Ok, I give up. Why not just focus f.8/ f.11 to begin with?

Amazing!

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Ok, I give up. Why not just focus f.8/ f.11 to begin with?

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I can only imagine that at f8/11, there would not be even close to enough light for decent shutter speeds.

Then why take the shot f.8?

Well, there are a couple of reasons. With the 40D the viewfinder is marginal for manual focusing. At f/8 or f/11 the viewfinder is even darker and it's hard to tell proper focus. Also with live view set at 10X I found that by focusing on the is the shoulder of the bird the feather detail help me get focus right. But at F/5.6 the head and eye would still be soft when the head was lowered at all. So the added DOF gives me sharp focus in the majority of the birds body. When possible I would focus wide open on the eye but still step down to get more DOF. Hopefully I'm making sense right now, the backs acting up and I had to hit the pain killers and muscle relaxents which leaves me a bit befuddled.

That makes sense, I thought it might be the live view- I don't have it so I wasn't sure. Through the viewfinder, there isn't a difference until you snap the shutter-it's wide open til then. Of course, I understand shooting it f.8, just the pre-focus f5.6 confused me.

Jim, that 800 is taking a toll on your back-

Actually in this case it's an old manual focus, manual aperture lens. So I set the aperture via a ring on the lens. So if I set the lens to f/8 while using it on a Canon body it steps down to f/8 right then making the viewfinder dim. One of the problems with using these adapted lenses.

If only I could blame the 800 for the back problems. But it's my own fault for letting the Army talking me into parachuting out of perfectly good airplanes. Nothing like crashing into the ground repeatedly to give you back and knee problems as you get older, LOL!!

But man was it fun while I was doing it!

Thank you for the service to our country.

I still think the 800 is aggravating your condition, and you should sell it quickly- at a good price, so it does not burden you any longer.

My 5d is being shipped back from Canon. $250 bucks for screwing an S series lens on it. Man-

Thanks Marty, truth be none I was just a stupid country boy joining the Army to grow up some. Managed to get assignments where I was making a difference and stayed for 22 years.

As long as I have a truck and an ATV that 800mm is goining nowwhere, LOL!! Still debating on if I should keep the lightweight Leica 560/6.8 for the hikes though.

Sorry to hear about the 5D. When my adapter failed two weekends ago and my 5D fell to the ground out at Antelope Island I figured it was done too. But it hit a soft spot and doesn't seem to have any damage, whew!