Lens Impressions

The Canon EF 1.4x II Extender has been a very useful addition to my camera bag. It's small and works well with my zoom lenses. The only drawback is that what you gain in focal length, you lose in light - one stop to be precise. However, this is an improvement over the 2x extender which has a two stop light penalty.

Using the extender doesn't affect the minimum focusing distance of the lens. Some of the bug shots above were taken at roughly the minimum focusing distance of the 300mm F4L IS.

All of my current lenses have a maximum aperture of F4. When I add the extender, that maximum aperture is effectively decreased to f/5.6. On my xxD bodies the autofocus still works at f/5.6. However, if I were to use the extender with a lens that had a maximum aperture of f/5.6, it would be decreased to f/8.0 and then the autofocus wouldn't work.

If you use a professional EOS-1 series camera it won't be a problem because these bodies autofocus at F8. Alternatively, I have read lots of reports about people putting tape over certain electrical contacts on the lens to get round this problem.

I have no experience of doing this so can make no comments.

Another comment that I have read repeatedly is that the extender degrades image quality. I guess the logic is that the more elements you place in between the sensor (or film) and subject, then the more the image will be degraded.

But in practice, is that the case? Click on the photos above to get a larger version and judge for yourself whether you think the image quality has been degraded.

The photos above are of the same subject so that you can make a comparison. Where there are four photos of the same subject I have kept the magnification aspects the same so you can see what difference the extender makes to the size of the subject.

Images used for comparison had exactly the same post-processing applied. There may be slight differences with the exposure due to the composition being different with each lens combination.

Lens Compatibility

According to Canon, the EF 1.4x II Extender is compatible with, "fixed focal length lenses 135mm and longer (except the 135mm f/2.8 Softfocus lens), and the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L, 70-200mm f/2.8L IS, 70-200mm f/4.0L, 70-200mm f/4.0L IS USM, and 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS zoom lenses."

With the 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS at certain zoom lengths, presumably you will run into AF problems using this lens combination on a body that only autofocuses up to f/5.6.

Post-Processing

Most original images were shot in the RAW format and converted with Adobe Camera Raw. Noise was reduced using Imagenomic Noiseware Professional. Small amounts of image enhancement were applied using Adobe Photoshop CS2 (curves, levels, saturation) before sharpening using the Smart Sharpen filter (Amount: 30% - 120%, Radius: 0.2px - 0.3px, Remove: Lens Blur).

JPG images were saved with a 'High' quality setting of '8' on a scale of 0-12.

Lens Details

Weight: 7.8oz; 220g
Date Purchased: December 2006
Supplier: Cathay Photo, Singapore
Price: SGD$677.25
Soft Case: LP811 (included)