Canon Extender EF 2x III review - at the bronx zoo

[hendrik-sg]

I had the oportunity to test the externders 1.4II and 2.0III together with a 50d and 300 2.8 IS. I tried various test shots and used them in the field für birds, almost always on tripod with a normal head, both middle class.

I worried wether the crop camera with the extenders outresolve the lens. i was mostly interested in the center of the frame where my subject usually is.

my conclusion is the following:

- the camera + extende doesnt outresolve the lens, i get more information with the 2.0III than with the 1.4II and more than with the bare lens, if i watch the same framing in the same size with different relative pixel size.

- with the 2.0 i have an equivalent FOV of a 960mm f5.6 lens. Even in daylight i needed best conditions like tripod, no wind, mirror pre actuation, 10s timer or cable release to avoid shaked pictures. with stopping down to f8.0 i got no benefit, maybe because of the quality of the lens/extender combination maybe because of the difficulities mentioned above.

- the 1.4II gives better sharpness when stopped down to f5.6.

- in critical light situations it is better to use the bare lens and crop the image, as with the bare lens i need 8 times less light to take a picture with the same blur relative to pixel size (4 times because of f5.6 instead of 2.8 and 2 times because of the magnified motion). This happens more frequent than i could imagine.

- on pixel level (all pics reviewed at 100%) the 2.0III seams to be as good as the 1.4II but both little worse than the bare lens.

- Focus is slower and hunts somtimes, it needs some practis to track mooving subjects

Fazit: i bought the 2.0III and returned the 1.4II and like a lot to have a good 600mm f5.6 combination which is possible to carry, but it needs short shutter times to get better resolution than the bare lens, at given distance to the subject.

 

[epsiloneri]

To achieve the maximum benefits of this new processor, you need to ensure that you attach the lens to the Extender first, and then attach the whole lens and extender combination to the camera. This way the camera will see a combined "Lens + Extender". If you add the extender to the camera first the camera will recognise it, but will then not be able to deduce that a lens has been added to the front of it.

Strange, I usually attach the TCs to the camera body first, and then to the lens (with power switched off). I've never noticed any problem with the camera not recognising the TC+lens combination. But then I have the mark II TCs, maybe this is a "feature" of the new mark III's.

 

[Admin US West]

To achieve the maximum benefits of this new processor, you need to ensure that you attach the lens to the Extender first, and then attach the whole lens and extender combination to the camera. This way the camera will see a combined "Lens + Extender". If you add the extender to the camera first the camera will recognise it, but will then not be able to deduce that a lens has been added to the front of it.

Strange, I usually attach the TCs to the camera body first, and then to the lens (with power switched off). I've never noticed any problem with the camera not recognising the TC+lens combination. But then I have the mark II TCs, maybe this is a "feature" of the new mark III's.

As long as you have both of them mounted when you power up the camera, it should not matter. Many people never turn off their cameras, so the camera would recognize the adapter when it is mounted, but not the lens when it is mounted later.

I think this is the same for all the adapters.