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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Long reach using Sony E-mount cameras - optical 1120mm with AF! | |
If you are into wildlife photography, sooner or later you realize that more reach is (almost) always better and more desirable. That is especially true for bird photography. Now, if you are using a Sony FE system, the odds are against you at this moment. There is no native long lens yet; the longest native Sony FE will be available in a few days and that's a zoom lens. While I don't have any doubt that the optical quality of that lens will be excellent but right off the bat there are a few things against you. First, it is zoom lens and it is a fairly slow one at that. The aperture varies from f/4.5 at the short end to f/5.6 at the long end. The are currently two FE tele extenders available, FE 1.4X and FE 2X. So, adding either this one will penalize you further in terms of aperture. Yes, you do get a sufficiently long reach of 800mm alright but the effective aperture is f/11. Ouch! Second, even the best tele extenders out there, while they perform really well on prime long lenses but in general, they do less so on zoom lenses based on my own experience.
Since we are still relying on Canon long lenses for this purpose, the role that smart adapters or mount converters plays is huge. The signals have to go through that piece of optic-less device. While Metabones IV still delivers the goods but Sigma MC-11 offers quite a bit and its price is less than that of Metabones, making it popular. This is not a thread about which is better and I am not associated with neither company. But it pertains to a feature of a new Metabones V, which was introduced without much fanfare. Although one can assume that it offers a better performance over the existing IV version, but the improvement, if any is not tangible as both run the same firmware, the brain behind their smart adapters. The physical difference is more noticeable; the addition of an IBIS switch is one of the noticeable features although I am still not sure what the main advantage of that feature but to me, the biggest advantage is the larger throat on the side that is mounted to the camera. Why?
If you own one of those FE tele-extenders, you notice that the rubber housing of the actual optical part is not only sticking out by quite a bit but it is also fairly large. Large enough that Sony specifies the usage of those extenders only to be limited to only selected GM lenses. Up to this point, only the GM 70-200mm f/2.8 and the soon available GM 100-400mm lenses. The larger throat of the V smart adapter allows one of the Sony FE tele-extenders to be mounted behind the adapter. If you combine that with Canon TC that is mounted between the lens and the smart adapter you can optically add or extend the reach even more. But how about AF and is the result good enough?
So, after receiving the V, I played around with the combination of those tele-extenders. It seems that the best combo of the longest reach, 1120mm, that still offers autofocus is the FE 2X behind between the camera and Metabones V and the Canon 1.4X TC between the Metabones V and Canon lens. In my case, I am using my Canon 400mm f/2.8 IS Mark II, a lens that has proven its superb image quality on the trip to Costa Rica last year. So, I tried the combo out yesterday at an actual wildlife setting at a place nearby. Burrowing owls were the targets in my case.
The green mode of Metabones V works splendidly. It could do a decent job tracking targets at AF wide mode. Yes, that’s a “dummy” mode and you rely on the setup to choose the AF point for you. Actually, it is pretty smart and it chooses the nearest point of focus in a 3-D object you are focusing and tracking. Most of the time there is a considerable distance between your target and your position. You rely on the extended depth-of-field to get most of your target in focus. If your target is pretty close, or the target is a big bird, it may be tough for you to get the entire bird in focus. It is my preference method of AF using this combo.
For semi stationary targets, I recommend using a smaller AF area, either M or even S. Since the depth of field is extremely shallow you literally have to put the AF point/cluster directly on it. If you use the L mode, it may not focus on the plane that you want to be in critical focus. The advance mode struggles a little. You have to focus manually until it is fairly close to the target and then it will focus OK. As you can imagine, it is simply tough to acquire focus at 1,120mm and f/8 regardless of the system.
A few words on the images here. I did post the first image on the big image thread yesterday but I adjusted the white balance here. It is the exact same image though. I admit that the owl in flight image is not critically sharp like the more stationary owl but it is still more than decent. I am sure, it has to do with the shutter speed and my swinging the camera to follow him. I anticipated that the owl would take off and prior to that I changed and reduced the FL by mounting my FE 1.4X behind the Metabones while keeping the same Canon 1.4X TC in the front to track him better. I noticed that there is vignetting in the extreme corners at both FLs and I did crop the images slightly. The vignetting is the result of physical restrictions in the optical path.
A few last points in random order - this effort was done on the A7r II and I am convinced that the conditions will be even better on the A9. Although I am looking forward to long Sony FE prime lenses but if the pricing of current Sony lenses provides any indication, I am afraid that those lenses would be terribly expensive and for sure more expensive than the superb Canon EF lenses of comparable specs. The rear opening of Sigma MC-11 is similar to that of the Metabones IV; you cannot mount any FE tele-extender. I can extend my Sigma 135mm f/1.8 Art lens using either the FE 1.4X and FE 2X minimal penalties in the AF department. And optically, it is still great in both modes; thiis lens is truly outstanding. That’s an extra bonus if you want to use that lens and occasionally need the FL to be extended.
Your comment and/or feedback is greatly appreciated!
Virtually uncropped file
Cropped to size - made the boogers in his nostrils visible LOL
Virtually uncropped
Cropped from above - I never noticed the surface/structure of the yellow part of their eyes before
Owl in flight - cropped
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