SIgma 400mm f5.6 Macro with 1.4x tele (1 Viewer)

ANyone have any experience with a SIgma 400mm Macro plus 1.4x teleconverter (canon)? Thinking about buying a teleconverter and wondering if worth it.....

I have a Sigma 400mm f5.6 manual lens for my Nikon F4E, very nice lens - includes built in hood (72mm filter thread) and rotating tripod collar. Also have a 2x convertor. The result is an 800mm lens but it is quite dark due to it giving about f11 (IIRC). Shouldn't be as bad with a 1.4x convertor.
Is this for film or digital?
Digital will have a convertion factor of about 1.5x due to its APS size sensor anyway.
If you use film, you will need some 800 ASA if you intend hand-holding.

using a film camera. happy to use tripod. just worried if quality will be acceptable with 1.4x....

Should be ok, though I doubt it will be a macro, the only way I can use mine as a 'macro' is to add extension rings. The built in lens hood is usefull. (thats if it is the same model)

Sigma say that their 1.4 and 2x 'EX' converters are compatible with this lens but I don't know what the quality would be like

seamons said:

using a film camera. happy to use tripod. just worried if quality will be acceptable with 1.4x....

Click to expand...

I used to use the same lens as you have (Gramayr is, I think, talking about the smaller previous version of the sigma 400mm). I bought the 1.4x and ended up not using it very much. Using the 1.4x kills the autofocus and darkens the viewfinder, making manual focus more difficult to make accurate. For those reasons I most often used the lens on its own and cropped the pic to increase the image size. That said, when I used the 1.4x in good light so I could focus accurately the image quality was pretty good.

Sigma 400mm f5.6 + Kenko Pro 300 1.4 TC

I have a Nikon D70 w/ the Sigma 400mm f5.6 APO (non HSM) lens and have just purchased the Kenko Pro 300 1.4 Teleconverter. Consensus was that the Sigma 1.4X works very nice but you lose autofocus. The Kenko retains autofocus but it is 'slowwwwww'. I would only rely on autofocus for stationary subjects as it hunts even in sunlight. I've also found that there is very slight play between camera and lens w/ and w/o the TC (slightly disconcerting but doesn't affect operability). That said, I'm very impressed with the quality. I like the Sigma 400 - Its not the best lens in its class but the difference to me in quality relative to the Canon 400mm is a one-touch unsharpen mask in Photoshop.
I've included some images taken with Sigma w/o and w/ the Kenko Pro 300 1.4 TC. The first set of images are no crop (25% real size) and the second set is 100% zoom. The Kenko adds +1 stop as expected, but the sharpness is very good - I see very little loss in quality and am happy to report that I can live nicely with this system until I can sell the house, move into a trailor, and afford the big glass....