60D, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II and Extender EF 1.4x III Compatibility

[adki]

I want to use an EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II on my 60D and potentially an extender as well. This would be for the solar eclipse. Is there a lens combination that would work better with my camera as an APS-C sensor? I would love to hear your opinion. 

The EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II and the Extender EF 1.4x III are compatible but would this work well with my 60D or should I leave behind the extender? 

Thank you in advance. 

[diverhank]

For the solar eclipse, I suppose the extender will work out OK, provided that you will manually focus.  This lens, with the extender will bring your max aperture to f/8 and I'm not sure the 60D will autofocus at f/8.

Personally, I don't think it matter much what lens it is as long as you can fill the frame...but this lens is very sharp at FL 400mm...should be perfect for the purpose.  By the way, you will be needing some filters to avoid damaging the camera sensor.

[TTMartin]

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@diverhank wrote:

For the solar eclipse, I suppose the extender will work out OK, provided that you will manually focus.  This lens, with the extender will bring your max aperture to f/8 and I'm not sure the 60D will autofocus at f/8.

Personally, I don't think it matter much what lens it is as long as you can fill the frame...but this lens is very sharp at FL 400mm...should be perfect for the purpose.  By the way, you will be needing some filters to avoid damaging the camera sensor.

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In LiveView which I assume you'd be using for the eclipse it should AF at f/8 as long as you aren't using 'Quick Focus' which uses the regular viewfinder AF. Using contrast detect LiveView AF should be fine even at f/8. Once you are focused you might want to switch the lens to MF anyway to avoid it hunting at an awkward time. 

[ebiggs1]

"...as long as you can fill the frame..."

You do not want to fill the frame anyway so the 400mm on a cropper will probably be fine.  The Sun’s atmosphere, known as the corona will look like delicate threads of light emanating from the solar disc.  You need some extra room for this.  It is THE greatest part of an eclipse.  A focal length that fills 2/3rd of the frame is good.

Once the Sun is completely covered, totality, you can take off their solar filter and view the corona directly. But remember, totality is not going to last very long, and you MUST have eye protection at all times when not in totality.

[Tim]

Hello Adki, 

To photograph the solar eclipse you'd be best to use the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM stand alone with the EOS 60D and exclude the Extender 1.4x III.  The reason being is that auto focus will not be available due to the stop loss in light in all but a handful of professional series cameras.  Those models can utilize center focusing point only and regrettably the EOS 60D is not one of those models.  Therefore if you did wish to utilize the combo you certainly can, as the lenes will mount and photograph just fine, so far as manual focusing is the method used.  

There's also a great series of DLC articles about photographing the eclipse you may be interested in.  The link is here and I've also copy pasted it below.  

http://learn.usa.canon.com/resources/articles/2017/eclipse.shtml

[TTMartin]

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@Tim wrote:

Hello Adki, 

To photograph the solar eclipse you'd be best to use the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM stand alone with the EOS 60D and exclude the Extender 1.4x III.  The reason being is that auto focus will not be available due to the stop loss in light in all but a handful of professional series cameras.  Those models can utilize center focusing point only and regrettably the EOS 60D is not one of those models.  Therefore if you did wish to utilize the combo you certainly can, as the lenes will mount and photograph just fine, so far as manual focusing is the method used.  

There's also a great series of DLC articles about photographing the eclipse you may be interested in.  The link is here and I've also copy pasted it below.  

http://learn.usa.canon.com/resources/articles/2017/eclipse.shtml

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I thought Live View (contrast detect) AF had a maximum aperture limit of f/11.

[Tsleel2811]

Hope this answer is the answer for you. I'm using the same exact set up. 60d with 100-400. Do not, I repeat DO NOT use the extender. 400 on a 60d is 640 in reality the sun fills the frame with room to spare for the Corona. Using a solar filter loses you enough light without the extender. If you use the extender you will have to take the lens down to 300 to fit the sun in the frame with the corona and add another stop of light loss to counter. You'll have to take triple the amount of photos (which you probably won't have time for with only 2 min 40 sec of totality at most [depending where you are]) and compile them to make the image sharper.

Pro tip: lose the extender and really see the photo pop.

[Tsleel2811]

And another thing. Even if the sun doesn't fill the frame to your liking you can always crop. I usually don't like cropping because of loss of detail. But let's not forget you're photographing a yellow ball in the sky. There's no "real" detail to capture. You're not photographing a brick wall from 500 feet away. You're photographing a hopefully flat sky (regarding clouds) and a flat yellow ball. With a focal length of 640 in reality you won't really have to crop more than 1-2 centimeters in post and that pretty much won't lose you any detail you do catch.

In short don't use the extender. Have a great though.

Another pro tip. If this is your first eclipse don't lose yourself to the photo. Take the time to enjoy it with your eclipse glasses protected eyes too 🙂

[kvbarkley]

I disagree. There can be a lot of detail in the sun. If you are at totality there is much fine detail in the corona. Even if not, and you are using a filter, it is pretty cool to capture sunspots along with the eclipse.