Canon mk II 2X telextender on 70-200 L f4.0

[DWerner]

Just got it out of the box, slapped it on my 70-200/ D30 and tripod, opened a window, and shot a few frames...

Artistic shots and a more scientific test will come later.
It looks to be much improved over the mk I version that I borrowed(at least on this 70-200 L f4). In fact, on this lens the results look pretty good!

http://www.pbase.com/image/720702/original

[oops]

Wow, now you can see if the engineer on the train shaved this morning! (I viewed your train shots before; I'll trade you some donkey shots from New Mexico).

I didn't know there was a mk l or mk ll, what is the difference? Also, how was the focus? Was it manual only or did the 70-200 autofocus?

I will get a teleconverter soon but leaned toward the 1.4x because of autofocus for sporting events, mostly 4x4 rock-crawling events in my case. If the 2x will still autofocus in good light I need to re-think this thing.

Thanks, Chris

[DWerner]

You lose auto focus, as f8 is now the widest stop... But, I thought it was worth posting as the conventional wisdom is that 2X converters soften lenses excessively. And the manual focusing (even in some indoor shots) was not really much of a problem. (Especially for an old dinosaur like me.)

Canon claims (and I have confirmed it to my satisfaction) that the model II 2X converter is a "new and improved" optical formulation. (The 1.4X model II is unchanged save for a rubber moisture seal, and additional antireflective coatings.)

I've always questioned the value of X1.4 s as it seems to me that, for that amount of magnification, a crop would do nearly as well.