400 5.6 Vs 100-400L With 1.4x and pins taped. Anyone have experience?

I know these two lenses have been debated to death, and there are definitelty benifits to both. As far as I can tell based on my reading here, the AF speed and sharpness is better with the 400 5.6, but the 100-400 has IS and versitility. I am curious as to how these lenses perform with a 1.4x T-con attached with taped pins, specifically on a 7D. I am going to pick up one of these lenses, because I have wanted to "get long" for a while now, and these are the only two really in my price range. I have a 1.4x T-con, and am very curious as to how the AF speed is with both of these lenses -- Is it manageable? Or would you not bother at all?

Many thanks.

I can't speak to how the 100-400 +1.4x performs on the 7D as I don't have that camera. I do know that even with the pins taped, that combination on a 20D is iffy, even in bright light. It was such a poor performer that I pretty much quit using it.

It's entirely possible it might be better on the 7D because of the improvements in the AF system on that camera.

I had used 100-400L on FF body 5D2 and was amazing pictures (before I got 7d). But now I got 7D and 300 f4+1.4 extender. This is an excellent combination but you have to work hard on 7D AF to get a good results.

just came back from B&H and when i was there, the 1-4+1.4TC did not AF on a 7D...
could it have been a bum sample?

kinghong1970 wrote in post #10667782
just came back from B&H and when i was there, the 1-4+1.4TC did not AF on a 7D...
could it have been a bum sample?

It wont AF unless you tape the pins.

Coppatop85 wrote in post #10668236
It wont AF unless you tape the pins.

aaah... same for 2x?

kinghong1970 wrote in post #10668398
aaah... same for 2x?

I actually don't know about the 2x, I know you definitely will need taped pins or it wont work, however, I'm not sure if even a 2x would work. When I hear of people referring to taping the pins, it is almost always done with a 1.4x TC.

kinghong1970 wrote in post #10668398
aaah... same for 2x?

Yes, even more so.

The problem is that the camera needs faster than f/5.6 to AF. The 1.4x makes the lens f/8 so too slow for AF to work, change it for a 2x and you are wide open at f/11 and even a 1D cannot AF at that.

It is possible to tape the pins and fool the camera into trying to Af, but it is likely to be slow and hunt quite a bit, if it can focus at all. I have always used manual focus when using the 100-400 with a 1.4x on.

I wouldn't recommend a 2x on the 100-400, it doesn't take converters well and the IQ will take quite a hit.

Primes usually work better with TCs than zooms, so I would imagine (never tried it as I don't have the prime) that the 400 f/5.6 prime will give better results, IQ wise, than the zoom. I suspect that the AF wouldn't perform any better though.

I've tried using a Tamron 1.4x (it doesn't report to the camera) with 100-400 on 7D. AF would not work at all with center point, but somewhat worked with other AF points but very slow. In the end, it was just too much of a hassle to bother.

I use to use tamron non reporting 1.4xTC on both 100-400L and 400mm f5.6. This was on 30d. Af was slow but picture quality wasn't bad, better on 400mm f5.6 compared to the zoom.

Surprisingly 1.4xTC worked better on rebel series. A friend had rebel and she could AF when using 2xTC with one the horizontal points. This with 400mm f5.6.

I have both the 2x & 1.4x Canon converters (and until recently the cheapie Kenko 1.5), with pins taped I got pretty mediocre results. Funnily enough the £50 Kenko wasn't bad and does allow af on an XXD body (20d in my case) with the 100-400. Af was not too bad on static subjects - slow ponerous but usually accurate. However with my current gear I find I get better pictures by cropping rather than by using converters ie if it's larger than the (indicated) af point in the viewfinder it will do a passable A4 print and a good A5, perhaps that's the 1d mkiv or perhaps I have become more critcal?
Try cropping vs converters - you may be (pleasantly) surprised!
P.S. Not used the 400 f5.6 but I hear it's excellent - used the 100-400 for 5 years - the most veratile lens you can get! Still sold it for my 300 F4.

The 400 prime and the 7D would be a great combo. I would not tape pins, with the 7D You can crop a lot with great results.

I've posted these elsewhere but will again due to relevance. These are all with AF using 400 F/5.6 + 1.4x (kenko pro with pins taped).

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You guys want to see what cheap tamrom 1.4xTC on 400mm f5.6 can do then look at pbase gallery of Daniella. Here is the link:

http://www.pbase.com/z​ylen/birds

She even does BIF and at the time she was using just a rebel if I remember correctly.

Coppatop85 wrote in post #10668236
It wont AF unless you tape the pins.

That would have been one nice addition to the 7D... auto focus capability at f/8! With the improvements in auto focus capability on the 7D, I was quite disappointed that they didn't include that one last missing piece of the puzzle.