# Understanding my 100-400 zoom



## jcdeboever (Jul 3, 2017)

Project today was actually a backup plan. Went to shoot birds but they were not awake yet apparently.  My backup plan was to shoot flowers and plants with a 100-400 extended out, not something I would normally do or even think to. Goal was to get a feel for focal length, and focus distance, while creating the opportunity for interesting compositions. Cropping in post should be a pre-vision and tool. I had wrote in my journal a comment @Gary A. mentioned to me a few times when I was wining like a little girl about not using a lens. He said you don't use it because you don't  use it. 

My three favorite today. XT2, 100-400. Custom velvia simulation mode. Close to SOOC other than maybe a pre vision crop being limited by focus distance of lens. 

1.



 

2.


 

3.


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## fmw (Jul 15, 2017)

I like the frog.  The T2 must seem small attached to all that glass.


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## jcdeboever (Jul 15, 2017)

fmw said:


> I like the frog.  The T2 must seem small attached to all that glass.


Not really, have the vertical battery grip on it.


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## Derrel (Jul 15, 2017)

I like the frog shot as-shown, but think it would be even more impactful cropped to a square.

I LIKE long lenses for closeup isolations! I used to use the old 80-400 VR Nikkor with a 12mm or 20mm extension tube, the Kenko AF tubes...the cool things I found are that the camera-to-subject or working distance is relatively long, so the frog or bug or snake does not get spooked, etc..Second I like that the magnification level is fairly high, because the focal length is so long, and third, I really like the way that *the angle of view **behind*** the close-up subject is so, so narrow! Close-up type shots like these, made with something like an 80-400 or 100-400mm on APS-C were, I thought, very interesting to look at because they are so **different** than what we've grown up with over the last 40 years, which is basically, close-up shots made with 55mm or 60mm or 105mm macro lenses, and not much else, comparatively speaking.

I like keeping that angle of view **behind** my focused subject narrower, with the longer lenses...this is the thing the 100-400mm will give you on APS-C, that foreground-centric, isolated view! It's all "lenswork"...but when  the lenswork is done with an offbeat tool, the results can be so,so pleasing and different.

As youmentioned--the closest or minimum focusing distance (MFD) on many longer lenses can limit your envisoned pictures by not allowing you a close enough MFD, which is why I so,so often used the Kenko AF 12mm and 20mm tubes on my 80-400 on APS-C.

Perhaps a really GOOD close-up lens (Canon 500D or Nikon 6-T), two-element screw-in device would be of great help: these are two-elelement, achromatic lenses, not cheapies. being *achromatic*, they kill chromatic aberration too!


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## zombiesniper (Jul 15, 2017)

Very nice.

Darrel hit most of my loves of a longer lens for these types of shots.

Another good use is shown in your first shot where the compression of the longer lens can soften a background with wider apertures then a shorter lens would at the same F value.


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## Derrel (Jul 15, 2017)

Canon 77 Close-Up Lens 500D

it might be very good on the 100-400 for close-up work; it might even be astoundingly good if the filter were reverse-mounted on the front of the zoom lens, the way the Nikon 6-T close-up lens is when it is reverse-mounted on the front of the Nikkor 100-300mm Ai-S lens.

These two-elelement achromatic lenses are not the old $17 plus-diopter filters of the 1970's and 1980's, but are VERY solid performers. I own this 500D 77mm, and have used it on the Nikon 300/4 AF-S and Canon and Nikon 70-200 lenses...quality is good.

An extension tube would also be sweet for close-ups with your 100-400 lens.


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## jcdeboever (Jul 15, 2017)

Derrel said:


> Canon 77 Close-Up Lens 500D
> 
> it might be very good on the 100-400 for close-up work; it might even be astoundingly good if the filter were reverse-mounted on the front of the zoom lens, the way the Nikon 6-T close-up lens is when it is reverse-mounted on the front of the Nikkor 100-300mm Ai-S lens.
> 
> ...


Ordered it, thanks. How would one go about reversing it?


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## jcdeboever (Jul 15, 2017)

zombiesniper said:


> Very nice.
> 
> Darrel hit most of my loves of a longer lens for these types of shots.
> 
> Another good use is shown in your first shot where the compression of the longer lens can soften a background with wider apertures then a shorter lens would at the same F value.


Thanks


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## fmw (Jul 15, 2017)

jcdeboever said:


> fmw said:
> 
> 
> > I like the frog.  The T2 must seem small attached to all that glass.
> ...



You adopted Fuji for different reasons than I did.  The lens looks like it will a be winner for you.


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## smoke665 (Jul 15, 2017)

Another vote for the frog!! You remind me of the robot Johnny 5 in the movie Short Circuit, always searching, always learning. I bet you talk like him in your sleep "Need Input". LOL


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## Gary A. (Jul 15, 2017)

I really like #1 and #2.   Not many peoples shoot flowers with a 400mm.  Well done.


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## benhasajeep (Jul 15, 2017)

jcdeboever said:


> Derrel said:
> 
> 
> > Canon 77 Close-Up Lens 500D
> ...


77 mm reversal ring.  An adapter ring with 77mm threads on both sides.  Same type of ring if you wanted to use a reversed lens on another lens.  They have male threads on both sides of a ring.  You can get them with different sizes too.  Like 77mm on one side and 67mm on other.  There is a whole range of them.


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## jcdeboever (Jul 16, 2017)

benhasajeep said:


> jcdeboever said:
> 
> 
> > Derrel said:
> ...


 What does it do different, reversed?


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## benhasajeep (Jul 16, 2017)

I am not sure about the Canon 77 close up lens. It looks like it's a diopter lens.  

If your interested in macro you can also get rings to reverse your lens to camera!  As well as lens to lens adapter rings.  The combinations gives you different life size reproductions on the sensor.  Depending on lenses and what's used.  Of course these are all money saving techniques used instead of buying an expensive long macro lens.


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## Derrel (Jul 16, 2017)

jcdeboeve said:
			
		

> other.  There is a whole range of them.


 What does it do different, reversed?[/QUOTE]
With the lens mentioned originally and with the Nikon 6-T reversed, flatness of field at close-up range seems to be improved over non-reversed. Please read carefully that I mentioned performance on the 100-400 _might be better_ with the 500D reversed. Regardless, the 500D is the current best close-up lens in current production, and it *will* give high-quality results just screwed on to the filter threads of the 100-400 lens. The reversing ring ought to be like $6-$8, so it's not a big outlay.


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