7D & Stacked Converters

[Alfred Forns]

Osprey at Flamingo, ENP eating a fish. Stacked a 1.4X and 2.0X and manually focused, did have to make over a dozen to obtain one sharp, nailing the focusing not easy.

Comments welcome and much appreciated

Canon 7D
500 f4.0 IS 1.4X 2.0X
f 11.0 1/1250
ISO 640
Manual exp

[Joe Senzatimore]

If Nikon has anything on Canon , it's the ability to stack converters. This is a fine image with great quality. Very impresive.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Stacking works with good technique. This is testament to that Al. Well done mate. A very nice behavioral image. Just a little square-ish for me. :)

[Adams Serra]

Hi Alfred, you did a nice job with the stacked converters, I've tried this a few times before and the number of keepers are very low.

[Jay Gould]

Al, quite sharp and very presentable - in what order did you stack the converters? I haven't yet stacked with the 300 f/2.8.

Also, is the image cropped?

Joe, since this was shot with a stacked Canon, I do not understand you comment about Nikon. :cool:

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Jay

They will only stack one way, the 1.4X has to go on the camera body. Some cropping from right and left, can tell by the resulting format.

[arash_hazeghi]

Very nice Al, love the fish open beak and the tongue! sharpness looks ok, does the larger size (for 8X10 print) look good too?

[Fabs Forns]

Awesome detail, the original looks great too.

[Arthur Morris]

Not bad for 44.8X maginification... Amazing sharpness. Blacks could go a bit darker.

Joe's remarks leave me mystified as well....

[Harold Davis]

awesome detail with the stacked tc's!! that mullet had a bad day!!!

[denise ippolito]

Alfred, The details look great. I love the pose w/ the tongue out.:) I also like the square comp. for this.

[Alfred Forns]

Arash you can print this as big as you want to !! Its a very large file !!!

[Ofer Levy]

Excellent behaviour shot! Personally I am not crazy about a square crop but it works nicely in here.

[Randy Stout]

I think Joe just misspoke.

Randy

[Fabs Forns]

I think Joe just misspoke.

Randy

Me too

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Amazing sharpness for such bunch of TC!!!

Love the open beak and pray, well whatever is left! I also find the square format a bit boring for my taste, sorry Al.

[Stephen Stephen]

Well captured Alfred. I really like the open bill.

[Dave Leroy]

Very sharp Al for all the gear. Good timing as well to get the active pose. Dave

[Callie de Wet]

This is simply marvelous. I battle with a 1.7 TC, never mind stacking them! BUt one read and learn, it give me something to go out and try, Al.

[Harshad Barve]

This is super shot , MF looks razor sharp and details are too good
TFS

[Vida van der Walt]

Great shot Al. Like the others, I'm amazed at the sharpness considering the stacked TC's. Love the pose and behavior captured.:)

[Mark Dumbleton]

Super effort here Alfred. You did well with the stacked convertors. Like the open beak with fish in talons.
Not a fan of the squarish crop, but sometimes its hard to crop it another way.

[Thonnaksar NOP]

Very good sharpness, detail and DOF considering the focal length and MF !
I'm not used to the square format but the composition works quite well here.

[Michael Wolf]

Superb image captured with great technique by master photographer Alfred Forns!

[Matthew Studebaker]

Wow - good to know that combo can produce such nice results!

[Stu Bowie]

Great result with stacked converters Al. I like the pose, together with the open beak, and the exposure looks good. Thats a fair size fish.

[Steve Maxson]

Very nice considering all the hardware used. I like the screaming bird and his grip on the fish. I have no problem, at all, with the square crop (or any other crop, for that matter) when it suits the subject material. Well done.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

IQ is quite good considerin the stacked TCs. Loved the open beak and the prey.

[Morkel Erasmus]

very impressive IQ to say the least, especially with all the flack the 2x converters usually get.
says a lot more about the tog, I guess! :)

[Juan Aragonés]

Quite impressive result Al. I really would love to have the possibility of stacking converters with my Nikon gear but the quality of the 2X-TC with the 500VR is so unpredictably that it is not necessary to even consider the possibility of stacking converters.

[Arthur Morris]

Quite impressive result Al. I really would love to have the possibility of stacking converters with my Nikon gear but the quality of the 2X-TC with the 500VR is so unpredictably that it is not necessary to even consider the possibility of stacking converters.

Hi Juan, You will soon be hearing of a new Nikon 2X with aspherical elements that will be fantastic.

[Juan Aragonés]

I know Artie, in fact I have one of the new 2X aspherical TC in order for a test. It is really interesting to see how much variation can be found in different copies of a lens. I have tested four different 500VR lenses with my old 2XTC and the result were pretty different. In one lens, the IQ was outstanding, in the same league of the results that I got with the 300VR 2,8. Two other 500VR lenses produced a poor result with the same 2XTC (a resample in PS produce even better results than the ones obtained with the 500+2XTC) and the fourth lens produced even worse results. All tests made with tripod, wimberly head, lots of light, f8. With the first lens, the results were really outstanding and that test was the reason why I changed my beloved 300VR lens for the 500VR.
The same four lenses showed no differences in sharpness when used with the 1,4XTC or with no TC. :confused:

[Arthur Morris]

Confused? I'll say. I guess that I should not believe everything that I hear! What a shock.

[Juan Aragonés]

Artie, I was talking about the older version, not about the new 2XTC. I have a lot of expectations on the new design of the aspherical 2X-TC III and can´t wait to receive a copy and test its performance. The first tests that I have seen on the web are really promising (on a 70-200 VRII) and impressive so I am wondering if I could expect the same for the 500VR (considering that a 500 mm lens is really different to a 70-200mm lens, of course).

Fortunately, I am really happy with the 1,4XTC and I can live without a 2X because no matter how good is a 2X converter... there is nothing like a bare lens ;)

[Arthur Morris]

Ah, I was confused. I thought that you had tested one of the new ones and gotten uneven results... I look forward to seeing what you think. Yes, a bare lens is great but I made lots of my very faves with the 2x TC before I got my 800. Now using a 2X is a moot point....