens. I hope someone understands what I am trying to ask :P
 
Give me five minutes and I'll show you two comparable pics

<a bit more than five minutes later>

Right here you are:

Settings for first shot are 200mm, F4, 1/8sec, ISO100, IS off

IS_off.jpg



Settings for second shot are 200mm, F4, 1/10sec, ISO100, IS on

IS_on.jpg


Both were shot in RAW, exported as jpg. No other PP done at all apart from resizing for web use.
 
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Wow, very nice example, looks really good... so i guess IS makes amazing difference especially if you need to shoot at slower shutter speeds. Now the question how will i raise the funds :P (the fun part) and not get a divorce paper from my wife
 
Just for reference the above shots were taken in a kitchen (d'oh!) under a strip light.

This is one I did a few weeks back, no PP, RAW to jpg, lighting was 2x ceiling 40w bulbs! (I wasn't comfortable using a flash on one so young)

F4, ISO 250, 1/8sec, 200mm, IS on

IMG_9185.jpg
 
The IS works really well or you have very still hands :)
 
anda said:
Wow, very nice example, looks really good... so i guess IS makes amazing difference especially if you need to shoot at slower shutter speeds.
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Thank you and *ding* :)

Now the question how will i raise the funds :P (the fun part) and not get a divorce paper from my wife
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How many pairs of shoes does the wife own? :)

I used to have a great method of upgrading without being too obvious, I just made sure the lens was black :D

It's a bit more difficult now moving on to L glass but when I did the baby shoot for the SO's bestest friend she didn't have a problem with me having good glass. :woot:
 
I'd be tempted to save longer for the 2.8 IS. If I could go without the 70-200 until I had the £900 needed, just save twice as long and get the lovely top end one :D
 
Yeah but F2.8 is even more heavy ofcourse its fast but is it twice better?
 
I've owned the 70-200 f/4, the 70-200 f/2.8 IS and now the 70-200 f/4 IS

All 3 are great lenses. The first lens, I upgraded to get the 2.8 and IS. Then regretted it the whole time I owned the 2.8 IS. The Mk 1 wasn't amazingly sharp wide open and by the time I'd stopped it down a bit to compensate, I kept asking myself why I was carrying around all that extra size and conspicuity! I also found I'd leave it at home when travelling, and actually almost all the time I'd leave it behind - it's a very "obvious" lens, and it does draw attention from everyone when you use it; I didn't like that, but did like the IS on that focal length. So in the end, when the IS version of the f/4 came out, it was an easy choice for me. Stunningly sharp wide-open, it's all I need, as DOF would be very thin at f/2.8 200mm, so f/4 works in many circumstances more appropriately, and with IS and low noise high ISO, combined with the f4 lens's portability it's perfect. I do find myself hankering after the MkII 2.8 occasionally, but remind myself of its size, and conspicuity, before settling again for what I have. :)
 
P.S. If you can afford the f4 IS over the non IS model, it's a worthy investment. Nonetheless, the non-IS 70-200 f/4 L is perhaps the best value L Zoom Canon makes.
 
Looks like the IS is making an incredible difference on your shots dentedshed. Your getting what (at that size) looks like a steadyshot at speeds a lot lower than you would expect - I thought IS would only give you about 2 stops i.e say 1/50 compared to the normally recommended 1/200 at 200mm ?
 
Amazing the difference between the two, there is quite a price difference though :(
 
Rich R said:
Looks like the IS is making an incredible difference on your shots dentedshed. Your getting what (at that size) looks like a steadyshot at speeds a lot lower than you would expect - I thought IS would only give you about 2 stops i.e say 1/50 compared to the normally recommended 1/200 at 200mm ?
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I think the lens is supposed to give up to 4 stops with the IS switched on. I have to be quite honest in that I generally pay little attention to the shutter speed when shooting. If there isn't enough light I just get some more :)
 
Had the same dilemma myself and decided on the IS version, very glad I did too being a shaky old git.

One other point the dearer lens is also weather sealed if that makes any difference to you. (seems Mark also had the same idea at roughly the same time)
 
markmullen said:
The other thing is the IS is weather sealed.
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It also has circular aperture blades and is marginally sharper than the F4 non-IS.

I'm much the same as Simes123 - had an F4 IS and traded up to the Mk1 F2.8 IS for a year, then downgraded back to my original F4 IS lens as I found I just wasn't using the f/2.8, especially at the long end so why was I putting up with the disadvantages?

The Mk2 is a different proposition as it's just as sharp, if not sharper than the F4 IS, even wide open, but you're basically paying £1k over the F4 IS so must really need the extra stop.
 
Reading all your posts I think I will be going with a F4 IS version, the 2.8F mark II is too expensive for me, and i am not sure if it is going to be used that much that wide.

So now time to sell ym 24-70 and couple of servers and invest in some lighting equipment and the lens.

Thanks again for all the time you taken to help me.
 
With practice you can regularly handhold the f4 IS and get sharp results at 200mm and 1/15s.
 
anda said:
Reading all your posts I think I will be going with a F4 IS version, the 2.8F mark II is too expensive for me, and i am not sure if it is going to be used that much that wide.

So now time to sell ym 24-70 and couple of servers and invest in some lighting equipment and the lens.

Thanks again for all the time you taken to help me.
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Don't forget that there is another advantage to a faster lens if if you only ever shoot it stopped down to f4. The auto focus workable with whatever the widest aperture is, the lens isn't stopped down until just before the shutter opens, so fast lenses obtain focus quickly even in lower light.

Just something to think about if this is important to you and the situations you shoot in.
 
I didnt know that the aperture doesnt get steped down until last minute. Thanks for this. But still no funds at the moment for a fancy 2.8 :( maybe sometime in the future.
 
Yeah good point that lensflair :)

All lenses focus at their maximum aperture and only stop down for the actual exposure - this is obv why there's a DoF preview button to force the lens to stop down whilst composing so you can see the eventual DoF through the viewfinder.
 
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