Stacked converter series

Roy C wrote in post #11686233
I fear it is a lot more to do with the quality of the lens than the 'shooter'.

This may true to an extent but you have to know what you're doing and understanding what will suffer and adjust accordingly.

i've rarely seen results that sharp and clear with even ONE converter, much less two! impressive work!

Beautiful sharp images Roy. I particularly love the Tufted Duck Drake.

I take it that you had to resort to manual focus with stacked teleconverters?

bigtench wrote in post #14431028
Hi Roy,
Saw and commented on your pic on 500px and you mentioned that the MkIII TCs cannot be stacked without an extension tube trick - can you elaborate please? I purchased the EF100-400 last year and trying to work out the best way to get a bit longer without breaking any banks! With a 7D I appreciate the AF quits at f5.6.
Thanks

Hi, what I meant about the tube trick is that with canon mkIII converters you cannot physically connect the 1.4x and 2x tc so in order to do this you can put an extension tube between the two. Stacking converters only really works well with an f2.8 lens (my shots were taken with MkII converters that will stack together without the need for a tube).

With your 100-400 things are not as easy as you are starting out at f5.6 which is the limit for the 7D. There are a few ways you can get AF with your 100-400 and a 1.4x tc but no solution is ideal. You can use a reporting tc and tape the last three pins which means the Camera will not see the converter so will attempt to AF. Also you can get a non reporting tc or something like the Kenko DGX which gives correct EXIF data but also attempts to AF even though you are effectively at f8. Neither method will work that well, especially when using the centre AF point (works best when using one of the outer AF points).
The best method is to use live view AF as this uses a different AF system and is based on contrast, with this I have had AF up to f11 with my 400/5.6 and 7D, I find using this method that a tripod is essential for live view AF.

The other consideration with your 100-400 is the loss of IQ when using a converter, I have no experience with this set-up so cannot really comment. I know my 400/5.6 is very good with a converter but you do lose a little contrast and saturation (easily recovered in processing though).

Stephen Stephen wrote in post #14432181
Beautiful sharp images Roy. I particularly love the Tufted Duck Drake.

I take it that you had to resort to manual focus with satked teleconverters?

Hi Stephen, you do not necessarily have to resort to manual focus using this method as the Camera only sees the 2x tc when stacking so it thinks it is still at f5.6 and will attempt to AF even on the 7D. You do need good light and contrast to get AF though and it can be fairly slow, I find roughly manually focusing and then letting the AF finish the job works very well. - most of the example shots were taken with AF.

interesting information in this thread. Great shots Roy.

Roy C wrote in post #14433454
Hi, what I meant about the tube trick is that with canon mkIII converters you cannot physically connect the 1.4x and 2x tc so in order to do this you can put an extension tube between the two. Stacking converters only really works well with an f2.8 lens (my shots were taken with MkII converters that will stack together without the need for a tube).

With your 100-400 things are not as easy as you are starting out at f5.6 which is the limit for the 7D. There are a few ways you can get AF with your 100-400 and a 1.4x tc but no solution is ideal. You can use a reporting tc and tape the last three pins which means the Camera will not see the converter so will attempt to AF. Also you can get a non reporting tc or something like the Kenko DGX which gives correct EXIF data but also attempts to AF even though you are effectively at f8. Neither method will work that well, especially when using the centre AF point (works best when using one of the outer AF points).
The best method is to use live view AF as this uses a different AF system and is based on contrast, with this I have had AF up to f11 with my 400/5.6 and 7D, I find using this method that a tripod is essential for live view AF.

The other consideration with your 100-400 is the loss of IQ when using a converter, I have no experience with this set-up so cannot really comment. I know my 400/5.6 is very good with a converter but you do lose a little contrast and saturation (easily recovered in processing though).

Good to know Roy. Thank you. I may try it myself.

very nice series, Roy

Wow, incredible to see this kind of quality shots with all those stacked TCs, excellent job!

Awesome pictures.
#1 and #3 are my favorites.

Nice roy, you're right the light has to be good for them to work well.