Trying out the Canon Extender EF 1.4x III one last time...
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| Speckled Pigeon in Flight Above the Diep River : Woodbridge Island |
I know it would be another close-to futile experiment. As I have tried a few times before with the Canon EOS 7D Mark II and EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens. However, in good light there could be a few keepers, but my hopes are never high.
With the pairing I'm using here, around Woodbridge Island and the Diep River, I get great shots without the converter, but the extra 1.4x is there to try. The Canon Extender EF 1.4x III works well with a f/2.8 or f/4 EF 400mm lens (and others), but not so effective with the f/5.6 lens.
I went out (down the Diep River, Woodbridge Island right to the edge of the
Table Bay Nature Reserve and back), with very crisp Cape Town light and a soft South-Easter blowing, which would have no real effect with / or without the converter. The main disadvantage for me is the fast autofocus I'm losing at f/8 and only getting 1 or 4 AF-points for birds in flight.
Nevertheless, I went on my usual morning hike to see what birds I could capture. I missed quite a lot of relatively close-up shots (which I would easily get without the extender), but I carried on.
Just for reference: I've tried the Canon Extender EF 1.4x III on said pairing a few times and it was always a 'hit and mis' experiment. Today was the last time I would be tempted to use the extender again. The native combination is just so much quicker and sharper at f/5.6.
Note: The Canon Extender EF 1.4x III will maybe be more effective on the anticipated
Canon EOS R7 Mark II body with the EF to RF converter and the same EF 400mm f/5/6L USM lens. It will also be interesting to see if the Canon EOS R7 Mark II's IBIS will in any way be supported. Personally, I doubt it - not that I will be bothered by any IBIS incompatibility with a lens design of the early 1990's - I shoot only Manual with the EF 400mm f/5/6L USM lens anyway (due to the lack of Image Stabilisation, which is not a problem after owning the lens for 15 years for mainly
Birds in Flight Photography),
I did get a few images of birds in flight and perched birds during my hike and bird names / images are listed in sequence from top to bottom below:
Birds in Flight / Perched Bird List- Speckled Pigeon in Flight (Top)
- Speckled Pigeon in Flight (Below)
- Grey Heron in Flight
- Yellow-Billed Duck in Flight
- Egyptian Goose in Flight
- Cape Weaver Perched
- Common Starling Perched
- Levaillant's Cisticola Perched
- Levaillant's Cisticola Perched (The Intentional Gaze)
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| Speckled Pigeon in Flight Above the Diep River : Woodbridge Island |
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Grey Heron in Flight Above the Diep River : Woodbridge Island
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| Yellow-Billed Duck in Flight Table Bay Nature Reserve : Woodbridge Island |
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Egyptian Goose in Flight Table Bay Nature Reserve : Woodbridge Island
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| Perched Cape Weaver Along the Diep River : Woodbridge Island |
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| Perched Common Starling Along the Diep River : Woodbridge Island |
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Perched Levaillant's Cisticola Along the Diep River : Woodbridge Island
Perched Levaillant's Cisticola - The Intentional Gaze : Woodbridge Island |
Location: Arnhem Milnerton, Diep River, Woodbridge Island, Table Bay Nature Reserve
Canon Camera / Lens for Bird Photography
- Canon EOS 7D Mark II (APS-C)
- Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM Lens
- Canon Extender EF 1.4x III
- SanDisk Extreme PRO 64GB 200 MB/s
Exposure / Focus Settings for Bird Photography
- Autofocus On
- Manual Mode
- Aperture f/8
- Auto ISO 400 - 1200
- Shutter Speeds 1/2500s
- No Image Stabilisation
- Handheld
Image Post-Processing: Lightroom Classic (Ver 14.5)
- Minor Adjustments (Crop / Exposure / Contrast)
- Noise and Spot Removal
- RAW to JPEG Conversion
