500mm F/4

I was curious if anybody has used the 1.4x extender on a 500mm f/4 if so what's your take on it? I've heard the 2x doesn't work well with auto focus.

Dont really know why youd need 700mm .. but maybe you do.

Personally the 1.4 will degrade the quality so much you are just better off shooting at 500mm.

thats just my experience.

RyanCrane wrote in post #4389160
Dont really know why youd need 700mm .. but maybe you do.

Personally the 1.4 will degrade the quality so much you are just better off shooting at 500mm.

thats just my experience.

Birds are small. Many use 400 + 1.4x to shoot football. Football players are slightly larger than birds. They are also usually closer.

The 1.4x is exceptional on the longer L primes. I could post shots with and without from my 300 2.8, i would challenge you to spot which is which.

To the OP, go here: http://www.naturescape​s.net/phpBB2/index.php

Many of the members there are shooting with 400, 500 and 600mms with thr 1.4x or 2.0x on them. The shots are spectacular.

From my experience the 1.4 has a negligible impact on IQ with the 500. It will focus a bit slower, but the IQ is damn near the same. Works great.

I shoot with the 500mm primarily and use both t-cons regularly..
The 1.4X has nearly no impact on image quality.
The 2X does, but if you can get enough light to stop down a little it still offers excellent results.

the quality of The 500 with the 1.4 is still better than most bare lenses. My 1.4 is almost glued to my lens

xpsentity wrote in post #4391853
From my experience the 1.4 has a negligible impact on IQ with the 500. It will focus a bit slower, but the IQ is damn near the same. Works great.

That's been my experience as well.

RyanCrane wrote in post #4389160
Dont really know why youd need 700mm .. but maybe you do.

Personally the 1.4 will degrade the quality so much you are just better off shooting at 500mm.

thats just my experience.

Greetings,
I guess you are not speaking from experience. The 1.4xTC IQ is excellent. I have it on my 500mm most of the time. As for 2x, the IQ drops, but, when shooting stationery small birds on nests, I still use it. BTW, it is never long enough for bird shooters. Enjoy...

I was using a 1.4x extender on my 500mm F4 at the weekend. Was out inthe woods shooting deer, foxes and wild birds. I have no complaints with image quality. As has already been said adding a 2x extender in place of the 1.4 is not such a good move. My only real gripe with the 500 / 1.4 combo is you need to pay a visit to the gym before you plan to take it out for the day - it's a bit of a heavy beast!!!!!

My 500 came with a 1.4 attached

sdsurfer wrote in post #4389078
I was curious if anybody has used the 1.4x extender on a 500mm f/4 if so what's your take on it? I've heard the 2x doesn't work well with auto focus.

Use my 500 with 30d for birds : the 1.4x is almost welded on. Insignificant drop in IQ. Haven't tried the 2x (won't AF properly) - everybody says it is poor but it is acceptable (not excellent) on my 70-200 f2.8.

On a 1.6 crop camera a lens must have a maximum aperture of f5.6 or better to AF properly. The 500 f4 with 1.4x has maximum aperture f5.6, so will AF properly. The 500 f4 with 2Tx has maximum aperture f8, so won't AF properly.

1 series cameras will AF properly with any lens with a maximum aperture of f8 or better, so could AF properly with 500 f4 and 2x.

So it depends which body you are using.

Mike.

I was just out shotting Bald Eagles in flight, handheld of course. 500 + 1.4x on 40D works well. I did do some shots with the 500 + 2X on the MK III. Worked very well. The IQ and AF speed suprized me.

The main drop in quailty is likely to be the loss of shutter speed / camera shake from a shutter speed 4x slower with the 2x extender on - rather than the glass. I have just sold my 2x and would rather crop a sharp high res image than an uncropped image shot at half the shutter speed at 1000mm +