Stacked Converters (1 Viewer)

G.Wills · Jun 1, 2010

HI all,

Is it safe to stack canon converters? I've seen many people do it but it doesn’t recommend it in the manual. Has anyone got any examples of shots taken using stacked canon converters or any experiences using them?

As usual any help would be greatly appreciated,

Cheers,

Greg

CornishExile · Jun 1, 2010

G.Wills said:
HI all,

Is it safe to stack canon converters? I've seen many people do it but it doesn’t recommend it in the manual. Has anyone got any examples of shots taken using stacked canon converters or any experiences using them?

As usual any help would be greatly appreciated,

Cheers,

Greg

I don't know about 'safe', but it's certainly doable. Attached was taken last month across a quarry in Hungary using stacked 2x and 1.4x Canon TCs with a 300/2.8 lens on a 50D, tripod mounted with a timer release to minimise any vibration. Only recommended in extremis for a record shot, as the image quality sucks.

ce

Jaff · Jun 2, 2010

Just check out some of the recent shots in my gallery. Of course the stacking only really works on a 300mmf2.8 or a 400mf2.8 and if you want good AF with it then a 1D body is required.

Black_lab · Jun 2, 2010

Jaff said:
Just check out some of the recent shots in my gallery. Of course the stacking only really works on a 300mmf2.8 or a 400mf2.8 and if you want good AF with it then a 1D body is required.

Arthur Morris (Birds As Art) often talks about stacking converters with 500mm lens & above. He uses an extension tube between the two.

Roy C · Jun 2, 2010

Black_lab said:
Arthur Morris (Birds As Art) often talks about stacking converters with 500mm lens & above. He uses an extension tube between the two.

I believe you only need an extension tube if you are trying to stacking the Mk1 Canon extenders - with the 2x Mk2 converter you do not need the extension tube as it stacks fine with a 1.4 tc.

Jaff · Jun 2, 2010

Black_lab said:
Arthur Morris (Birds As Art) often talks about stacking converters with 500mm lens & above. He uses an extension tube between the two.

Well if you've got the light for shooting at f11 then your doing better than here in the NW most days of the year, pretty nice today though. Will be out enjoying it shortly.

birder · Jun 3, 2010

Hi there

Yes, it is possible to stack 1.4 and 2x with Canon - I have done it with a 500mm f4 and 1D Mark II N - provided the light is good and you have a stable tripod and cable release / self timer, the results can be quite satisfactory. I don not use an extension tube.

Here's a link to one of my shots (I actually used this photo as one of my panel in successfully gaining my Associateship distinction with the Royal Photographic Society in the nature category).

http://www.wildlifeontheweb.co.uk/prey/index2.html

Kevin

birder · Jun 3, 2010

sorry - the link should have gone to the Osprey images from Yepoon on this gallery section

Kevin

Roy C · Jun 3, 2010

birder said:
Hi there

Yes, it is possible to stack 1.4 and 2x with Canon - I have done it with a 500mm f4 and 1D Mark II N - provided the light is good and you have a stable tripod and cable release / self timer, the results can be quite satisfactory. I don not use an extension tube.

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Kevin

As explained in my previous post Kevin, you need the extension tube if you are trying to stack a Mk1 2x converter. The same trick can be used to mount a Canon converter on a lens that was not designed to take the converter.

Roy C · Jun 3, 2010

Greg, Here are some sample shots taken with the stacked 1.4 and 2x tc's with a 300/2.8 lens and 40D. Note that although the 40D only AF's up to f5.6 (as with all non 1 series cameras) these shots were taken using AF because the Camera will only see one tc when you stack.
Pretty average shots to say the least but it gives you an idea of the IQ you can get when stacking.

Roy C · Jun 3, 2010

Greg, here are some more stacked 1.4 and 2x tc samples, this time taken with a 7D. Not only are they stacked but also some are very heavily cropped. All these were stopped down one (effectively to f11) so AF was not possible with the 7D. I will let you decide if the IQ is up to your requirements.

Jaff · Jun 3, 2010

I don't believe it would be f11 Roy. As you say when using the stacked converters the camera only recognises the 2x so if you stopped down to f8 on the camera then that would be they were shot at.

Roy C · Jun 4, 2010

Jaff said:
I don't believe it would be f11 Roy. As you say when using the stacked converters the camera only recognises the 2x so if you stopped down to f8 on the camera then that would be they were shot at.

Adam, I know that the Camera will only register f5.6 when using the stacked converters but it is in effect f8 so if you stop down one to f8 on the Camera you are, in effect, shooting at f11. To put it another way,You are still lose 3 stops of light when stacking even though the Camera only register 2 stops.

This is a similar situation to when someone tapes a 1.4 tc or uses a non reporting tc on the 100-400 or 400/5.6, although the Camera still registers f5.6 it is really f8.

Roy C · Jun 4, 2010

This thread got me thinking about stacking 2 2x tc's on the 300/2.8 for a bit of fun so I had a try this morning ( Canon 2x + a 20 year old cheap Teleplus 2x).
I must admit the results were better than I expected. The first chimney shot is at 300mm and the second one from exactly the same position at 1200mm (1920mm FOV on the 7D).There is minimal processing done - just a bit of sharpening.
I might try adding a 1.4 on as well, making it 1680 mm (2688mm FOV on the 7D) :-O:-O:-O

postcardcv · Jun 4, 2010

I have one occassion stacked a 1.4x and 2x on the 500 f4, with good light it can give good results... attached is a snow bunt shot taken with stacked tcs on a 1DsmkII, first shot is re-sized and sharpened, second is a 100% crop to show the detail it retained.

Marcus Conway - ebirder · Jun 4, 2010

postcardcv said:
I have one occassion stacked a 1.4x and 2x on the 500 f4, with good light it can give good results... attached is a snow bunt shot taken with stacked tcs on a 1DsmkII, first shot is re-sized and sharpened, second is a 100% crop to show the detail it retained.

Quality images Pete, love them :t:

speaks volumes for your technique too!

a.dancy · Jun 4, 2010

Agreed!

Jaff · Jun 4, 2010

What I'm trying to say is that as the camera is set to f8 that's what the aperture blades would close to at the moment you take the shot which means that you'd have stopped down to the same amount of light that is supposed to be hitting the sensor with the two TC's on so it balances out, no f11. With you using the 2 2x's then you'd have to select f11 for it to balance out even though you'd still be able to selct larger apertures but they'd give false exposures. Does that sound like it makes any sense?

Anyhoow. I think the short and sweet of it is from all of us for the OP is that yes you can use stacked TC's and with some excellent results.

Roy C · Jun 5, 2010

Jaff said:
What I'm trying to say is that as the camera is set to f8 that's what the aperture blades would close to at the moment you take the shot which means that you'd have stopped down to the same amount of light that is supposed to be hitting the sensor with the two TC's on so it balances out, no f11. With you using the 2 2x's then you'd have to select f11 for it to balance out even though you'd still be able to selct larger apertures but they'd give false exposures. Does that sound like it makes any sense?

Anyhoow. I think the short and sweet of it is from all of us for the OP is that yes you can use stacked TC's and with some excellent results.

I guess we are on two different wavelengths Adam, my quote about it said 'effectively to f11' and I was thinking of the number of stops of light that you lose. If you use a 2x and a 1.4x you lose three stops (even though the Camera says f5.6) If you then dial in f8 you will lose another stop which mean a total of four stops. Four stops from f2.8 is f11.

By the way Adam, you seem to agree with me in your post #6. A 500/4 lens with stacked 2x and 1.4x will only show f8 so why do you say f11 (you are of course right because you would effectively be shooting at f11).

As far as false exposures go, with TTL metering I always thought that the camera meters what it see Through The Lens irrelevant of what the Camera is reporting. If it did not do this then stacking tc's would always give you the wrong exposure (as would taping the pins or using non reporting tc's).

Anyway, my personal take on stacking tc's is that although you can get reasonable results I find it of limited use in the field. In fact the only time I have ever used it in the field was when I was snapping a Common Crane and could not get nearer than about 200 yards - stacked tc's allowed me to get a record shot.

Weiss1 · Jun 5, 2010

Here's my only successful attempt stacking teleconverters:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2755/4199523610_1e861c4d00_o.jpg

840mm with the Canon 300/2.8, Canon 2x TC and Kenko 1.4x TC

My biggest problem with stacking teleconverters is that I only ever use it when something is very far away and when I do an extreme crop it seems to get a lot of distortion. I feel like I could get a better shot just using the 2x and cropping more.

Also I'm terrible at manual focusing through the viewfinder. And I don't have a tripod so handholding 1344mm equivalent is kind of tricky

That said I am tempted to try it again on a kingfisher. I know they are at a certain spot and I can't physically get any closer than the bank of the water so that might be the best time to use it.

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