Canon 400mm 5.6 L USM with 2.0x II Extender

Met up with POTN member Pete to check out the Birds of Prey Centre (The English School of Falconry, Bedfordshire, SG18 9EA). My main mission was to check out the performance of the 400mm 5.6 L and 2.0x Canon II extender on my clone gimbal head in advance of the next POTN Africa trip end August. All at 800mm f11. Incidentally, the first bird is a Bateleur, a fairly common but very impressive Eagle that we'll encounter in the Kalahari during the trip.

Previous experience with 2.0x's hasn't been great so I wasn't too optomistic, but as it turned out using MF with the good 5D viewfinder generated some good results. Certainly acceptable but not as good as the 400mm used bare-backed. The gimbal clone performed very well and at around £90 with plates is something of an eBay bargain compared to the Wimberley and Kirk alternatives. Anyway, hope folks find this a useful indication of potential.

very very impressive Dave!!!!

from my experience, if you can get close enough, the 2x is actually quite good. the problem with it begins when you are further from the subject...

Yeah, I think that is probably the case because my previous experiences have been longer distance and perhaps that is why I have more often been disappointed. Also true that I haven't gone 2.0x on a 5D before and the ability to actually see through the larger and brighter viewfinder makes a huge difference in achieving a decent focus. Light wasn't ideal here as close to mid-day and bright. I am pretty confident in Africa during the amazing golden hours light I can get some worthy results.

So did you just use MF or did you use nonreport/taped TC?

Great results! I think with the longer distances haze and such tends to play a large role in degrading IQ as well.

MF only ... I don't go for the tape trick. It makes AF very haphazard and the hunting that often occurs than damage the Af motor. Yeah, haze is a bummer at times but it's a good option early and late in the day which is when we go shootin'.

Glad you posted these shots. I was just offered a real good deal on a Bigma. I was thinking about it. But i'll wait till I can pick up the 400mm.

Bigma is a great lens but having owned one and the 100-300mm 4.0 and a couple of the 400mm L's the 400mm is a good street ahead. It'll dovetail great with your 100-300mm IMO. A superb combo.

Very acceptable outcome with the 400mm 5.6 L and 2.0x Canon II extender. Thanks for sharing your experiences with the other lenses as well. Its good to have first hand comments from someone like yourself.

Three nice ones. I have also tried a 2x with this lens and like you, when shooting from a distance results are nothing to write home about but when you get close you can get some good results. I have even stacked a 1.4 and a 2x and got some good results providing you are close to the bird, there is good light and you use a solid tripod - not for everyday use though.

Love 3 Dave...Good work man!

Pretty nice pics there with the 2x extender. Thanks for posting, interesting to me as I am thinking of getting an extender for my 400 5.6.

They look great but the question can you get the same shot without using a 2x extender?? If you can, I just see that using a 2x extender would just make your shooting technique more complicated than necessary.

condyk wrote in post #5497945
Met up with POTN member Pete to check out the Birds of Prey Centre (The English School of Falconry, Bedfordshire, SG18 9EA). My main mission was to check out the performance of the 400mm 5.6 L and 2.0x Canon II extender on my clone gimbal head in advance of the next POTN Africa trip end August. All at 800mm f11. Incidentally, the first bird is a Bateleur, a fairly common but very impressive Eagle that we'll encounter in the Kalahari during the trip.

Previous experience with 2.0x's hasn't been great so I wasn't too optomistic, but as it turned out using MF with the good 5D viewfinder generated some good results. Certainly acceptable but not as good as the 400mm used bare-backed. The gimbal clone performed very well and at around £90 with plates is something of an eBay bargain compared to the Wimberley and Kirk alternatives. Anyway, hope folks find this a useful indication of potential.

was there some dust spot on the last pic?

condyk wrote in post #5498019
MF only ... I don't go for the tape trick. It makes AF very haphazard and the hunting that often occurs than damage the Af motor. Yeah, haze is a bummer at times but it's a good option early and late in the day which is when we go shootin'.

Will you try one of the non-reporting tcs ? Or will you just focus manually ?

TooManyShots wrote in post #5498877
They look great but the question can you get the same shot without using a 2x extender?? If you can, I just see that using a 2x extender would just make your shooting technique more complicated than necessary.

Well of course that is true in this case ... why bother if you can get the shot and I could have got the shot without. But here I was testing for situations where I won't be able to get the shot and wanted to satisfy myself that the 2.0x was worth a place in my bag. I like to travel as light as possible.

CountryBoy wrote in post #5499766
Will you try one of the non-reporting tcs ? Or will you just focus manually ?

I had the Tamron on the last Africa trip and the AF is sometimes dead on and sometimes hunting so for me just doesn't actually help; may as well MF anyway because at least you know what's happening and it's consistent. I didn't use it much but didn't need to. In the Kgalagadi, which is where we are mainly wildlife and birdy shooting I know from experience I will more likely need longer.

SWAT wrote in post #5498941
was there some dust spot on the last pic?

Yeah, I noticed that as I was going through my shots yesterday. Will have to get the power washer out the garage and hose down the sensor