Hard to Believe: Canon EOS-5D Mark IV Large Zone AF Magic at f/8

What’s Up?

I worked on this blog post while in the Emergency room at Lake Wales hospital on Wednesday morning waiting for a CAT scan that will hopefully show no appendix involvement as far as my lower right abdominal pain. Time will tell. Well, it wasn’t the appendix…

Right now it is looking as if I will have my gall bladder surgically removed early on Thursday morning. I am lobbying for Wednesday night but that is not looking too likely. Gall bladder is enlarged and inflamed along with gall stones. With my white blood cell count at 18,000, Dr. Cliff Oliver is advising that I proceed. So I am.

The best case is that the organ does not rupture before the surgery and that assuming laparoscopic surgery, there is decent chance that I will be on the plane to Santiago, Chile next Wednesday. Go figure.

This Just In II

The surgery is now scheduled for 11:45am on Thursday. WBC count down to 15,000.

Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of the folks whom I see in the field, and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear, especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

The Streak: 328!

Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 328 days in a row with a new educational blog post. There should be no end in sight until my big South America trip next week. Or not… As always-–and folks have been doing a really great job recently–-please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the new BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would appreciate your business.

Selling Your Used Gear Through BIRDS AS ART

Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charges a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab on the yellow-orange tab on the right side of the menu bar above.

September Used Gear Sales Continue to be Flaming Hot!

• Joseph Higbee sold a Canon EF 2X III Extender in excellent condition for $349 an hour after it was listed on September 26. Soon thereafter he sold a Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8L IS II USM lens in excellent condition for $1449 and a Canon EOS 7D in excellent condition for $299.
• In less than one day in late September Steve Zarate sold his Canon EOS 7D camera in very good condition for a BAA record low price of $279 and his Canon EOS 7D II in excellent condition for a BAA record low price of $799.
• Within two days of listing Joe Alexander sold his Canon EF 100-400mm L IS USM lens in excellent plus condition for $599in late September when he also sold one of each of these: Canon EF 1.4x III and Canon EF 2x III Extender in excellent plus condition for $249 each within an hour of listing them. When he first contacted me he had them priced, way, way, way too low…
• Yours truly, Arthur Morris, sold one of his two Canon EOS 5DS R bodies in excellent condition but for a very small, very fine sort of x-shaped crack in the upper-right corner of the top LCD screen, for $2549 in late September.
• Doug Rogers sold his Vortex Razor 85mm Ultra High Definition Scope in like-new condition for $795.00 in mid-September.
• Ed Hutchinson sold his Canon EF 100-400mm L IS USM lens, the “old 1-4,” in like-new condition for $649 and his EOS 5D Mark III in like-new condition for $1499 within days of listing them in mid-September.
• Hisham Atallah sold his Canon 600mm f/4L IS II lens in excellent condition for $9499 in mid-September within days of listing it.
• Good friend and BAA Japan IPT co-leader–the oft-honored BBC and Nature’s Best photographer Paul McKenzie–sold his Canon EOS 1DX in excellent condition with an extra Canon battery for $2299 in mid September two days after it was listed.
• Eric Karl sold his Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal Extender in excellent condition for the full asking price, a very low $8,099 in mid-September.
• Gary Meyer sold his Canon EOS 5D Mark III in mint condition for $1599 with an off-brand battery grip in mid-September.

New Listings

Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM Lens

Bob Serling is offering a Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens being offered for sale in near mint condition for $4449. The glass is pristine and the only blemish on the finish is a very small scratch on the lens mounting foot. The sale includes the rear lens cap, the lens trunk, Canon’s adjustable front lens cover, the lens strap, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made. Please contact Bob via e-mail or by phone at (760) 525-5818 in the Pacific time zone.

The 300mm f/2.8L IS II lens is an incredibly sharp telephoto that is easily hand holdable for birds in fllight by most folks for general bird photography–the tamer the better, for and wildlife in low light. The lens is superbly sharp with both the 1.4X and 2X III TCs. The price of this lens is currently depressed. artie

Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM Lens

Shock the world price!

Bob Serling is offering a Canon EF300mm f/2.8L IS lens (the old 300 f/2..8L IS) in excellent plus condition at a ridiculously low, shock-the-world price of $2399. The glass is pristine, the only blemish is a minor discoloration on the focusing ring. The sale includes the rear lens cap, the lens trunk, a Lenscoat front lens cover, the lens strap, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made. Please contact Bob via e-mail or by phone at (760) 525-5818 in the Pacific time zone.

The older version of the Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS is a super-sharp lens that is great for hand held flight and action photography and great with both teleconverters. It has long been the favorite focal length of the world’s best hawk photographers. artie

All three of today’s images were created on the Fort DeSoto Cheap In-the-Field Fall Sunday Morning Workshop with the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 2X III, and the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400. All with AF Large Zone shutter button AF. Image #1: Great Blue Heron with Pinfish

Canon EOS-5D Mark IV Large Zone AF Magic at f/8

The days of struggling to design a pleasing image design with only the center AF point and four assist points are gone. With the EOS-5D Mark IV and the EOS-1D X Mark II both offering all AF points and all AF Area Selection modes, folks like me who use the 2X III teleconverter with their 500 and 600mm f/4L IS II super-telephotos or the 1.4X III TC with their 100-400 II lenses can now enjoy fast, accurate AF with any AF point and any AF Area Selection mode with previously unseen speed and precision at f/8.

I know that this will sound strange, but with my somewhat limited experience with both bodies it seems that the speed and accuracy Large Zone AF with the 5D IV is at least as good as if not better than it is with the vaunted 1DX Mark II.

All with AF Large Zone shutter button AF. Image #2: Great Blue Heron with Pinfish

Large Zone AF Tip

When working with Large Zone AF place the center of the selected zone on the part of the bird that you want to be sharp–almost always the face or eye–and then and only then, recompose for your desired composition. If you start with your desired composition and hope to acquire focus you may be disappointed.

All with AF Large Zone shutter button AF. Image #3: Great Blue Heron just swallowed Pinfish Image #3

Large Zone AF Info

Whether working in either horizontal or vertical format you can choose from one of the three Large Zone zones. With horizontal you can choose the left, center, or right Large Zone zone. With verticals you can choose either top, middle, or bottom Large Zone zone. Upper Large Zone is particularly deadly and effective when oriented vertically as once you choose it the AF zone will end up somewhere on the bird’s head or face, and you can usually move the lens to recompose as needed depending on which way the bird is looking.

Large Zone AF Question

With which one of today’s three images should I have chosen the left Large Zone zone rather than the center Large Zone zone? Why?

Image #4: Large Zone AF is Not Always Perfect

You and Large Zone AF. Is it Perfect?

If you start using Large Zone AF with or without TCs please let us know how it is working for you. Do remember that it is not perfect. There are times when it will fail miserably for a variety of possible reasons (some of which include operator error.)

All of the birds in the Saturday feeding spree were catching shrimp. Those included about six Roseate Spoonbills, several Great and Snowy Egrets, two Yellow-crowned Night-Herons, A little blue and a tricolored, and several dozen winter plumage Laughing Gulls. My eyes lit up when I saw the bird in Image 4 that was perfectly square to the imaging sensor catch a good-sized shrimp. I had several seconds but despite my best efforts the rig simply would not acquire focus. He who giveth also taketh away.

Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂

To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.

As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And we are always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.

I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.

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Typos

In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right 🙂