Trying extender on 400 5.6

Khaos

I tried the first generation Tamron 1.4x on the 400 5.6.

The AF still works because the older Tamron doesn't communicate with the camera and the 20D still thinks it's at 5.6 and not 8. However, the light requirements act like at f8 and you do need a ton of light for it to work.

Most of my tests did come out slightly OOF because of light restraints. I was shooting at 100 fps or less on some and without IS, they didn't come out sharp.

Here are 2 shots that had enough light for good shutter speed.

SusanB

A challenge trying to get those small creatures so far away and moving so fast. Really like the second one for the pose, colors and detail

Susan

bfjr

How'd you get that nice matching background

Khaos

SusanB wrote:

A challenge trying to get those small creatures so far away and moving so fast. Really like the second one for the pose, colors and detail

Susan

Thank you Susan. It was the 3rd shot in about 5 where I actually got the bird in focus and not the branch in front of it.:D

Khaos

bfjr wrote:

How'd you get that nice matching background

Thanks Ben. Just lucky. I was in a wetlands and the background was pretty much the same as what you see the bird perched on.

leebase

Very well done. I especially like the second one. Small birds are very hard to shoot.

Lee

hichuz

Some nice shots... should be featured in the Audubon field guide...

T4Tots

Really nice! I love the clarity. The background certainly was good to you I love the colors and the angle in the first one.

howard

Nice shots. Out of interest which focus point(s) did you use? I ask because I use a Kenko Pro 1.4 on the 400/5.6 (pins taped to retain focus) and I only get focus success if I use the centre point only. Usually I try to focus on the eye or at least the head and then recompose. Birds in flight being the exception where I use all points if I have time to change settings. Howard

MuskyDude

Now THAT'S close! Nice shots, looking forward to seeing more done with this combo.


AJ

davev

Khaos wrote:

I tried the first generation Tamron 1.4x on the 400 5.6.

The AF still works because the older Tamron doesn't communicate with the camera and the 20D still thinks it's at 5.6 and not 8. However, the light requirements act like at f8 and you do need a ton of light for it to work.

Most of my tests did come out slightly OOF because of light restraints. I was shooting at 100 fps or less on some and without IS, they didn't come out sharp.

Here are 2 shots that had enough light for good shutter speed.

Both shots look great. Couldn't you raise the ISO to get some of the
shutter speed back? I'm asking because I've heard the D20 is supposed to
be quite good at be noise free at higher ISO's.

dave.

Khaos

howard wrote:

Nice shots. Out of interest which focus point(s) did you use? I ask because I use a Kenko Pro 1.4 on the 400/5.6 (pins taped to retain focus) and I only get focus success if I use the centre point only. Usually I try to focus on the eye or at least the head and then recompose. Birds in flight being the exception where I use all points if I have time to change settings. Howard

I generally always use the single point focus on all my shots. I don't trust the 9 point. I think I'm a little anal when it comes to that, but I rarely use anything but single point since I know what I want in the shot.

There's no need to tape using the TAmron because it's the older extender and not the new one that communicates with the camera. Thus multipoint focus is available if wanted. Plus the old one is cheap.:D

Khaos

davev wrote:

Both shots look great. Couldn't you raise the ISO to get some of the
shutter speed back? I'm asking because I've heard the D20 is supposed to
be quite good at be noise free at higher ISO's.

dave.

I do. The ISO here was 200 and this was in full sunshine. 800 on shorter lenses is OK, but telephotos at that ISO or higher aren't very sharp. Even with 800, if I was anywhere near shade or it was overcast, the shutter would still be slow. 1600 is a no-no if you want sharp detail of bird feathers. It's fine for other things where you don't mind letting the eye naturally blend things together for the shot.