Back in the dark ages of film, I searched and searched for workable teleconverter/lens combos. They were few and far between! I did finally find a 1.5X that worked very well on a particular 300mm lens...



Even when the optics worked well together, it was difficult with film... ISO 200 was the fastest transparency I'd use... which meant about 1/400 shutter speed at best.

Fast forward to the current century... my 500mm f/4L has worked extremely well with Canon 1.4X II Extender:




In fact, that teleconverter works well in another combo I never thought I'd use... on my 100-400mm II zoom!

More than twenty years ago I tried using a Canon 1.4x teleconverter on the Canon 500mm L lens and the sharpness results were not good enough for me, so I stopped trying to use teleconverters for many years. In the past couple of months I decided to try the RF 1.4x teleconverter on the Canon 100-500mm lens and figured I would find the same loss of sharpness and drop it. So, while leading a photo workshop at Laguna Seca Ranch in South Texas, I spent one entire morning shooting several thousand images using the 1.4x teleconverter on the 100-500mm while using my best technique on a Wimberley gimbal head inside the photo hide. When I looked at the results with some dread about how they might not be what I was hoping for, I was surprised to see how sharp the images were. Clearly the 1.4x teleconverter did not reduce sharpness much at all and the results were acceptable to me and the folks who publish my images to go along with my articles. I still have not tried the 2x teleconverter on my Canon RF lenses, but I hope to do so this summer.

I suspect that the sharpness would have been good enough all along if only I had AF microadjusted my older Canon lenses with the 1.4x teleconverter on that era. I know when I was AF microadjusting camera/lens combinations, I nearly always found some adjustment was beneficial and was also surprised the few times I did AF microadjust the lens with a teleconverter on it how thing changes. It was not unusual to find a lens by itself my autofocus better with say a +4 AF microadjustment, and when you put at 1.4x teleconverter in the optical path, that adjustment would change, and sometimes by quite a bit such as -3 when the lens by itself was a +4. Now that I have mirrorless Canon R5, the autofocus is much more precise and I am getting suitable photos with or without the 1.4x teleconverter. I think the loss of some sharpness was more the fault of the camera not hitting sharp focus rather than the glass causing it. I should have listened to the reviews of the RF teleconverters sooner as nearly all are glowing reports and I agree with them. Anyway, after carefully looking at thousands of bird images shot with the 100-500mm and the RF 1.4x teleconverter, I give the combination a "two thumbs up." Here are more examples of recent images shot with the RF 1.4x teleconverter on the Canon R5.

This is completely a matter of taste.

I couldn't live with a 50mm at f/1.8. It is too clinical and too slow. Some shots that are not possible at f/1.8 are just possible at 1.2 or 1.4.

First below is a shot from a fashion show in available dark, wide open at f/1.2. Lasers, background camera flash, smoke, audience expressions, glowing skin, lens effects, specular reflections, corner to corner color saturation and luminance.

Next you will see an example of a screenshot of some other photographer's work. Same model, same location, same night, same lighting + flash, probably shot at some braindead f/5.6 or other. Even the slightest amount of flash completely kills the ambient lighting and mood and everything the flash cannot reach is under exposed and ugly. And that's me in the background grinning like an idiot -- also ugly :D

I realize the accompanying grain and lack of sharpness is not everyone's cup of tea, but the ambient lighting and lens effects are what make the shot interesting. Otherwise why be there? You might as well shoot backstage or in a studio where the lighting is under your control.

Finally I include a shot from a location shoot. Decent ambient lighting for 50mm f/1.2 but not enough for f/1.8 without having to drag along a reflector or off-camera flash on a tripod. And the lens effects you can see for yourself. The background and the light wrapping around the subjects face....I can't explain it if doesn't move you. None of this happens at f/1.8 (and I only exaggerate a little).

Edit: Sry for ninja edits.