How good is the Canon 2.0x Extender II?

Cousin Madness

Thought you might be interested in seeing how well the Canon 2.0x Extender II handles with three of Canon's top lenses.

As you can see they all fair very well except for the EF500 F4.0L IS which displays a little softness. With the 1.4x you cannot tell the difference but the 2.0x is pushing the limits of the glass. You also lose auto-focus on the EF500f4.0L IS on most Canon bodies other than the 1D series.

These examples were all taken with a full frame Canon 5D.

Cousin.


Canon 5D, EF500f4.0L IS, ISO 320, 1/125, F8, EF 2x Extender II.



Canon 5D, EF400f2.8L IS, ISO 320, 1/640, F5.6, EF 2x Extender II.



Canon 5D, EF300f2.8L IS, ISO 320, 1/640 F5.6, EF 2x Extender II.




Canon 5D, EF400f2.8L IS, ISO 320, 1/4000, F5.6, EF 2x Extender II.




Thanks for looking.

Allen

Cousin Madness wrote:

Thought you might be interested in seeing how well the Canon 2.0x Extender II handles with three of Canon's top lenses.

As you can see they all fair very well except for the EF500 F4.0L IS which displays a little softness. With the 1.4x you cannot tell the difference but the 2.0x is pushing the limits of the glass. You also lose auto-focus on the EF500f4.0L IS on most Canon bodies other than the 1D series.

These examples were all taken with a full frame Canon 5D.

Cousin.

Thanks for looking.

With the 500 you shot wide open, f8, I'd stop down some and see if it helps.

Cousin Madness

Allen wrote:

With the 500 you shot wide open, f8, I'd stop down some and see if it helps.

Thanks for the thoughts Allen. I've always found stopping down an expensive piece of glass defeats the purpose of it being so wide in the first place. Perhaps this math might work with the converters in place. I should give it a try, since the post is about the converter and not the lens this would make sense.

The 300 and 400 however were wide open yet the same soft affliction was not present. Of course there's always the permutations of lens versus particular body.

Thanks for looking.


Martin.

raptorcaptor

I have also found that the 2x tc does not do very well on the 500, and even worse on my 400DO.

My 1.4 stays on the lens 90% of the time with little loss of sharpness.

Cousin Madness

raptorcaptor wrote:

I have also found that the 2x tc does not do very well on the 500, and even worse on my 400DO.

My 1.4 stays on the lens 90% of the time with little loss of sharpness.

While at a recent nature reserve I noticed some of the birders (that actually had Canon gear) were using the EF300f2.8 and 1.4x extender. One of the lads was telling me that he can't remember the last time he took it off the lens.

Seems like a perfect marriage and allows the use of auto focus which for anything moving, is a necessity.

Cousin.

Every Miles A Memory

My 400 f/2.8 hasnt had the 2x converter taken off of it for about 8 months now. The entire reason I bought the lens was I couldnt afford the 800 f/5.6, but I could afford a well used 400 f/2.8 and a 2x converter.

I ended up getting the Sigma 2x because it was a few bucks cheaper and after trying both for a few days, (Borrowed a friends Canon 2x) neither of us could tell any difference between the two converters, so I went with the less expensive model

My last few posts have all been shots with the 400 f/2.8 with a 2x converter