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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · 70-300L + Kenko MC4 VS PRO VS III! (edited a bit) | |
OK, so I finally got around to doing this test! That I had first said I'd probably do within two weeks.... almost a year ago . I only tested center frame and extreme edges, not mid-frame, nor corners. I only tested wide open f/8 and I only tested paired with 70-300L and not my 300 2.8 IS as well. Why? Because accurate lens testing is a major pain, you have be so precise and do so many trials and refocuses and etc. etc. it literally started making my skin crawl it was such a tedious pain (of course humidity and a couple bugs that got in and crawled on me didn't help that any ).
But I finally bothered to the mess of a precise lens test.
Results, again this is for paired with 70-300L only (using a super-tele that is much sharper might show up greater differences or perhaps even interact with the TCs slightly differently), a single copy of each tested only (no clue how much copy to copy variation there may be when it comes to TCs) and shot on a 5D3 and with the 70-300L set to 300mm f/5.6 only (for a total of 420mm f/8).
Center frame:
Wow, incredibly close between the Kenko DGX MC4 and the Kenko DGX Teleplus PRO, too close for me to bother trying to call. The Canon 1.4x TC III appears to do just a touch better, it's a relatively subtle difference though. I'd say that puts the Kenkos fully the match for the older Canon 1.4x TC II then.
Extreme left edge:
The MC4 is worse than the other two at the extreme FF edge here, it's not radical but it is reasonably noticeable at 100%. Shockingly the PRO actually appears to have done a trace better than the III! Safe to say that the PRO would do better here than the old Canon 1.4x TC II then. The MC4 would probably do similar here to the older TC II, just a rough guess though from memory.
Extreme right edge:
The MC4 pretty clearly did worse here than the other two, a bit larger difference than I saw on the left side. The other two definitely do deliver a clearer extreme edge here. It's a pretty instant difference to spot at 100% view. The III does just a little bit better on this edge than the PRO.
Extreme upper right corner: not really tested, but peaking at the images (which were not refocused for that, etc.) it appears likely that the PRO and III hold up in similar fashion in extreme corners, not sharp as a tack but not pure mush by any stretch, the MC4 in the extreme corners appears likely to go to pure mush on FF though.
I didn't test mid-frame so I'm not sure when the MC4 starts falling more noticeably behind the others (EDIT: perhaps a bit earlier than expected, maybe by mid-frame on FF not quite 100% sure though and it's probably not enough to bother about until a bit farther out than that, maybe not until once you start getting just past what an APS-C crop out of FF would be). Certainly for a subject reasonably near the center frame it does a reasonably close job to the other two I'd say, lots of birds, at only 420mm, might end up sitting mostly in the central part of the frame.
If you care about getting towards the edges or corners though on FF, that is where the MC4 does fall behind the other two. Maybe even the outer mids on FF if you get super picky.
Overall the TC III is probably the best, but the PRO is surprisingly close (and I'd dare say it is better than TC II without question). The MC4 can struggle a bit at FF edges, and even more extreme corners where it is mush, compared to the other two, but does surprisingly well right center frame, quite close to III and so close to PRO that it's too hard to really call it and even out to APS-C it appears like it would hold up pretty reasonably.
On an APS-C crop body I wonder if the MC4 manages to hold up better at the edges? APS-C crops a lot of edges out. Although maybe the higher photosite density stresses it more?
Anyway with a super-tele delivering ultra clean signal, maybe there is a larger difference between them all in the center? I might do a very quick test on 300 2.8 IS just to see if that separates them more center frame.
Edited on Jun 28, 2014 at 12:47 PM · View previous versions
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