I wasn't able to get out grouse hunting, yet. But I did get a chance to shoot this grouse. Using the Canon 70-300mm lens. This is the closest I could get before he flew off in a thunder.



I'm using the affordable 70-300mm lens here, but would like a longer reach. The alternatives are pretty steep and I'm considering the Canon 1.4x extender. Has anyone used this extender ring? I'd like to here your impressions. Thanks.

Nice grouse shot! A couple of points on the 1.4 extender. I don't believe the Canon version will even fit on your lens. You will need to go to a Kenko, Tamron, third party extender. AF most likely will not work at all, especially at the long end with your variable aperture. Trying to manual focus with todays viewfinders and lower optics lenses is difficult at best.

I know that is most likely not what you wanted to hear but there really are no free lunches. Everybody that starts out and looks for affordable longer glass runs into the same problem.

I just checked the lens list that is compatable with the Canon 1.4 TC. Keep in mind as I previously mentioned you will have to go third party if you want to go with an extender. Only these lenses will work with the Canon extender;

70-200mm 2.8L
70-200mm 2.8L IS
70-200mm 4L
100-400mm 4.5-5.6L
400mm 4 DO
135mm 2L
180mm 3.5L Macro
200mm 1.8L
200mm 2.8L
300mm 2.8L IS
300mm 4L
300mm 4L IS
400mm 2.8L IS
400mm 5.6L
500mm 4L IS
600mm 4L IS
1200mm f/5.6L

And some of those lenses Dan listed only work in manual focus like the 100-400L will only work in manual in the lower end bodies. If you get into the full fram stuff the 1.4 will work with auto focus.

To be more clear, only Canon "1" series bodies will autofocus a Canon f5.6 lens with a Canon 1.4 TC. The combined maximum aperture of that combo is f8, and only "1" bodies will autofocus that f8 combo. All other Canon bodies, including the full-frame 5D, will only autofocus lens/TC combos with max apertures of f5.6.

All Canon bodies will autofocus all Canon lenses (and all compatible second-party lenses) with max apertures of f5.6. So the 100-400 will autofocus on all Canon bodies, though when combined with a Canon 1.4 TC will only autofocus on "1" bodies. When coupled with a Canon 2X TC, the 100-400 will not autofocus on any Canon body because its max aperture is f11.

You can get around the lens/TC combo restriction by buying a couple models of non-Canon TC (some Sigmas, Kenkos and Tamrons) that don't report aperture to the camera, but these are not top-quality TCs. You can also tape off three contacts on the Canon TCs to stop the TC reporting aperture, but autofocus will be very slow, and some reviews indicate this can burn out autofocus motors.

I have the Kenko 1.4 converter and have got a couple very sharp shots with it combined with my 100-400L. However, the majority of the shots were throwaways. Like Dan said, manual focusing is extremely tough, but not impossible. It's also not something you are going to be able to do on the fly. My investment pretty much sits in my bag. Heck, I forget I even have it most of the time.

I dont know much about what lens you should buy, but thats a sweet pic!

That is a sweet pic!

Thanks everyone. I am happy to say this grouse is still flying in the Tower area.

Thanks for the tips. I'm finding that this lens takes some time trying to autofocus. With the converter I'm assuming my problem would be magnified. I guess I'll wait to upgrade and use my EFS 70-300 and crop in PS. I kind of wish I had saved more for the 100-400, ah well, that's a few years from now. I never realized how expensive this hobby would become.

Thanks again.

Nobody ever does