Small But Deadly: the Oft-Overlooked 70-200mm Lenses

Your Favorite?

Which of today’s featured images, all made with a 70-200mm lens, is your favorite? Please leave a comment letting us know why you made your choice.

At first glance, it is difficult to believe that all of the images below were made with the same zoom lens, a 70-200mm. I’ve used them with Canon, with Nikon, and with SONY, and loved them all for their versatility. See the two SONY 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS lenses for sale below.

Wanted to Buy

If you have a Canon EOS 7D Mark II that you would like to sell, please get in touch via e-mail.

What’s Up?

I set out another Road Kill Cafe buffet for the second straight morning. And waited more than two hours. One Turkey Vulture flew over the dead rabbit and fish carcass offerings, but nobody landed for breakfast.

It is late on the afternoon of Sunday 17 October 2021. Wherever you are, and whatever you are doing, I hope that you too had a great day. This blog post took more than three hours to prepare.

I am headed to Sebastian Inlet on Monday morning to try for diving Ospreys and then driving over to St. Pete for the 3rd DeSoto IPT. Anyone interested in a last minute, late-registration discount for this IPT, can shoot me a text at 863-221-2372.

Remember that you can find some great photo accessories (and necessities, like surf booties!) on Amazon by clicking on the Stuff tab on the orange/yellow menu bar above. On a related note, it would be extremely helpful if blog-folks who, like me, spend too much money on Amazon, would get in the habit of clicking on the Amazon logo link on the right side of each blog post when they shop online. As you might expect, doing so will not cost you a single penny, but would be appreciated tremendously by yours truly. And doing so works seamlessly with your Amazon Prime account.

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Important Note

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Selling Your Used Photo Gear Through BIRDS AS ART

Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charged a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. They went out of business. And e-Bay fees are now up to 13%. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please scroll down here or shoot us an e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly — I offer pricing advice to those who agree to the terms — usually sells in no time flat. Over the past year, we have sold many dozens of items. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 100-400, the old 500mm, the EOS-7D and 7D Mark II and the original 400mm DO lens have been dropping steadily. Most recently the price of used Canon 600mm f/L IS II lenses have been dropping like a rock with the introduction of the 600 III. You can always see the current listings by clicking here or on the Used Photo Gear tab on the orange-yellow menu bar near the top of each blog post page.

As used gear sales have slowed a bit in recent months — especially with dSLR bodies, there are lots of great buys right now both below and on the Used Gear Page.

FE Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens

Multiple IPT and In-the-Field Session veteran William Schneider is offering an FE Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS lens in like-new condition for a ridiculously low $1498.00. The sale includes the original box, the hood, the lens case, the front lens cover, the rear lens cap, and insured shipping via Fed Ex Ground. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Bill via e-mail e-mail or by phone at 1-(262) 269-8628 (Eastern time zone).

The 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses have long been the very versatile favorites for nature photographers. They are great for landscapes especially with fall color peaking in many areas. I have used this lens with Canon and Nikon and SONY. I used my Canon version to photograph granddaughter Maya’s dance recitals and to create bird-scapes and pre-dawn blast-off blurs at Bosque del Apache NWR in New Mexico. They are fast and sharp and have 1000 uses. The 70-200 f/2.8 lenses are a specialty lens for bird photographers. Like the bad little child, when they are good, they are really, really good! I’ve used mine mostly for flight photography at point blank range where their performance is unmatched, especially in low light. I’ve killed with these lenses on the gannet boat in the UK, in Homer for eagles, pre-dawn and blizzard blast-offs at Bosque, and at Merritt Island on huge feeding sprees right next to the road.

This super-fast lens weighs only 3.26 pounds and is easily hand holdable by just about everyone. As it sells new right now for $2,598.00, you can save a cool $1100 by grabbing Bill’s effectively new lens asap. artie

FE Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens

Arthur Morris — hey, that’s me!, is offering an FE Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS lens in near-mint condition for a very low $1448.00. But for two tiny blemishes on the lens hood finish, this would be like-new. The sale includes the original box, the hood, the lens case, the front lens cover, the rear lens cap, and insured shipping via Fed Ex Ground. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact artie via e-mail e-mail or by phone at 1-(262) 269-8628 (Eastern time zone).

The 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses have long been the very versatile favorites for nature photographers. They are great for landscapes especially with fall color peaking in many areas. I have used this lens with Canon and Nikon and SONY. I used my Canon version to photograph granddaughter Maya’s dance recitals and to create bird-scapes and pre-dawn blast-off blurs at Bosque del Apache NWR in New Mexico. They are fast and sharp and have 1000 uses. The 70-200 f/2.8 lenses are a specialty lens for bird photographers. Like the bad little child, when they are good, they are really, really good! I’ve used mine mostly for flight photography at point blank range where their performance is unmatched, especially in low light. I’ve killed with these lenses on the gannet boat in the UK, in Homer for eagles, pre-dawn and blizzard blast-offs at Bosque, and at Merritt Island on huge feeding sprees right next to the road.

This super-fast lens weighs only 3.26 pounds and is easily hand holdable by just about everyone. As it sells new right now for $2,598.00, you can save a cool by grabbing $1150 by grabbing artie’s lens now. artie

I created this image on 18 March 2021 on the Merritt Island IPT. I used the hand held Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS lens at 200mm and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ISO 400. Exposure determined via Zebras with ISO on the rear dial: 1/2500 sec. at f/2.8 (wide open) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that this exposure almost 1 1/3 stop stops under-exposed! AWB at 8:55am on clear sunny morning. Tracking: Zone/AF-C Bird/Eye Detection AF was active at the moment exposure and performed perfectly. Click on the image to view a hi-res version. Image #1: Snow Egret dip-feeding

Deadly at Point Blank Range

With a huge feeding spree in a tiny pool right next to the road, the 70-200 f/2.8 was the obvious lens choice. It was in the rolling bag in the rear hatch of my SUV. Note the back of the alligator in the top left of the frame.

Why the Big Under-exposure?

Several large palm trees put portions of the pool in the shade. I needed to guard against over-exposing the birds as they flew through the sunlit areas. So when a bird was shaded, a large under-exposure was the result.

This image was created at Kachemak Bay, AK on 25 FEB 2020. I used the hand held Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS lens (at 200mm) with the blazingly fast AF King, the Sony Alpha a9 II Mirrorless Digital camera body) that features incredibly accurate AF. ISO 500. Exposure determined via Zebras on the rear wheel: 1/3200 sec. at f/3.2. AWB at 9:20am on a cloudy-bright day. Wide Continuous (C) AF performed beautifully. Click on the image to see a larger version. Uncropped. Image #2: Bald Eagle braking to land

Reflected Light

The SONY 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, the one for sale above, was deadly on the eagle boat in Kachemak Bay. Getting to Homer early pretty much guarantees that you will have snow on the ground. The white stuff serves as a giant reflector and lights the eagles’ dark underwings superbly. In this great situation, I talked to the group about trying to include a small strip of the yellow grasses at the bottom of the frame as the birds landed. And then I did the deed!

This image was also created on July 9 near Bass Rock, Scotland on the 2019 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT with the handheld Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/4G ED VR lens (at 145mm) and the Nikon D850 DSLR. ISO: 800. Matrix Metering plus about 1 2/3 stops of the grey sky: 1/2500 sec. at f/4.5 in Manual mode. AWB at 11:31am on a drizzly day. Center Group (grp) Continuous (C in Nikon and SONY, AI Servo in Canon) AF was active at the moment of exposure. AF Fine-tune value: +4 at 200mm. Image #3: Northern Gannet juvenile ready to dive Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

Deadly on the Gannet Boat

With the birds diving right next to the boat, the Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 VR lens with the D850 was deadly on the gannet boat in Scotland in 2018.

This image was created on July 9 near Bass Rock, Scotland on the 2019 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT. I used the handheld Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/4G ED VR lens (at 135mm) and the Nikon D850 DSLR. ISO: 800. Matrix Metering plus two stops off the sky was about minus one stop as framed: 1/2000 sec. at f/4.5 in Manual mode. AWB at 10:52am on a drizzly day. Center d-9 Continuous (C in Nikon and SONY, AI Servo in Canon) AF was active at the moment of exposure. AF Fine-tune value: +4 at 200mm. Image #4: Gannets, klittiwakes, guillemots, murres, and the old prison on Bass Rock. Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

The Prison on Bass Rock

In the next breath, the Nikon 70-200mm became the perfect bird-scape lens. Stories of the old prison on Bass Rock describe horrific conditions. I framed as wide as possible to show the structure while avoiding the gannet-filled shelf just above the prison wall. I placed the two windows in the lower right; they might represent eyes, a window to the past if you would, through which we might imagine the horrors that took place there centuries ago.

Image #5: Snow Geese, early morning fly-in, Bosque del Apache NWR, NM, with the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM lens hand held at 70mm.

Bosque 🙁

I loved the 70-200 lenses for Bosque for blast-offs. Unfortunately, there have been very few if any birds for the past few years. Check out the YouTube video here to get an idea of what’s gone on since stellar refuge manager Phil Norton left. Like Ding Darling NWR before it, another crown jewel has gone down the drain …

Image #6: Laysan Albatross, Midway, with the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens and the Canon 1.4x EF Extender III (Teleconverter) hand held at 280mm.

With the 1.4X TC

Adding a system-matching 1.4X teleconverter increased the versatility of 70-200mm zoom lenses transforming them into 98-280mm zooms.

Image #7, created at Torres del Paine National Park, Chile with the hand held Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens, the Canon 1.4x EF Extender III (Teleconverter) (at 155mm), and the Canon EOS 5D Mark III Digital camera body ISO 400. Evaluative metering at zero: 1/640 sec. at f/8 in Manual mode.

Scenic Image Versatility

Wherever on the planet I am photographing, I find the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens to be a perfect adjunct to whatever big lens I am using. Here, with the 1.4X TC, it shows its prowess as a landscape lens.

Image #8: Western Gull landing, LaJolla, CA with the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens and the Canon 2x EF Extender III (Teleconverter) hand held at 400mm.

With the 2X TC

A 2X TC that matches your camera and lens will give you a lightweight hand holdable 140-400mm zoom lens, great for all types of bird photography.

This image was created at the Hanken School of Dance Recital in Frostproof, FL on June 13 a while back with the hand held Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens (at 125mm) and the Canon EOS 5D Mark III. ISO 800. Evaluative metering -1/3 stop: 1/640 sec. at f/2.8 in Av Mode. Three AF points up from the center AF point/One Shot/Rear Focus Spot AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). The active AF point was on Maya’s right shoulder. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version. Image #9: Maya Dancing in white

The Hanken School of Dance Recital

My granddaughter Maya Egenstener, daughter of Jennifer and Erik, took dance lessons for about seven years. I would always bring a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens to the indoor performances. Maya is now living in Bushwick, NY near PS 106, the school that I taught in for more than two decades. She is making a living as a baker.

Typos

With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors