Update on the 100-400

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Nearly a year ago I got the new model of the Canon 100-400 EF lens. I had it on back order when it first came out and it arrived just before Christmas so became an impromptu gift to me! Almost everything about the lens I liked. However, if you read my initial thoughts on the lens which I covered here, you will have seen I had a concern about softness in one part of the image. I have used the lens extensively since then and, while I have not always had an issue, I have continued to be concerned about the output in one area – particularly when compared the the excellent sharpness the rest of the image was displaying.

I sent the lens to Canon earlier this year for a service. I explained my concerns and they took a look and told me it was functioning properly and returned it. I took it on another shoot and got more shots which did not look right. This time I emailed CPS and provided them with some sample shots. They suggested it didn’t look right and told me to send the lens back in with a description of everything to date along with more sample images on a card.

I now have the lens on its way back to me. Here is what they found.

Your product has been examined and it was found that the optical assembly was broken causing the auto focus to operate improperly from time to time. The 6th group lens and 2nd group lens were replaced. Product functions were confirmed.

It is nice to know that I wasn’t imagining things but a little disappointing it took this long to get to the bottom of things. Of course, I could have done some of this sooner if I had been more certain of the problem. In future, I will be a bit more willing to trust my instincts. Now to get the repaired lens in my hands and test it!

Salisbury Cathedral

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We had a nice evening out with my nephew, Chris, while we were in the UK. He took us in to Salisbury for dinner. When we had eaten, he took us for a short walk through the center of the town and to the Cathedral. It was nicely lit up for the evening. I only had my cell phone with me but the camera on that seemed to do a reasonable job capturing the shot. I was pleasantly surprised. Just for comparison, I add a picture below of the cathedral I took a few years ago while flying over Salisbury with my friend Sean in his Europa.

Tucanos Low Level (But I’m Not Prepared)

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The Lake District is an area that is known to be popular for low flying military aircraft. In all of the years I have been going there, I have hardly seen any jets coming through. Mainly that was because I was there at the weekend and the military don’t tend to fly much at the weekend. I was hopeful that we might see some traffic on this trip since we would be there midweek. We did get some traffic but it didn’t go quite as planned.

A few times we saw Hawks zipping over the town while we were outside. We were generally getting ready to go somewhere else and they caught me out as they came through. On one hike I took a long lens with me. Of course, this didn’t go to plan. Most of the time I was looking at some lovely scenery so I had a wide lens on the camera. This was the time the RAF chose to show up. No jets this time but a selection of Tucano turboprop trainers. I wasn’t expecting them when they came through so grabbed the camera with the lens I had on at the time and got a few shots. These won’t be of much use to me but they do remind me of the excitement of being caught out be a low flying plane of any type.

USS Coronado LCS

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As a small boy, my Gran would take me to Portsmouth each August for Navy Day. We would spend a day walking around the dockyard and getting on to various warships to see what they were like. This was a pretty big event and, in those days, the number of ships in port for those days is probably more than the Royal Navy has in total today. The result of this was an interest in an early day with warships. Growing up by the water meant that ships of all types were a regular feature of life.

Warship design underwent quite a transition. Traditionally, warships had been slender designs that achieved speed and supposedly provided the most stable ride. However, this was not an approach that was universally agreed and shorter broader designs started to gain favor. The Royal Navy’s Type 23 frigates were one of the first signs that Navy’s were taking new configurations seriously.

The US Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program has gone a stage further with one of the builders. There are two LCS designs in production and one of them has a narrow center hull and two additional outboard hulls further aft. This trimaran configuration provides slender hulls but with a lot of stability and the space for a large deck. One of the LCS ships was in San Francisco for Fleet Week and took part in the Parade of Ships.

USS Coronado (LCS-4) was the ship on display. She is the second of the General Dynamics – Bath Iron Works ships to be commissioned and entered service in 2014. As she entered the bay under the bridge she turned towards to city and you could get a good view (albeit at some distance) of the unusual hull shape. As she got closer, the view was more abeam the ship but you could still see the layout of the armaments. As she headed away, a view of the stern hinted at the hull layout but really emphasized the width of the deck.

The US Navy is currently reconsidering its needs and is looking for a frigate that is more heavily armed than the LCS designs but makes as much use of the hull designs as possible. We shall see how that all works out. In the meantime, this is one of the more unusual shapes afloat. The Zumwalt destroyer is even more unusual so I shall have to try and see that at some point too.

United 757 Display

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You don’t often get to see an airliner maneuvering at low level. They tend to be up and away or approaching to land in a stable configuration. Each year at Fleet Week, united bring one of their airliners as part of the air show and it gets to be thrown around the bay, if not with abandon, at least with more vigor than is the norm for an airliner. In the past, the 747 has been the display aircraft of choice. Since I have been here, they have been using the 757.

The bay provides a nice backdrop for any display but one that uses a big airplane is well suited to the area since they have to maintain a reasonable distance from the shore at all times unless they are climbing out over the crowd. A combination of clean passes and gear and flaps deployed passes made for some good variety and some aggressive climb outs at high power and low weight were nice. Watching the plane turn over the Marin side of the bay was also pretty cool.

This may not be the most dynamic of air show performances but it has a novelty factor that makes it worth seeing and it certainly brought some variety to the show on the day. I’m just glad I got to see it this year. Last year they displayed on the day I was there but the low cloud base meant that we mainly heard them above the clouds but saw very little.

Needles Battery

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I posted some shots of the Needles in this post. The rocky outcrops are not the only thing of interest, however. The strategic location of the cliffs and the importance of some of the military facilities in the waters approached via the Needles mean a fort was constructed overlooking the entry to the Solent during the Victorian era. Large guns were mounted on the top of the cliffs to deal with any enemy that might come.

In the end, no enemy came. However, when the First World War came, there was again a need to protect the approaches. The existing location was not suitable for the size of guns then in use so a new battery was built a little higher up on the cliffs. As with the first one, it stood guard but never engaged any enemy.

In the middle of the 20^th century, the location again found a use. Britain had a space launcher development program with the rockets being developed at Saunders Roe in nearby East Cowes. The location on the cliff tops, a long way from most population areas, with nothing but sea below and no overlooking locations for prying eyes meant it was an ideal location for secret programs. A couple of test stands were built for the rockets to be mounted for testing purposes.

Now everything is decommissioned and is open for the public to view. The location on top of the cliffs is very cool anyway but, if you are an engineer type like me, the test facilities are even better. The bunkers and control rooms are worth a look and one of them even has the equipment recreated in cardboard. That might sound strange but it has been done well and even includes a cardboard coat hanging up on the wall. It is a very innovative approach to reproducing what had been taken apart long ago.

UPS Movements

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Boeing Field is a busy location for UPS. FedEx run their Seattle operations from SeaTac but UPS has made King County their location of choice. You get a busy period in the evening with arrivals and departures in a pretty narrow window. Provided there is evening light, you can get a lot of movements.

I have shot a bunch of their jets over the course of various visits. Usually I get them arriving and departing from the same location. I did get some familiar shots this time but I also decided to head to the other end of the field and shoot the departure head on. They do get airborne pretty quickly and climb quite fast so they rotate a long way off and are well above you by the time they cross the fence. Not ideal but still a bit of variety for me.

Above Cowes

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A large part of my childhood was spent in Cowes on the Isle of Wight. During our visit, I got some time to fly around the Island with Pete in his Piper Arrow. While I did get some stick time, I had my camera with me so there were some pretty frequent changes of control so I could get some photos of various parts of the Island. Cowes is an interesting place from the air so we managed to get a few shots as we circled overhead.

Shooting through the window of the Arrow is not ideal but the transparencies in Pete’s plane are in good shape so do not make things too distorted. Of course, when facing into the sun, the reflections from inside the plane can sometimes be an issue and they do crop up in some of these shots. The harbor is the main area of interest. I lived in an apartment just off the waterfront with a great view over the Solent. We could watch the various boats coming in and out. There are two ferry services that run to the mainland. Both are operated by Red Funnel and one is a passenger catamaran while the other is a car ferry.

Much redevelopment of the harbor area has taken place since I left. Some of the old houses on the waterfront have disappeared to – replaced by apartment developments. The marina has undergone a significant transformation and a new breakwater appears to be under construction just offshore. I wish I had more aerial shots from my teens when I was flying over the Island to compare with what is there now.

Wall of Fire Take Two

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While I was walking around the display line of the Airshow of the Cascades during the evening show, the Erickson collection’s P-38 was carrying out its display. I was in amongst a lot of people when the announcer told everyone to be ready for a special pass. My location was not great but I got ready as the P-38 ran in for a topside pass expecting the detonation of some pyrotechnics behind it. Nothing happened. The P-38 flew by and no explosions.

A short while later, the announcer had a second crack at getting us ready for the pass. Obviously the first pass had not worked as planned. This time the P-38 was coming in from the opposite direction. I also had a few moments to try and reposition myself to get a better view. This shot was the result. Some of my friends were further up the display line and got a different angle on the shot which was cool. Even so, I am pretty happy with this.

Borough Market

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When we lived in the UK, Borough Market was a favorite destination. It is a covered market near London Bridge and not only did it have a lot of good suppliers of meats, fruits and vegetables, there were other providers of food ready to eat that meant a shopping trip there could result in coming home with a lot of good stuff. There were a number of good food shops in the surrounding area too including Neals Yard Dairy, a supplier of some great cheese. We could take the train direct to London Bridge so it was a relatively easy trip to make.

We had dinner near the market with my brother on our recent visit and our route back to the hotel took us through the market. At night, it is a very different place. The stalls are all closed up and there is no-on around. There is still lighting (I wouldn’t be walking through if there weren’t) but the place has a very quiet/spooky feel to it. It is quite the contrast to a normal day there. If we had more time, we would have been there when everything was open but there was only so much time in London so we had to skip it this time.