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Thursday, September 10, 2015

The Canon EF 100-400MM f/4.5-5.6L IS USM With The Sony A7R2

Dale Matson

Click On Photographs To Enlarge
Sony A7R2 With Viltrox Adapter And Canon 100-400 Lens

It became obvious to me attempting to photograph Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep with a Sony 70-200 G f4 lens that I used for landscapes that I needed more reach for wildlife.

If Sony full frame e-mount has one glaring deficit, it is a long zoom lens in a full frame camera. I considered getting the 70-400 A mount lens and an A mount adapter. The lens is a tad heavier than the Canon lens and lots more money even used. I already had a Canon adapter and could get a used older model Canon 100-400 lens. The autofocus worked well with my Canon 17-40mm f4 lens using my Viltrox (see photograph) adapter on my A7R. In fact the autofocus worked even faster with my A7R2. I believe the Camera IBIS works with the lens stabilization system.

Although The Canon 100-400mm lens is a pound heavier (at about three pounds) than my Sony 70-200mm lens, I will just have to live with this fact in the mountains if I am including the possibility of wildlife also.

I also had to get a larger model 20 digital holster to accommodate the larger lens on the camera.The handheld trial photographs have been good and the autofocus has worked well in good light. My afternoon shots were under an overcast sky.

Where I have had some auto focus problems is using 400mm to photograph close objects. The lens hunts but won’t autofocus. The “work around” is using the focus peaking feature of the camera with the lens autofocus turned off. My 400mm hummingbird shots were from 25 feet with focus peaking. I have included photographs at various focal distances outside and two photographs taken inside of an oil painting of Shaver Lake.

 250mm f5 1/250
 100mm f4.5 1/50
 400mm f5.6 1/25

 100mm f4.5 1/160
 100mm f5 1/160
 200mm f5.6 1/200
 400mm f5.6 1/400
 200mm f5 1/200
 250mm f5 1/250
 135mm f4.5 1/160
 150mm f4.5 1/160
400mm 5.6 1/400


 

4 comments:

  1. Brian Smith has an excellent article about adapters and the Sony A7R2. He noted that the Photodiox adapter worked better than the Viltrox adapter. I bought a Photodiox adapter and the Canon 100-400 does focus better. The adapter seems stronger also and better suited to the larger/heavier lens.
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D9BKLX8?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

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  2. Brian Smith's review is here:
    http://briansmith.com/sony-a7rii-canon-ef-smart-adapter-tests/

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  3. This lens is not working out for me. It does not pass the "View Actual Size" test. I will have a new article soon with the problems.

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  4. The new article is here.
    http://midsierramusing.blogspot.com/2015/12/sony-sal70400g-70-400mm-f4-56-g-ssm.html
    (I would add that the non image stabilized Canon 70-200 f4 lens works very well adapted to the Sony A7R2 using the Viltrox adapter.)

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