Question for bird photographers...2x Extender Use?

I find myself enjoying more and more wildbird photography and so I'm considering selling my little used 50mm lens and purchasing a Canon 2x extender. I use my 1.4x a fair bit and I'm very happy with the quality of the images but I'd like to hear your views on using the 2x converter? I realise that when used with my 400mm lenses I'd lose AF and I'd be interested on hearing if this causes much difficulty when shooting birds and wildlife in general.

Thanks.

Many people will be glad to get your 50/1.4 - Yes, the 2x can help but...... center of the image only? You lose 2 f/stops (400/5.6 becomes an f/11, gulp.) Have you thought about a longer lens and/or learning how to get closer to the birds? You'll never have a long enough lens, so learn to get closer.

If you are trying to shoot wild birds on the fly, then autofocus can be pretty important. Also, as a general rule, most photographers describe the 2x teleconverter as making the image pretty soft. But that is a personal judgment for you.

You might give some thought into what kinds of wild birds you are after. A California condor is huge. Turkey vultures are pretty big, as are eagles and some hawks. When you get down into thrushes, it takes a bit more lens, and when you get down into warblers and then wrens, you need a lot more lens.

---Bob Gross---

Good point and one I'm slowly but surely (and happily) practising.

I'll trade you a 2X MkI AND a 50mm 1.8