- To access Canon Telephoto Lens Comparison Tool
- To download original RAW images
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Hello Everyone,
I am very excited today as its like dream come true.
I got almost all telephoto lenses of Canon which are used in photographing wildlife and birdlife.
So today we are going to do one challenging task which no one has done it before.
If you thinking that it’s a lens review then I would say it’s not…
and rather it’s a side by side comparison between different lenses + extender combination with the same or similar subject.
When I say usable means these combinations can be used in real life with good quality photo output and not just a test where you stack multiple extenders and then you can’t really use resulting image because it’s of very low quality.
NO ONE has done such side by side comparison with all lenses together until now,
Its first time ever we are trying to take this mammoth task of comparing 8 lenses with 20 odd combinations of lenses and extenders.
Yes that’s right, 20 combinations and we will also try to take shots on both Full frame and Crop sensor bodies, so it becomes now 40 combinations to work with.
You may be thinking why I am doing this?
Well, when I wanted to upgrade to one of this white beast,
I could not find any place where I can get readily available images, shot by using all these different lenses and extender combinations, with the same or similar subject, so that I can do the side by side comparison and decide which lens to buy.
That’s the reason I thought of doing this task myself and picked this challenging task.
We are going to photograph a bird using different lens + extender combinations simultaneously and at the end, we will be able to do the side by side comparison of these images.
In fact, I’ll share all RAW images so that you can do any comparison of your choice in case I missed any.
Who is in the team?
I tried to get people who are at various skill level, so we have 2 professional photographers, 2 armature photographers, one guy from Nikon, sorry, I mean he is also armature photographer.
Anyway, Idea is to get various different people in the team so that you should not say that it’s because of professional photographer we got these images good, instead, it’s a technique that I teach which makes it easy to capture the good photographs regardless of where you are in photography.
Let me introduce my team.
I am very thankful for my team Marg, David, Damien, Mangesh, for doing a great job in getting this massive task possible, Martin and Tayler from Leigh Valley Hawk and Owl Sanctuary who made it possible to have similar birds and lastly big thanks to Canon for arranging all these lenses, extenders, camera bodies in one go.
Let’s see who is photographing:
- My-self Vinay Mote, I am a professional photographer, a teacher and photography tour guide and leads Wildlife and Nature Photography tours internationally.
- Damian Le Dan, Advanced Photography enthusiast.
- David Burren is a professional master photographer, a teacher, a judge and photography tour guide and leads Photography tours internationally from his company Luminoddisy.
- Marg Morris, Advanced Photography enthusiast.
- Mangesh Patil, Advanced Photography enthusiast.
Now let me explain the setup and how we going to capture the images…
We have a simple setup where a bird is sitting on a perch and in the background, we have trees at close distance and trees at the far distance, which will help us in determining the effect of bokeh, and all 5 cameras are on another side. Camera to Bird distance is around 30 to 40 meters roughly.
To make it fare, we will try to keep similar settings on all lenses.
The maximum telephoto lens we got is 800mm f/5.6 and we are going to attach max 1.4x converter to keep it autofocusing lens which will become 1120mm max on full frame body, and 1792m for crop sensor body.
Hence we will try to keep shutter speed of 1/1120 or more on full frame camera bodies
While keeping it at 1/1800 or more on a crop sensor.
However, with image stabilizer ON, we can get good sharp images at a lower speed as well and it totally depends on individuals skills.
To test bokeh effect we will be trying different aperture up to f/11 or f/14
Hence we will use manual mode and to achieve such high speed with small aperture we need to bump up ISO and we will keep it to 800 as 5D III and 7D II gives good image quality up to this ISO in clear daylight.
Now another challenge is there is no tool in the market to compare 5 images side by side hence we have customized webpage to compare 5 images with 100% zoom ability on every image.
To Access Canon Telephoto Lens Test Tool
These are full-size images hence it will take longer to download and give you zoom ability depending on your internet speed so please be patient.
You need to be registered user and you will get an ability to compare any combination which is not covered in this video. You can also download all RAW images for FREE, once you register. You don’t need to register just to view this video though.
This page is accessible by visiting www.VinayMote.com and then from the menu click “Learn-> Canon Telephoto Lens Test”
This is how it looks like and its simple as it looks, you just need to select Camera, Lens, extender and aperture values. One or more photos will be displayed in the same column if we got shot for that combination. If you get “Sorry No Image” then either your selected combination is not valid(refer table for all valid combinations) or we might have missed to take the photo for that combination, remember there were lots of combinations we tried to cover in short amount of time.
400mm range with f/5.6 aperture
Let’s start with the first range of 400mm, in this range we have total 5 options to choose a lens.
| Lens List | |
| 1 | 100-400 f4.5-5.6 IS II |
| 2 | 200-400 f4 IS |
| 3 | 300 f2.8 IS II + 1.4x MK III |
| 4 | 400 f2.8 IS II |
| 5 | 400 f4 DO |
We will attach these 5 lenses to full frame body first and then to a crop sensor body which will enable us to compare resulting images side by side.
We will also to get different shots at different aperture and will try to get one bird in flight shot at f/8
Ok, let’s go to the tool to compare 5 images side by side
Let’s start selecting 400mm range on full frame body. All lens at f/5.6
| 400mm range | |
| Full Frame Body | |
| 1 | 5D with 100-400 f5.6 at 400mm |
| 2 | 5D with 200-400 f5.6 at 400mm |
| 3 | 5D with 300 f2.8+1.4x at f5.6 at 420mm |
| 4 | 5D with 400 f5.6 at 400mm |
| 5 | 5D with 400 f5.6 DO at 400mm |
After selection this is how it will look like:
Unfortunately, we missed few images and one of them is this combination of 300 with 1.4x at f/5.6 image. Hence no image available. Sorry about that.
Now, if you hover your mouse over to image it will show you 100% zoom and you can use mouse scroll to zoom in or out further.
Let’s check few images from each combination and let’s zoom in and out to see sharpness and bokeh.
- 100-400 is a good lens but 400 f4 DO beat it by little more sharpness because it’s little stopped down as well.
- If I compare 400 DO with 200-400 then 400 DO is little less sharp than 200-400 but with bokeh effect, 400 DO is better.
- Lastly, 400 f2.8 gives us both best bokeh and sharpness and which is giving us sharp images at f/2.8 and f4 aperture as well.
Sharpness
| 5D III Full Frame – 400mm F5.6 | |||
| -> -> Good -> -> -> -> -> -> | -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> Best -> | ||
| 100-400 | 400 DO | 200-400 | 400 f2.8 |
Bokeh
| -> -> Good -> -> -> -> -> -> | -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> Best -> | ||
| 100-400 | 200-400 | 400 DO | 400 f2.8 |
So clearly 400 f2.8 is best in sharpness and bokeh.
400mm range with f/8 aperture
Now let’s try f8 combination with a bird in flight. You will find more images in this as capturing a bird in flight at the same time by all 5 persons was difficult hence tried to give many combinations to check similar images.
Conclusion:
After careful inspection of all images, I can say that sharpness for all lenses has improved after stopping down and the biggest benefit is for 100-400 as it was wide open at 5.6 before and now it's better as it's stopped down by 1 stop.
400mm range with f/14 aperture
Let’s see what happens if we push the limit of closing down the aperture to f11 or f14.
Once you see images zoomed into 100% then you will find that image quality has degraded for all lenses.
So I believe we can push the aperture to f/8 to f/9 and beyond this, you will face image quality issues.
For 400mm range with crop sensor body, I found similar observations apart from getting more closer to the subject due to increased focal length(1.6 times), so feel free to check out yourself how it looks by using this tool. Focal length table as below for this range
| 400mm range (600mm for crop) | |
| CROP Body | |
| 1 | 7D II with 100-400 f5.6 at 640mm |
| 2 | 7D II with 200-400 f4 at 640mm |
| 3 | 7D II with 300 f2.8+1.4x at f4 at 672mm |
| 4 | 7D II with 400 f2.8 at 640mm |
| 5 | 7D II with 400 f4 DO at 640mm |
Now let’s move on to 600mm range.
We can achieve this range (or closer to 600mm) using 6 different lenses as below:
| Lens List | |
| 1 | 100-400 f4.5-5.6 IS II + 1.4x MK III |
| 2 | 200-400 f4 IS + 1.4x inbuilt |
| 3 | 300 f2.8 IS II + 2x MK III |
| 4 | 400 f2.8 IS II + 1.4x MK III |
| 5 | 400 f4 DO + 1.4x MK III |
| 6 | 500 f4 IS II |
| 7 | 600 f4 IS II |
Below table shows focal lengths on full frame bodies
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600 range with f8 aperture
With 1.4x attached 100-400mm lens becomes f/8 so we will try to select all lenses with f/8 aperture, however images for f/4 and above available for other lenses and feel free to check those in the tool.
New 10-400 lens performs way better than I thought with 1.4x and it's competing with 200-400mm which is little better.
300 f2.8 +2x and 400 f4 DO+1.4x performs similar and 400 f2.8 is still outperformed all.
Let’s check base aperture for all these lenses
- 200-400 f4 with 1.4x becomes f/5.6 lens so we stopped down by 1 stop to make it f/8
- 300 f2.8 +2x becomes f/5.6 lens so we stopped down by 1 stop to make it f/8
- 400 f4 DO+1.4x becomes f/5.6 lens so we stopped down by 1 stop to make it f/8
- 400 f2.8 +1.4x becomes f/4 lens so we stopped down by 2 stop to make it f/8
Clearly, 400 f2.8 is performing better because its stopped down by 2 stops instead of 1 as compared with other and it’s still within its sweet spot range.
As I can compare 5 lenses only, let’s add 500mm and 600 mm instead of 100-400mm and 300mm and compare.
I think 400 f2.8 is still giving the same performance as of 500mm and 600mm at f8.
600mm range with aperture f/5.6
Let’s stop down to f/5.6 and now I can see that all 400 f2.8 is losing sharpness by 3 to 5% compared with 500mm and 600mm(check legs of birds as those are bit softer) and its could be due to the fact that it has 1.4x attached to it. However, you won’t find a noticeable difference in the real world with this combination. Check out this photo I took with 400 f2.8 IS I with 1.4 x attached to it.
600mm range with f/11 aperture
Now let’s push aperture to f/11 and see how these lenses perform.
300mm f/2.8 with 2x becomes f/5.6 lens and with f/11 it has improved performance as it’s stopped down by almost 2 stops but still, it’s the softest lens compared with others. Every other lens performs almost same with 600 and 400 f/2.8 giving good bokeh effect.
400 f4 DO and 200-400 sharpness is same but it lacks good bokeh effect at this settings.
Even 100-400 gives acceptable images with sharpness but it also lacks good bokeh effect at this settings.
600mm range with f/14 aperture
We tried f/14 setting on 400 f/2.8 for fun and surprisingly it gives a great result with sharpness and bokeh.
For 600mm range with crop sensor body, I found similar observations apart from getting more closer to the subject due to increased focal length(1.6 times), so feel free to check out yourself how it looks by using this tool. Focal length table as below for this range
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Now let’s move on to 800mm range.
We can achieve this range (or closer to 800mm) using 5 different lenses as below:
| Lens List | |
| 1 | 400 f2.8 IS II + 2x MK III |
| 2 | 400 f4 DO + 2x MK III |
| 3 | 500 f4 IS II + 1.4x MK III |
| 4 | 600 f4 IS II + 1.4x MK III |
| 5 | 800 f5.6 IS |
Below table shows focal lengths on full frame bodies
| 800mm range | |
| Full Frame Body | |
| 1 | 5D with 400 f2.8 +2x at f5.6 at 800mm |
| 2 | 5D with 400 f4 DO +2x at f8 at 800mm |
| 3 | 5D with 500 f4 +1.4x at f8 at 700mm |
| 4 | 5D with 600 f4 +1.4x f5.6 at 840mm |
| 5 | 5D with 800 f5.6 at 800mm |
800mm range with f/5.6 aperture
We have 4 lens combination which can achieve this.
With 2x attached to 400mm this remains the softest lens but bokeh is good so if you are close to object then you should be good with this setting.
500 with 1.4x gives good quality sharp images good bokeh but still softer than 800mm
600mm with 1.4x attached is better than 400mm with 2x in sharpness and also better bokeh than 800mm.
800mm is the sharpest lens even when its wide open at f/5.6, however, 600mm still leads in bokeh effect.
Bokeh of 400mm is not as smooth as 600mm but still looks good so this ranks third with 600mm being at 1st and 800 as 2nd favorite.
800mm range with f/8 aperture
600mm with 1.4x really competes with 800mm and gives the almost same result for sharpness but 600mm gives little better bokeh effect.
400 f/2.8 is slightly softer than 600mm and 800mm but I believe it will not have much of a difference in real life. However, bokeh remains same as 600mm.
400mm and 500 f4 lenses with 2x attached are wide open at f/8 and unfortunately are too soft to get acceptable images at this setting.
800mm range with f/11 aperture
With 1 stop down, 500mm and 400mm are performing way better and giving us acceptable images with good sharpness and bokeh.
All other 3 lenses sharpness and bokeh comparison stays same with
For 800mm range with crop sensor body, I found similar observations apart from getting more closer to the subject due to increased focal length(1.6 times), so feel free to check out yourself how it looks by using this tool. Focal length table as below for this range
| 800mm range(1200mm for crop) | |
| CROP Body | |
| 1 | 7D II with 400 f2.8+2x f5.6 at 1280mm |
| 2 | 7D II with 400 f4 DO +2x f8 at 1280mm |
| 3 | 7D II with 500 f4 +1.4x f5.6 at 1120mm |
| 4 | 7D II with 600 f4 +1.4x at f5.6 at 1344mm |
| 5 | 7D II with 800 f5.6 at 1280mm |
Now let’s move on to 1200mm range.
We can achieve this range (or closer to 1200mm) using 2 different lenses as below:
| Lens List | |
| 1 | 600 f4 IS II + 2x MK III |
| 2 | 800 f5.6 IS + 1.4x MK III |
Below table shows focal lengths on full frame bodies
| 1200mm range | |
| Full Frame Body | |
| 1 | 5D with 600 f4 +2x f8 at 1200mm |
| 2 | 5D with 800 f5.6 +1.4x at f8 at 1120mm |
| 3 | 5D with 500 f4 +2x f8 at 1000mm |
1200mm range at f/8 aperture
600mm performing slightly better in terms of sharpness and bokeh even when both are at its wide open aperture.
Both lenses do not give us sharp images at this combination and let’s see if it improves anything if we stop down by 1 stop.
1200mm range at f/11 aperture
Image quality has improved and we are getting acceptable sharpness after stopping down by 1 stop.
600mm leads with sharpness and bokeh compared with 800mm.
Unfortunately, we ran out of time and unable to get few shots for 1200mm range with crop sensor body, apologies for that. I do have one image with 600mm + 2x at f11 and I found that it’s challenging to keep steady hands and get sharp images with such a long focal length. Anyway, focal length would look like below on crop bodies.
| 1200mm range (1800mm for crop) | |
| CROP Body | |
| 1 | 7D II with 600 f4 +2x f8 at 1920mm |
| 2 | 7D II with 800 f5.6 +1.4 at f8 at 1792mm |
With this tool, you can do some interesting comparisons to find out which lens is better in sharpness and bokeh.
You can also check out how close you can get to the subject by using different lenses
- 400mm vs 800mm range
- 400mm vs 1200mm range
You can also check out how close you can get using crop sensor body vs full frame
- 400mm on 5D MK III vs 7D MK II
- 500mm on 5D MK III vs 7D MK II
- 600mm on 5D MK III vs 7D MK II
- 800mm on 5D MK III vs 7D MK II
In case you want to check out RAW files then I would like to give you some details on naming conventions of the files so that it will help you to find the files you want.
Every files name has details as below and it's self-explanatory.
Lastly below are the known issues:
- Default Lightroom setting used with my camera color profile and no extra adjustment done to images on the website.
- Exposure adjustment is done to the only handful of images to get a correct exposure
- Images used by the tool on the website are high resolution and it could take little longer to load all images and to show you 100% zoom view, as single image size is around 10MB.
- For few shots, 200-400 mm lens with 1.4x is not extended to full and it’s not at 560mm
- Less number of images for 300mm f2.8 lens and few images could be out of focus
- Missing combinations of images for 7D MK II with lenses like 600mm, 800mm