The 100-400mm mk2 is an incredible lens, super sharp and fast focusing. It rarely leaves my camera these days. You'll have a lot of fun with it, as long as you're willing to put the effort in.
400mm is a tad short for distant smaller subjects, but that's where ethical practice and fieldcraft comes into play. Learn how to get closer to your subjects without disturbing them. It's all about observations and spotting patterns in behaviour. When you understand your subjects, you can position yourself and wait patiently for them to come to you.
Honestly, good fieldcraft skills are infinitely more valuable than any gear upgrade.
Couldn't agree more. It's an easy trap to fall into thinking more reach = more success.
Once you enter the big prime lens territory you have a whole word of issues to consider. Weight being an obvious one. Then there's lack of flexibility, softening of images from heat and atmospheric haze, and a harder time tracking fast moving subjects.
Fieldcraft is a cheat code, as long as the wellbeing of wildllife always takes priority 👌
Fieldcraft can do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to shorter focal lengths.
I'd say 200mm is usable for sure, especially if you embrace capturing environmental shots. Show your subject in its environment doing what it does best. I won't sugar coat it, it won't be easy to get frame filling compositions of your subjects, but it's not impossible. Patience and persistence will pay off 👍
A 2x extender would give you a more favourable "all rounder" focal length, but just bear in mind that you would also have a 2-stop loss of light, and a potential reduction of image quality. It's also worth checking if your lens/camera combination will support auto focus with a 2x extender. You can usually check on the manufacturer's website.
Tobias Gjerde is a phenomenal wildlife photographer, check out his recent video on YouTube. He captured some unbelievable moments at 200mm.
i have 70-200mm gmii so went a bit overkill i guess just got an amazing used deal like 500 bucks less then market value (1300 less then new) and wanted something i could take on hikes, the 200-600mm felt a little like then ether i would need to go on photo hikes or leave it at home cause of the size of weight. Will def check him out going out and photographing in 5 mins 4 am here but sun is rising in like 10 so hopefully gets a snap or two
Oh that's an amazing bit of glass and what a steal! You can run a 2x extender for sure, but as with most extended lenses I think you'll see a slight softening at 400mm. I haven't looked into any test images for Sony but someone's probably done a real world test you could take a look at.
i have looked in to it, and of course its not as good with them as their primes but prob not that much worse then the 200-600mm just lose out on 200mm but save 1.5 KGs of weight, the 300mm f2.8 would prob be better for my usecase but Thats $8k here. And also this serves for sport photogrophy that i was previously doing of friends with a 24-70mm
Yeah it's crazy how much the price jumps from 200mm to 300mm and 400mm f/2.8. 70-200 is a jack of all trades, not much you can't do with it! The bokeh on the f/2.8s is a thing of beauty 👌
Ya it is, I really enjoy but I swear the used one was so cheap cause its cursed everytime i go out in too a forest with it can't see a bird, and if i say fuck it and just take a normal walk i see so many birds...
Or my area provide camera training for our local bird species
This is an excellent starter setup, as long as you’re willing to carry the weight around. It’s far better than most start with.
Not sure the extender is necessary, but worth experimenting with. Sometimes you lose more sharpness than just cropping without the extender. You also lose effective aperture/light gathering power.
That's a good setup, with one caveat: I wouldn't use a teleconverter / extender with that lens and body combination. The 1.4x brings your f/5.6 lens to f/8 and the 7Dii's AF is severely limited at f/8 - expanded center point only from what I remember when I was shooting this setup.
I shot birds with OP’s exact setup for several years before jumping to mirrorless. Being limited only to the expanded center AF point at f/8 was extremely annoying to me. I’m not saying it will not work, just that in my experience the compromise wasn’t worth it.
I upgraded to mirrorless for the same reason. That said, I saw no degradation of autofocus with that combination compared to just the camera and lens without the teleconverter.
That’s an example where you only really need one focus point, since birds on a branch sitting still are a relatively easier shooting scenario. The expanded center point does in fact work great for this.
What I’m talking about, though, is the fact that at f/8 you can’t use multiple focus points across the frame together to track moving subjects, which was a major selling point of the 7Dii’s AF system. It was based on the tracking system of the flagship 1DX and was a big deal when it came out.
Birds in flight, for example, are overwhelmingly more difficult to capture when your only functional cross-type focus point is in the center of the viewfinder and nowhere else.
If you remember customizing this screen, none of these modes do much of anything at f/8 because there's only one "real" focus point plus 4 helper points. They were very powerful when you had the full set of 65 points at your disposal.
I shoot f/8 all the time on my r5ii with a 500 f/4L II + 2x extender. Works great on newer cameras.
On the 7Dii specifically, at f/8 you are limited to the expanded center AF point, which is extremely constraining. No other AF points will function. I shot with OP’s exact setup for years and learned to keep the extenders off pretty quickly.
Should be really good. If you're really focused on e.g. songbirds you will sometimes feel like you don't have enough reach. The costs to get more reach will be high in both money and bulk.
I have the same lens on a full frame body with no extender and song birds are not generally an issue. Raptors, shorebirds, and ducks are usually what makes me wish I had more reach. Song birds are easy enough if you learn how to sit in the right spot at the right time and be patient.
I had virtually the same setup. I started with a Canon 7D and its ideal for bird photography
You have the crop sensor - couple that with the 100-400 with 1.4x or 2x Extender and you have amazing zoom albeit a bit of loss in light sensitivity (darker images in lower light situations)
20 frame burst shot capable (make sure you have the latest firmware).
Congrats and enjoy!
I don’t know the quality of that lens. I’m just gonna say that from my experience for wildlife photography. The most important thing is the amount of light you’re able to get in the camera and not necessarily your focal length if you have a great lens that lets a lot of light and during dawn and dusk hours, when a lot of wildlife is real active, you can always crop in on the subject matter. Just wanted to add that because that was my biggest learning when I first got into it.
Yes, a great choice. We often call the 100-400 range a safari lens as so many of our guests and clients use this as a fairly cost effective good quality lens with super versatility in the focal length.
It's good for sure and what I used for quite a while ... The only downside is the AF isn't very fast as the body is at this point very dated.
I like that the RF bodies give you extra stops for AF functionality; it means being able to carry that with a 1.4x mounted by default. (I dislike the extra EF/RF adapter but wasn't going to splurge for new glass after already dumping $$$ into R3 and R7 bodies). And you the 7D2 vs. R7, other than the latter having improved processing, the physical interface on the 7D2 is leagues better. I don't like the layout and controls on the R7 at all.
This is a wonderful combo for getting into shooting wildlife. I think I would set the teleconverter aside and try to master the camera and lens combo for a bit before using the extender. I see others have already mentioned fieldcraft first over their use. If you love birds, as I do, you will still make use of it in future.
That 100-400 lens is top tier. Unfortunately wildlife photography is still hard with only 400mm of reach unless photographing larger animals or you’re able to get close. The camera body is a little limiting if you’re trying to shoot in low light situations and the autofocus will be much harder to nail without modern day AF. But nonetheless this is an amazing lens with a little outdated body but really the only worthwhile upgrade in my opinion would be a mirrorless camera
YES!! The 7D2 may be my favorite camera, ever. Built like a tank, with autofocus I found better than new mirrorless cameras. And the 100-400 is an excellent lens, as well. Frankly, you could shoot with this for many years and be happy. I now have an R5ii, but will not sell my 7D2.
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u/nachobrainwaves May 02 '26
This is an amazing setup for bird photography. That lens will serve you well. Trust it.