Professional wildlife photographer, Manus van Dyk is recognised as an Elite Canon Photographer and Trainer and runs his own photography school. It’s fair to say that he knows a thing or two about Canon, and as such, he’s a natural choice for our Canon Series. First up we asked him about the favourite lens in his bag.

Canon EOS 1DX with Canon EF 400 f2.8L IS II USM lens at f2.8, /60 sec and ISO 5000

TechSmart: If you had to pick only one, what is your favourite lens to shoot with and why?

Manus van Dyk: It has to be the Canon EF 400 f2.8L IS II USM lens. I know a lot of people will ask why not 500mm or 600mm? The reason for my choice is not focal length but rather maximum aperture. When shooting wildlife you always come across two situations, one where you need to capture action and the other where you need to photograph in low light conditions. With a maximum aperture of f2.8, the lens not only gives you one stop faster shutter speeds (and therefore you will be using one stop less ISO), but more importantly the extra stop of light improves auto focus tracking and accuracy!

If you look at cameras, it does not matter if it is an entry level camera like the 750D or your top of the range 1DX, the most sensitive/accurate AF point is the center AF point. These AF points are usually dual cross type AF points (the AF point is sensitive for horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines) and the dual cross only works with f2.8 or faster lenses, if you use a f4 or slower lens the dual cross becomes a cross-type AF point (only sensitive to horizontal and vertical lines). This is less sensitive than a dual cross AF point and therefore wasting the technology that is available to you.

In very good light conditions you will not see the difference at all because there is enough light entering the camera for the AF system to achieve good AF information. But the moment the light conditions become darker, like just before the sun rises/sets, then it becomes much more difficult for cameras to track and achieve AF and this is where f2.8 lenses comes into their own right.

Most of the time my bag consists of only three lenses: Canon EF 400 f2.8L IS II USM; Canon EF 70-200 f2.8L IS II USM and Canon EF 24-70 f2.8L II USM, plus 1.4X and 2.0X extenders. This gives me the ability to photograph from 24 – 400mm at f2.8 and if I need longer focal lengths in good light I will add the 1.4X or 2.0X extenders to the 400mm lens, giving me 560mm at f4 and 800mm at f5.6 respectively.

The above image was shot 20 minutes after sunset using a spotlight on the cheetah cub. The f2.8 maximum aperture of the EF 400 f2.8L IS II USM lens allowed the AF system to track the cheetah, keeping the head pin sharp. With the extra stop of light I manage to photograph this image at ISO 5000.

For more of Van Dyk's work and for further DSLR training, visit his website.