From what I've seen, I've been amazed at how well the 200-600 lens works with the 1.4 extender, but blown away by how well it appears to work with even the 2X extender. I can't wait to try it out myself.
So please post your 200-600 with 2X photos here and describe your experience with this particular combo. Does it get even better when you stop it down a bit? How well does it work in less than brilliant light? Etc...
I've found shooting it at f/13 gave very inconsistent results. The above is stopped down to f/16 which greatly improves consistency maybe from the increase in DOF because otherwise it gets so narrow you often miss critical focus.
My recent controlled testing showed no benefit over cropping the bare lens. I used tripod, 10s timer, MF with peaking and then cropped each shot to the same FOV, output at 1920 wide and compared the jpegs. They were so close at 3:1 I couldn't tell a difference. If you want to print big or crop more than my test then it may be worth using the 2x. Otherwise, the loss of 2 stops is not worth it. I tried my test two ways...one I lowered SS (not always practical in the field) and that gave the similar results. The other round I upped ISO on the 2xTC shot...in that case the bare 600 cropped was noticeably better image.
Photo cross posted in the Sony FE Image Thread and taken yesterday at 4:59PM.
Looking at a Canada Goose.
Fairly cropped tripod mounted Sony FE 200-600mm f5.6-6.3 G with Sony 2X Teleconverter set to 600mm (total of 1200mm) and A7rIII camera, silent shutter.
ISO 400, f13, 1/125 second
Exposure corrected +0.24 Stops
September 8, 2019.
Looking out my Kitchen rear sliding door at Canada Geese in Retention Pond, Breinigsville, PA.
I am basically a handheld shooter and I pretty much gave up the idea of using 2XTC in the field. Of course, I can get a few shots in a perfect situation at 1200mm but IMHO, having a better chances of getting the BIF shots at 600-840 mm, outweighs the benefits of having a fewer larger image at 1200mm.
Photo cross posted in the Sony FE Image Thread and taken at 4:23PM.
A flock of Canada Geese; what is everyone looking at?
Tripod mounted FE 200-600mm G with 2X TC set to 600mm (total of 1200mm) and A7rIII, silent shutter.
ISO 200, f13, 1/125 second
Exposure corrected +0.36 Stops
September 8, 2019.
Looking out my Kitchen rear sliding door at Canada Geese in Retention Pond, Breinigsville, PA.
I tried the 2X extender for the first time this morning, and was impressed with the results, especially given that it was hand-held and heavily cropped!
Sony a9; wide open @f/13; ISO 1250; 1/500 sec; +1.3 EC
arbitrage wrote:
I've found shooting it at f/13 gave very inconsistent results. The above is stopped down to f/16 which greatly improves consistency maybe from the increase in DOF because otherwise it gets so narrow you often miss critical focus.
My recent controlled testing showed no benefit over cropping the bare lens. I used tripod, 10s timer, MF with peaking and then cropped each shot to the same FOV, output at 1920 wide and compared the jpegs. They were so close at 3:1 I couldn't tell a difference. If you want to print big or crop more than my test then it may be worth using the 2x. Otherwise, the loss of 2 stops is not worth it. I tried my test two ways...one I lowered SS (not always practical in the field) and that gave the similar results. The other round I upped ISO on the 2xTC shot...in that case the bare 600 cropped was noticeably better image....Show more →
Were you shooting with a flash? I can't match this quality of image unless I use a flash, even in good light.
dhachey wrote:
Were you shooting with a flash? I can't match this quality of image unless I use a flash, even in good light.
No, I never use flash. The light was terrible, had to increase exposure compensation to avoid a silhouette (which of course decreases shutter speed), and hand-held @1200mm, then heavily cropped. Sony is doing something right!
Really digging the reach of the 200-600 with the 2x. This pair was a long ways from our boat today and the image is about 1/9 of the full frame. So, from a moving boat (the waves were not big on the lake, but still, at 1200mm, the small waves/chop made just keeping them in the frame a bit challenging), I'm pretty happy with the results.
No time to set up a tripod, and the beaver does not like flash or sound of shutter. Shutter speed too slow for slight movement of paws, but beaver kept his head and eye quite still. Just one of the reasons why the improvement most important to me in newer cameras is better and higher ISO. Better image stabilization also a big asset.
