Rainbow Lorikeets at 1.4

[Joeyjoe]

Having just received my new 1.4x lens extender yesterday, I was having a quick play with it in the back yard on some rainbow lorikeets.
With my 600mm lens the auto focus doesn't work so these are offhand shots with manual focus.

#1 Peek-a-boo


#2 I see you



#3 Nom Nom Nom I edited aggressively.

[Isac]

Your manual focusing does seem up to scratch Joe. The rainbow lorikeets are a beautiful and colourful subject. What make and model lens and extender?

[Joeyjoe]

The lens is a Tamron 150-600 G2, and the extender is the Canon 1.4x II

[Isac]

When I was checking out extenders I came across the auto focus issues a lot so for the money I had to spend I decided not to get one. I like my Tamron lenses so a no auto focus extender was not for me. Maybe the Canon lenses are OK with the extenders auto focusing.

[Joeyjoe]

Yeah, luckily, I got it for a really good price. The AF seems to work fine on the Canon 100-400 lens I have here, so maybe the Tamron just doesn't have the function for it

[Alan]

Looking good I'm struggling with manual focusing atm too. If you are using PS/LR, you could add a touch of sharpening to the eyes. Love the poses and vibrant colour. Well done with the editing in #3 - my favourite. A 600 mm with an extender may struggle to find focus - esp in a busy background

[Joeyjoe]

I did a re-edit with Luminar Neo on the #1 picture to bring it out some more

[Isac]

I tried Luminar products a while back but after many years of using Photoshop, I found it difficult, so still using PS. I;m sure you'll master it in quick time.

[Joeyjoe]

I looked at it simply due to the ridiculous prices that Adobe charges for its subscription plans. I've been using Affinity Photo 2, and it's good, but it's lagging far behind with implementing the AI and other modern stuff that a lot of the other editors have, so I used the free trial on several other programs and settled for the Neo.

[Isac]

I'm not a fan of the AI stuff, I still like to do things using the knowledge and creativity I've developed over many years. But I do understand that AI is here to stay but to me it doesn't provide the challenge and enjoyment side of things.

[David_MC]

Beautiful shots of some beautiful birds.

Just FYI, Tamron has their own extender for the 150-600mm g2. The 1.4x should be able to autofocus on your camera.

[Joeyjoe]

Thanks, if I find value in using the extender I'll have a look around for the Tamron extender

[wigz]

These look very good for manual focus Joe, particularly for moving birds. When I've tried manual focus with a long lens I've failed miserably, and I had to rely on only manual focus for forty years, but I wasn't focusing on relatively distant birds.

I think you will find the focus limitation is the camera as most DSLRs can only autofocus up to about f/8, and then only with a few of the central focus points. I could be wrong but I don't think any teleconverter is going to change this. If your lens maximum aperture is f/6.3 then with the TC the maximum aperture is f/9.

Mirrorless cameras are much more flexible on this and manufacturers are now producing lenses with more limited maximum apertures - from memory Canon has a couple with f/11.

[wigz]

You could try these if you have an investigative bent:

- live view as this probably doesn’t have the aperture limitation.
- a lesser focal length where the max aperture is f/5.6. Defeats the purpose of the extender but identifies if the aperture is the problem.