Help With Canon Extenders - V I, II, & III: With my 5D Mark III I often use the Canon EF 300mm f4.0 L for wildlife photography and particularly birds.. The 300mm reach is very limiting...

dugole Loc: Matawan, New Jersey

With my 5D Mark III I often use the Canon EF 300mm f4.0 L for wildlife photography and particularly birds.. The 300mm reach is very limiting but it is a good lens. It is what I have and what I can afford. The IQ of this lens is excellent. I also have used it with both the EF 1.4x Series I, and the EF 2.0x Series II with mixed results. Would I get appreciably better results moving up to Series III extenders for both the 1.4x & the 2.0x?

All opinions/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Bob Boner

I have a 1.4 series II extender I use with that lens with good results. You are correct that that is a good lens. With the 1.4 tc, it is almose as good as the 400mm 5.6 (focuses more slowly).

jimbrown3 Loc: Naples, FL

I have the same lens. I tried the 1.4; Canon II, III, and Kenko Pro 300. My findings jibe with a test I read that rated this lens on a 5D MK III. The results are Canon 1.4 II best. Followed by Kenko then, surprisingly, Canon III. I had bought the III, I had the Kenko and borrowed a Canon II. I returned the Canon III, kept the Kenko and bought a Canon II on e-bay. I have no experience with the 2X tele converter. The combo of the 300 f4 and the Canon 1.4 II is great. Very little loss of IQ and easily fixed by sharpening. I shoot only raw.

dugole Loc: Matawan, New Jersey

Bob Boner wrote:

I have a 1.4 series II extender I use with that lens with good results. You are correct that that is a good lens. With the 1.4 tc, it is almose as good as the 400mm 5.6 (focuses more slowly).

Bob - thanks for the reply. I get very reasonable results, depending on the subject matter, with the Series I - but would the II or III give me an appreciable improvement?

Bob Boner

Dugole, I can't answer this question, but it looks like jimbrown3 above has useful info. I have not used mine with the 2x converter. Do you know someone with the series II extender that you could borrow? Or if you see someone using one, they might let you use if for a few exposures.

dugole Loc: Matawan, New Jersey

jimbrown3 wrote:

I have the same lens. I tried the 1.4; Canon II,... (show quote)

Jim, thanks very much for your thoughts - I also shoot only RAW. I am a bit surprised by the comparison, and I have been leaning towards the II. I've bought most of my equipment on ebay so I will probably start looking for a used II.

I have used my 2x II with the 300 but just didn't like the results.

Thanks for your info!

Swamp Gator Loc: Coastal South Carolina

I use a Canon 1.4 III with a Canon 300 f4 on a 7D every day for BIF and other wildlife action and have been more then thrilled with the results.
I have tried the 400 5.6 and the 100-400 zoom and prefer my combo which produces excellent IQ with super fast AF.

Virtually every image on my wildlife photography blog was taken using this combo.

dugole Loc: Matawan, New Jersey

Swamp Gator wrote:

I use a Canon 1.4 III with a Canon 300 f4 on a 7D every day for BIF and other wildlife action and have been more then thrilled with the results.
I have tried the 400 5.6 and the 100-400 zoom and prefer my combo which produces excellent IQ with super fast AF.

Virtually every image on my wildlife photography blog was taken using this combo.

Thanks Swamp Gator - I found your thoughts helpful and you also helped with my followup question, the EF 400 and the EF 100-400 as an alternative to the 1.4x..

dugole Loc: Matawan, New Jersey

Swamp Gator wrote:

I use a Canon 1.4 III with a Canon 300 f4 on a 7D every day for BIF and other wildlife action and have been more then thrilled with the results.
I have tried the 400 5.6 and the 100-400 zoom and prefer my combo which produces excellent IQ with super fast AF.

Virtually every image on my wildlife photography blog was taken using this combo.

Swamp Gator - Just checked out your blog and liked your current page. I am going to go through some of your category subjects - it all looks interesting.

Swamp Gator Loc: Coastal South Carolina

dugole wrote:

Swamp Gator - Just checked out your blog and liked your current page. I am going to go through some of your category subjects - it all looks interesting.

Thanks very much for checking out the blog and glad you liked the photos.

Just put up some pics of a green heron fishing last night for today's post.

Swamp Gator Loc: Coastal South Carolina

dugole wrote:

Thanks Swamp Gator - I found your thoughts helpful and you also helped with my followup question, the EF 400 and the EF 100-400 as an alternative to the 1.4x..

I actually did rather extensive testing of the 400 5.6 and despite being ready to love it I was instead disappointed.
The 100-400 had decent IQ I thought but I'm not a fan of it's design or of super zooms in general.

jimbrown3 Loc: Naples, FL

Swamp Gator, Love your work. Glad to hear your assessment of 400 5.6. I was going to try one. But, 300 + 1.4 gives you a 420 5.6 lens with IS. I also found the 100-400 soft at 400, where I wanted to be. I have a Sigma 150-500 and that is sharper at 400 than the Canon 100-400 at 400. However, the 300 is my go to lens for birding here in FL.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

dugole wrote:

With my 5D Mark III I often use the Canon EF 300m... (show quote)

Dugole, go to "the-digital-picture".
On his site you click on the likeness of your lens.
On the upper right bullets, click on "Quality".
Click on 300 mm, there will be a drop down with two sets of data.
There are two sets of data that are 420 and 600.
The first set is for the 1.4xmkll. The second set is for the 1.4xmklll.
Same for the 2x.
You can draw your own conclusions, side by side if you compare two 300's with different multipliers on them.
I feel Bryan is the best tester on the Internet.
Have fun and good luck.
SS

Frank 2012 Loc: Olathe, Kansas

dugole wrote:

With my 5D Mark III I often use the Canon EF 300m... (show quote)

I recently purchased the Canon Extender EF 2X III
to use with my Canon EF 70-200 mm 2.8 L IS II. This was a last minute purchase before taking a trip to Alaska. With no prior practice I got mixed results which I think was mainly due to my lack of skill with a new lens. Some long shots are pretty good and others are slightly out of focus which I think was strictly my fault. These were all moving
subjects (targets).

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

dugole wrote:

With my 5D Mark III I often use the Canon EF 300m... (show quote)

I too have the 1.4x as well as the 2x (both version III) and I too shoot with the 5D M III. Sorry, I don't have any of the version II converters (so I can't compare), but I really like the results I get from my converters. The image below was shot with the 400'5.6 with 1.4x TC hand held.