Jakub Formela

Extender 2.0x

Pelikany kędzierzawe / Dalmatian pelicans, Kerkini Lake 2018 - 35
Pelikany kędzierzawe / Dalmatian pelicans, Kerkini Lake 2018 – 35
Flamingi / Flamingos, Kerkini Lake 2018 - 2
Flamingi / Flamingos, Kerkini Lake 2018 – 2
Pelikany kędzierzawe / Dalmatian pelicans, Kerkini Lake 2018 - 8
Pelikany kędzierzawe / Dalmatian pelicans, Kerkini Lake 2018 – 8
Pelikany kędzierzawe / Dalmatian pelicans, Kerkini Lake 2018 - 10
Pelikany kędzierzawe / Dalmatian pelicans, Kerkini Lake 2018 – 10
Pelikany kędzierzawe / Dalmatian pelicans, Kerkini Lake 2018 - 7
Pelikany kędzierzawe / Dalmatian pelicans, Kerkini Lake 2018 – 7
Pelikany kędzierzawe / Dalmatian pelicans, Kerkini Lake 2018 - 19
Pelikany kędzierzawe / Dalmatian pelicans, Kerkini Lake 2018 – 19

During my photo expedition to Greece I needed a long focal length. This was so because Dalmatian pelicans are not always sufficiently close, not to mention shy flamingoes. Since one of the lenses I took was a Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS I did not want to pack another heavy lens.

That’s why I decided to rent a teleconverter EF 2.0x. I was helped by the invaluable rental service cyfrowe.rent which operates as part of cyfrowe.pl. The rental service does not have teleconverters in their standard offer but it is always worth asking 🙂

After mounting the Extender to the lens you will get twice the focal length, that is a zoom of 140-400 mm. Unfortunately, nothing comes for free. An additional optical system causes the maximum aperture to decrease by two stops – to 5.6, so that it gets “darker”. In theory, an additional optical system may have a negative impact on the operation of the camera and photo quality, but in practice I didn’t notice any problems. So:

  1. The level of detail is satisfactory to me. I didn’t notice any differences when comparing the version with and without the teleconverter.
  2. Auto Focus – no reservations as to accuracy and speed. In my opinion it works equally well as without the extender.
  3. Stabilisation – you can clearly see how it works. With the maximum focal length after pressing the shutter you can clearly see how the image in the viewfinder “calms down”.
  4. After connecting the extender, the lens decreases the parameters of the camera – according to Canon manual it loses its A-class and becomes a B-class camera, which (in the case of my 6D Mk II) means that the central AF point ceases to be a dual cross type and becomes a cross type.
  5. There is also a drawback in Lightroom. For photographs taken without an extender, when turning on lens profile correction you only need to mark the checkbox and Lightroom will itself find the camera model and lens. For photographs taken with an extender you have to select the manufacturer of the lens and only then Lightroom will find your lens, i.e. the pair “70-200 + 2.0x”.

Sample photos taken with a 2.0 teleconverter and a 70-200 f/2.8 lens are shown above this post.