50 replies to this topic

[PrettyCranium]

He looks so thoughtful! Why did you have to manual focus, the teleconverters?

[rocknrumble]

Yeah with the 50-500mm it struggled with the Auto focus. So I just used the Manual focus.

[PrettyCranium]

Ah, thanks for that.  I'm not that confident my manual focus abilities, so that is good to know.

[rocknrumble]

Honestly neither was I until I started doing it. I guess it has come in handy in working my manual focus technique... LOL Double Whammy.

[rocknrumble]

I want to get this out during the holidays and do some more shooting with it. I may try and get to the Zoo this weekend and see what I can come up with. Keep your fingers crossed.

[PrettyCranium]

I want to get this out during the holidays and do some more shooting with it. I may try and get to the Zoo this weekend and see what I can come up with. Keep your fingers crossed.

 

I look forward to your results!

[Michael S]

Main drawback I see to them is autofocus. I have two Tamarons, 1.4x and the 2.0x. that I purchased from Alden from his ad in this forum, thanks Alden!  Both don't seem to be able to lock focus on any lens I use them with, they just keep hunting so to use them you have to manual focus. Not a huge deal if the subject is pretty stationary but if it's a small quick moving bird it might be very difficult, to be fair there pretty hard subjects even without the teleconverter and auto focus working. Second drawback is they make any lens slower. About 1 stop with the 1.4x and 2 stops with the 2.0x. So either shoot in brght light or crank up the ISO. Image quality on both are good enough for me.

[rocknrumble]

Moon shot with 2 x Teleconverter and Sigma 50-500. Slight sharpening and colour/contrast adjustment.

 

 

[alden]

Main drawback I see to them is autofocus. I have two Tamarons, 1.4x and the 2.0x. that I purchased from Alden from his ad in this forum, thanks Alden!  Both don't seem to be able to lock focus on any lens I use them with, they just keep hunting so to use them you have to manual focus. Not a huge deal if the subject is pretty stationary but if it's a small quick moving bird it might be very difficult, to be fair there pretty hard subjects even without the teleconverter and auto focus working. Second drawback is they make any lens slower. About 1 stop with the 1.4x and 2 stops with the 2.0x. So either shoot in brght light or crank up the ISO. Image quality on both are good enough for me.

 

If the bird is sitting still, on a branch or a rock, you have time to manually focus. Other wise, if you are trying to shoot fast moving flying birds, even a pretty good auto focus is going to have a hard time with that. 

 

I would set your camera to rattle off as many shots as fast as possible and fire away while focusing, in bursts of six to eight frames, or more, if your camera's buffer can handle it. That's how I used to do it in the old days, before auto focus was even something most people could get. 

The Tamrons tend to work better with shorter lenses, for me. 

[Chrisf]

you will go down to f-8 and your IQ will most likely be degraded. Another thing is that the autofocus may or may not work, and if it does. It won't very well.

[Chrisf]

In order for the auto focus to work you would need a 2.8 or 4 aperture. With the 4 most times you could only get away with a 1.4,but in good light a 2x will work. With 2.8 there wouldn't be any issue as that would just put the aperture at 5.6. I've used teleconverters on lenses with  a max 5.6 aperture and frankly it was constantly hunting or I had to manual focus. So if you intend to shoot moving subjects that will prove difficult. Another idea may be to pick up an older prime telephoto af lens along with a teleconverter as those tend to have wider max apertures. They are also optimized for the focal length as opposed to the zoom lenses. So you with those you would end up with better quality.