Tele Extender Question: Santa was generous with me, and I accumulated enough gift cards to consider a tele extender for my bag. I shoot Canon 6d, and would primarily use it with Sigma...

jteee Loc: Montana

Santa was generous with me, and I accumulated enough gift cards to consider a tele extender for my bag. I shoot Canon 6d, and would primarily use it with Sigma 150-500, but also have Canon 70-200 f2.8 in bag. Do I get a 1.4 or 2x for the Sigma (Sigma brand) or...??? Do you sacrifice too much in image quality in the 2x over the 1.4 versus the additional zoom? Thoughts from any of you who may have already faced this dilemna would be greatly appreciated.

buffmaloney Loc: Indiana

Other more experienced will chime in, but I wouldn't use a 2x on the Sigma. Too much light loss. If you use a 2x with the Canon, the Sigma 150-500 will have limited use seeing as the Canon would become a 140-400. Canon users can tell you if the Canon would be better optically with the 2x than the Sigma 150-500 with no converter.

jteee Loc: Montana

buffmaloney wrote:

Other more experienced will chime in, but I wouldn't use a 2x on the Sigma. Too much light loss. If you use a 2x with the Canon, the Sigma 150-500 will have limited use seeing as the Canon would become a 140-400. Canon users can tell you if the Canon would be better optically with the 2x than the Sigma 150-500 with no converter.

I tend to share your concern regarding the light loss with the Sig, but with no experience with it, really appreciate your input. Probably should have debated the 2x with the Canon prior to purchasing the Sigma, but....

Regis Loc: Coeur d' Alene, Idaho

jteee wrote:

Santa was generous with me, and I accumulated enough gift cards to consider a tele extender for my bag. I shoot Canon 6d, and would primarily use it with Sigma 150-500, but also have Canon 70-200 f2.8 in bag. Do I get a 1.4 or 2x for the Sigma (Sigma brand) or...??? Do you sacrifice too much in image quality in the 2x over the 1.4 versus the additional zoom? Thoughts from any of you who may have already faced this dilemna would be greatly appreciated.

You will not be able to use automatic focusing, only manual, with the 1.4 or 2x extenders with the Canon 6D and Sigma 150-500mm set-up which is what I have.
This is what I have read and researched.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

jteee wrote:

Santa was generous with me, and I accumulated enough gift cards to consider a tele extender for my bag. I shoot Canon 6d, and would primarily use it with Sigma 150-500, but also have Canon 70-200 f2.8 in bag. Do I get a 1.4 or 2x for the Sigma (Sigma brand) or...??? Do you sacrifice too much in image quality in the 2x over the 1.4 versus the additional zoom? Thoughts from any of you who may have already faced this dilemna would be greatly appreciated.

I recommend never using any TCs on the big Sigmas as they are already a pretty slow lens and any extender will make them hard to manually focus, which you will have to do as they do not work in autofocus mode with any extender.
On the 70-200mm F2.8 lenses, you will retain AF even with a 2X TC mounted, but it will be slower to AF and the image quality does degrade noticeably. It is VERY accepting of the 1.4X TCs though, a combo I use regularly.

OviedoPhotos

Over the years, either film or digital, I have acquired a Nikon 1.4x, Nikon and Kenko 2x and a Kenko 3x.

My opinion is that the 1.4x is the most I'll use in daylight and none at night.

My suggestion is start with the smaller one, it should meet your needs most of the time. In fact the 1.4 helped me not purchase a lens recently. I was looking at the Sigma 150/500 f5-6.3. The price was reasonable. But I already have a Nikon 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D VR. Adding the 1.4x to it gave me more or less the same specs.

bull drink water Loc: pontiac mi.

the 1.4x is pretty much a no-brainer with the canon.if you are willing to up the iso and go down to f8.0 ,and give up auto focus then you can get by with the 2.0x on the other one.

jteee Loc: Montana

Thanks to all for your thoughts and insights. Difficult decision, and still am wavering....

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

The Canon 70-200 2.8 - if it is the II version - will do well with both 1.4 and 2X. Otherwise, I would only recommend a 1.4X with the Canon non II version. No TC's with the Sigma please ....I would recommend a Kenko or Tamron 1.4X with the Canon.

jteee Loc: Montana

imagemeister wrote:

The Canon 70-200 2.8 - if it is the II version - will do well with both 1.4 and 2X. Otherwise, I would only recommend a 1.4X with the Canon non II version. No TC's with the Sigma please ....I would recommend a Kenko or Tamron 1.4X with the Canon.

Thanks imagemeister, your comment, along with MT has pretty much convinced me that even the 1.4 with the Sig lens would not be a good choice. Have to rethink this...

amehta Loc: Boston

MT Shooter wrote:

I recommend never using any TCs on the big Sigmas as they are already a pretty slow lens and any extender will make them hard to manually focus, which you will have to do as they do not work in autofocus mode with any extender.
On the 70-200mm F2.8 lenses, you will retain AF even with a 2X TC mounted, but it will be slower to AF and the image quality does degrade noticeably. It is VERY accepting of the 1.4X TCs though, a combo I use regularly.

Is the performance of the Canon 70-200 f/2.8 + 1.4x TC significantly better than the Sigma 150-500mm?

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

amehta wrote:

Is the performance of the Canon 70-200 f/2.8 + 1.4x TC significantly better than the Sigma 150-500mm?

Not really a performance comparison to be made there. The 70-200mm F2.8 with a 1.4X becomes a 98-280mm F4, roughly half the reach of the Sigma. Probably a better choice for the range but definitely not the choice if you need that 500mm reach for the subject at hand.

amehta Loc: Boston

MT Shooter wrote:

Not really a performance comparison to be made there. The 70-200mm F2.8 with a 1.4X becomes a 98-280mm F4, roughly half the reach of the Sigma. Probably a better choice for the range but definitely not the choice if you need that 500mm reach for the subject at hand.

I meant to qualify my question, "in the 150-300mm range?"

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

amehta wrote:

I meant to qualify my question, "in the 150-300mm range?"

Very probably. I would never grab my Sigma 150-500mm to intentionally use it at the bottom end of its zoom, not much point. The 70-200mm F2.8 + a good 1.4X would yield better results, but my choice in that range is my Sigma 120-300mm F2.8, a wonderful lens!

amehta Loc: Boston

MT Shooter wrote:

Very probably. I would never grab my Sigma 150-500mm to intentionally use it at the bottom end of its zoom, not much point. The 70-200mm F2.8 + a good 1.4X would yield better results, but my choice in that range is my Sigma 120-300mm F2.8, a wonderful lens!

Sure, but how many have all three lenses? :-)