Imagemaster wrote:
A lot of BS being thrown around on this thread. There are no rules or laws that each individual photographer has to obey regarding TC's. Who cares what some birders say, and is just ridiculous.
Each individual is free to use TC's on any lens they wish, and they are free to use TC's, cropping, or any other method to get the final image that THEY WANT .
Sure, someone using a 400 f2.8, 600 f4, or 800 f5.6, with or without TC's, could get a lot better result. So what? What do I care? There are many reasons why myself or others do not wish to even own or use those lenses.
So go shoot with whatever you want, and forget about the preaching of the 'must use X camera or Y lens' crowd. ...Show more →
Excellent points and I fully agree having done that for a very long time. It is all about what we want to capture. And I have had clients say just get the shot. So they got the shot and were happy.
This is one of the great things about being creative, it is your shot or video clip. So go for it and don't start off with limitations.
Sure there are times I am checking shots and just throw them out, but other times I say, wow, good move snapping that shot or getting that clip.
I have a 300 GM on preorder and look forward to that focal length which fits a lot of my shooting. And it will have a 1.4x on it at times, I do not own a 2x.
PaulCStudios wrote:
Excellent points and I fully agree having done that for a very long time. It is all about what we want to capture. And I have had clients say just get the shot. So they got the shot and were happy.
This is one of the great things about being creative, it is your shot or video clip. So go for it and don't start off with limitations.
Sure there are times I am checking shots and just throw them out, but other times I say, wow, good move snapping that shot or getting that clip.
I have a 300 GM on preorder and look forward to that focal length which fits a lot of my shooting. And it will have a 1.4x on it at times, I do not own a 2x.
Imagemaster wrote: And I bet you would be happy with results with a 2x on it, or at least I would.
Depends how well I do my job, it is not all the gear. But if I get it right sure I would be happy, but it is the client in the end that 90% of the time I am making happy. And they keep coming back so I guess my mistakes are not that bad, and we all make them.
PaulCStudios wrote:
but it is the client in the end that 90% of the time I am making happy. And they keep coming back so I guess my mistakes are not that bad, and we all make them.
Luckily the only client I have now is myself. Even clients often don't know what they want or need, and some people just believe in what they are told and not what they see.
e.g. Many years ago a well-known pro photographer took a great shot of a local bridge during late sunset. He captured it on 35mm Kodachrome. He took it to a leading postcard vendor and was told it was a great shot, but they would not accept it because it was not a 4x5 transparency. So he took it to a film processing lab and had them make a 4x5 transparency from it. He went back to the postcard company where the same person said "Great", and they printed it and it became the highest-selling postcard in North America at that time.
Goes to show the postcard editor did not even recognize it was exactly the same scene, and that postcards from 35mm film were perfectly acceptable to thousands of people.
Another slightly different scenario: I was selling framed color prints at a gallery. A customer was just about to pay for one of my landscape photos, when he said, "I just love this painting." As soon as I said it was a photograph and not a painting, he decided he did not want to buy it because it was 'only a photograph'.
Another slightly different scenario: I was selling framed color prints at a gallery. A customer was just about to pay for one of my landscape photos, when he said, "I just love this painting." As soon as I said it was a photograph and not a painting, he decided he did not want to buy it because it was 'only a photograph'.
That makes me smile since I had a very similar thing happen at an Art Festival where I had a tent. A women came in looking at one of my 48" wide canvas wave prints. She stood looking at it, and then said, "I love that painting", I said, "it is a photograph", she said I am a painter, it is a painting", " I am the photographer and it is a photograph". She bought it.
One of the many reasons I try to only print on canvas. The texture, and colors stand out and to me it is art.
Imagemaster wrote:
A lot of BS being thrown around on this thread. There are no rules or laws that each individual photographer has to obey regarding TC's. Who cares what some birders say, and is just ridiculous.
Each individual is free to use TC's on any lens they wish, and they are free to use TC's, cropping, or any other method to get the final image that THEY WANT .
Sure, someone using a 400 f2.8, 600 f4, or 800 f5.6, with or without TC's, could get a lot better result. So what? What do I care? There are many reasons why myself or others do not wish to even own or use those lenses.
So go shoot with whatever you want, and forget about the preaching of the 'must use X camera or Y lens' crowd. ...Show more →
This is not really how I meant it.
Of course you are free to put whatever TC on whatever lens, surely when the results are pleasing to you.
I put the 2xTC on the Canon 400/4 DOII and did not let anything anyone elses says hinder me.
I meant it more in the context along the lines of: can the 300GM with the 2xTC meet certain criteria in such a way that it makes for a valid purchase at the price one will have to pay for it. Or will the 2xTC downgrade the lens compared to bare in such a way that the 6700,- that you have to spend on it are not well spent if you intend to have the 2xTC attached most of the time.
That has little or nothing to do with whether the combo will or will not produce results that are pleasing to you.
Should people write the combo off as a bad purchase in advance based on the outlook of performance with a 2xTC, then I merely say wait for the results, a f2.8 300mm lens has more chance of doing above average well with a 2xTC than a f4 600mm lens. Plus Sony is going forward with their lens design, the 300GM may do better than the 400/2.8, we simply don't know yet. What has me interested is the strikingly positive remarks by Mark Galer and Mark Smith in their videos on the 300GM.
If it turns out the 300GM+2xTC is no better than the 200-600G, I certainly won't spend the 6700,- on it even if it is as light and small as it is.
Hello and belated happy new year. I have the 300mm f2.8GM on pre-order at BH Photo since about December 20, 2023. Reading through all the posts on this thread has me excited to get my hands on this glass (and yes, I am eyeing the 2xTC and look forward to trying this pairing with my A7R5 for mostly wildlife and birding while traveling).
So this is a speculative question but figured I would ask. BH is showing an estimated Feb 23 ship date. Does anyone have any clue as to how accurate this may be based on past new cameras or glass from Sony? I am not sure how far down the pre-order list I may be, but is it possible it arrives sooner than Feb 23 (doubtful), right around that time (also doubtful), or are we talking weeks or months afterwards? I understand nobody really knows but maybe there is a past pattern to base an educated guess? Also I wanted to bump this thread as I am looking for more real world examples of the TC pairings when someone does get their hands on this glass. Thanks and happy to join the FM forums.
In the past it seems like lenses ship a day or two before release date. If you are in the first batch then you could get the lens by the listed date or maybe a day early. Seem like the preorder period allows them to gauge demand better.
Imagemaster wrote:
A lot of BS being thrown around on this thread. There are no rules or laws that each individual photographer has to obey regarding TC's. Who cares what some birders say, and is just ridiculous.
Each individual is free to use TC's on any lens they wish, and they are free to use TC's, cropping, or any other method to get the final image that THEY WANT .
Sure, someone using a 400 f2.8, 600 f4, or 800 f5.6, with or without TC's, could get a lot better result. So what? What do I care? There are many reasons why myself or others do not wish to even own or use those lenses.
So go shoot with whatever you want, and forget about the preaching of the 'must use X camera or Y lens' crowd. ...Show more →
These are good examples of exactly why I probably wouldn't bother using a 2x on a zoom lens.
I am still contemplating getting a 2x for specific situations with the 600 f/4. Jan Wegener's recent video is a good example of when a 2x TC might be useful.
Imagemaster wrote:
Luckily the only client I have now is myself. Even clients often don't know what they want or need, and some people just believe in what they are told and not what they see.
e.g. Many years ago a well-known pro photographer took a great shot of a local bridge during late sunset. He captured it on 35mm Kodachrome. He took it to a leading postcard vendor and was told it was a great shot, but they would not accept it because it was not a 4x5 transparency. So he took it to a film processing lab and had them make a 4x5 transparency from it. He went back to the postcard company where the same person said "Great", and they printed it and it became the highest-selling postcard in North America at that time.
Goes to show the postcard editor did not even recognize it was exactly the same scene, and that postcards from 35mm film were perfectly acceptable to thousands of people.
Another slightly different scenario: I was selling framed color prints at a gallery. A customer was just about to pay for one of my landscape photos, when he said, "I just love this painting." As soon as I said it was a photograph and not a painting, he decided he did not want to buy it because it was 'only a photograph'. ...Show more →
Must have been a real art connoisseur to have mistaken a photo for a painting or maybe there just a lot of heat shimmer that day.
WOW the pics in Galer’s Flkr are sensational I think I will get the 300 2.8 after seeing these. I have the 400GM & 600GM and they are very good but I never thought the 2x TC worked that great on the 400 but it is suburb on the 600GM like the pic’s of Mark G’s.
I could see myself parting with the 400GM with one of these especially with higher resolution cameras on the horizon.
Great images I too am more than pleased with the 2x on my 600GM. I was blown away when I first tried it a few years back and although I have not found it to be as good with the 400GM where I use a 1.5 or just do aps-c crop it is interesting to see it working so well on the 300 2.8. So much so that I think I will order one.
duncang wrote:
Must have been a real art connoisseur to have mistaken a photo for a painting or maybe there just a lot of heat shimmer that day. .
Well there are even real expert photographers that have mistaken photos for paintings, and vice-versa, without any heat shimmer involved. I bet an expert like you could even make such a mistake.
I expected it to pass the test with 1.4TC with flying colors.
But now the wait is for the test with 2XTC, since a 2XTC has the tendency to heavily compress images and does not usually produce a nice 3D look with a spacious atmosphere. Sharpness is one thing, but I really disliked the compressed look when pairing the Canon 400DOII with a 2XTC, especially when the background was rather close to the subject.
A Sony 400GM f4 would be nice, but perhaps the 300GM works out OK with the 2XTC
Whilst he posts some nice images and video, he doesn't comment a lot about the lens. Like how is the AF affected by adding the 1.4x? How does image quality compare with the 400mm? Or 600mm?
ChrisMak wrote:
I expected it to pass the test with 1.4TC with flying colors.
But now the wait is for the test with 2XTC, since a 2XTC has the tendency to heavily compress images and does not usually produce a nice 3D look with a spacious atmosphere. Sharpness is one thing, but I really disliked the compressed look when pairing the Canon 400DOII with a 2XTC, especially when the background was rather close to the subject.
A Sony 400GM f4 would be nice, but perhaps the 300GM works out OK with the 2XTC
I just watched the video from Alex Fung from Hong Kong, he tried the 1.4 TC and the 2X TC on the 300 GM. He said with the 1.4xTC the AF and image quality showed very little degradation from 300 f2.8, with the 2XTC it was still very good. He said the 300 GM took TC better than any big lenses he tried. He pointed out that with either TC it took the camera a little longer to "activate" AF, maybe a FW issue.
I am hoping he will soon do a direct 300 GM+2XTC vs 200-600 comparison at 600mm. The video is in Cantonese.
And I bet you would be happy with results with a 2x on it, or at least I would. 
