Little Ringed PLover

[Stan]

Spent an hour or so between showers at Blashford Lakes today and was lucky to see 3 of these little birds feeding by the lake shore. Although i got a lot of shots with my standard kit (300 f4 and 1.4x), this one is a bit of an experiment to see how well Af would perform on my 70-200 f2.8 with 1.4x and 2x converters attached. With a 3 stop loss of light ,on my 7D in theory it should not auto focus but the camera only recognises the 2x and ignores the 1.4x, so although a little slower than normal, af is possible. So the actual focal length here, ignoring the camera crop factor is 560mm

Stan

1/640, f 5.6, ISO 400, 560mm

[AndyMulhearn]

Re: Little Ringed PLover

Nice shot Stan although it seems to be lacking a little bit of your normal quality? Or is it my eyes?

Interesting how the 7D only "saw" the 2x. I take it that wasn't to do with the order you had them between then lens and body?

[Stan]

Re: Little Ringed PLover

Nice shot Stan although it seems to be lacking a little bit of your normal quality? Or is it my eyes?

no you are right Andy, it is never going to be as good as the normal quality as adding a 2x usually degrades the quality to an extent never mind combining it with a 1.4x. This is really only a demonstration to show that it is possible to use the two together and could be useful for at least getting that record shot of a rare species which would otherwise be much too far away using your normal set up.

Interesting how the 7D only "saw" the 2x. I take it that wasn't to do with the order you had them between then lens and body?

you can only fit them one way round - the 1.4 next to the body, then the 2x and then the lens. No idea why the camera only sees one

Stan

[Bill53]

Re: Little Ringed PLover

Still a very good shot Stan, it's a long time since I've seen one of these.

Bill.

[tesarver]

Re: Little Ringed PLover

Stan

Tom

[AndyMulhearn]

Re: Little Ringed PLover

no you are right Andy, it is never going to be as good as the normal quality as adding a 2x usually degrades the quality to an extent never mind combining it with a 1.4x. This is really only a demonstration to show that it is possible to use the two together and could be useful for at least getting that record shot of a rare species which would otherwise be much too far away using your normal set up.

Agreed.

you can only fit them one way round - the 1.4 next to the body, then the 2x and then the lens. No idea why the camera only sees one

Ah, I see. But interesting that your 7D still had AF even though it should have dropped out.

[Stan]

Re: Little Ringed PLover

Thanks Bill and Tom

Still a very good shot Stan

I have yet to look at the shots with the normal set up to see if i got anything better

But interesting that your 7D still had AF even though it should have dropped out.

I was using the 70-200 f2.8 so add two stops for the 2x and you still only have f 5.6, therefor AF is fine. However when i tried out with my 300 f4, adding 2 stops with the 2x meant f 8, therefor manual focus only. However if you use live view, both set ups will Af via live view

Stan

[AndyMulhearn]

Re: Little Ringed PLover

was using the 70-200 f2.8 so add two stops for the 2x and you still only have f 5.6, therefor AF is fine.

Hmm, your original post says you stacked the 1.4 and 2 on the 70-200 which gives a three stop reduction from f2.8 to f8. Or did I misread that?

[Stan]

Re: Little Ringed PLover

Hmm, your original post says you stacked the 1.4 and 2 on the 70-200 which gives a three stop reduction from f2.8 to f8. Or did I misread that?

it gets a bit complicated - in theory stacking the two converters together changes my 70-200 f 2.8 into a 70-200 f8 which means that on a 7D autofocus should be lost. However, the electrics of the camera are not recognising the 1.4x and "think" there is only the 2x attached, therefor aperture is only f 5.6 (2 stops over the 2.8), so the autofocus works

Stan