I've always been a bit of a birding kind of guy. I tend to notice them and point them out to my daughter or anyone nearby. It was one of the main reasons why a few years ago I bought my 2X teleconverter to make my Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS lens into a 140-400mm f5.6 lens. The 400mm zoom really helps fill the frame without needing to get so close that you scare them away, and although you do loose two stops of light (f2.8 becomes f5.6) I find that the depth of field at 400mm is so thin that it's best to stop down to about f8 or f10 anyway. The teleconverter does also add much more noticeable chromatic aberrations and the shots tend to come out a little softer then without it, but from a cost benefit perspective (since I already had the 70-200 f2.8 lens) getting the Canon 2X II Extender was a no brainer compared to dishing out big bucks for a dedicated 400mm lens. These two wildlife shots of a Great Blue Heron were taken with this lens combo on the Ottawa River very recently. What a lovely bird.
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Aperture: f/8.0
Exposure: 1/2000, 1/2500
Focal Length: 200mm with 2X TC (400mm)
Flash: Not-Fired
ISO: 640
Post processing included conversion from RAW, levels adjustment, and high pass filter
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The images are very natural looking and the detail is great; especially in the second image where the heron's wings are spread.
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