Canon EF 2x II Extender & 70-200mm f/2.8L matchup!

[ErectedGryphon]

Yesterday I picked-up a used Canon EF 2x II Extender to use on my Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM. This topic is a review of these two items, and how they work together, as promised in a previous post (Referenced Here).

The pictures were originally going to be the full blown untouched originals, however some of those images were over 5 Mb in weight, so they have been downsized to a long-edge of 1600 pixels. These images are large enough that you should still be able to form your own opinions as to how well these two items work together.

I am not going to cover the specs on the items, as they can be referenced in many places. Below the are linkes to the Canon Website:

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM

Canon EF 2x II Extender

Here are the items that were tested:

All pictures except the very last one, as designated were taken on the Canon EOS 5D 12.8 Mega-pixel Full Frame camera,

Below are the steps I took and the resulting images, they are not cropped and untouched, with exception of the watermark and the white balance of the image taken with the Canon EOS 30D (adjusted to match the 5D white balance).

 

[ErectedGryphon]

The first thing I wanted to do was check for sensor and lens boogers, the following pictures show that the camera and 70-200 lens are clean and clear.

Picture of the sky, bet way to find boogers:
Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM
Extender: None
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 78 (Not sure how that happened, was supposed to be 70)
Exposure: 1/500 @ f/8

The next one is with the extender, it shows a few specks in a couple of the corners, hopefully it just needs a better cleaning.

Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM
Extender: Canon EF 2x II
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 140 (70x2)
Exposure: 1/40 @ f/29 (Another mystery, was supposed to be f/8)

 

[ErectedGryphon]

Now for the meat and potatoes, if your vegan then maybe you can have potatoes, just scrape off the gravy.

I used a crisp new $5 bill so that you can zoom in and see the detail, at the edges you can still see the threading pattern of the background material.

On one image the top is white, this is from a positioning error, it's the top of the light box and does not interfere with the actual shot. At first I though there was some vignetting on the shots with the extender, but after closer examination, I'm certain its actually shadow from the drape of the cloth. This is supported by the lack of reversed shadowing at the top of the image, but you can judge for yourself here.

First step was setting up the custom white balance using an 18% Gray cloth, I have had very good results with this cloth in various lighting situations.

The next few shots are the base test at minimum and maximum focal lengths, both with and without the extender. The position of the Camera was changed, to try to keep the $5 Bill the same size.

Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM
Extender: None
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 70
Exposure: 1/640 @ f/9
***This is as close as I could get with the 70-200mm and get a focus lock.

Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM
Extender: None
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 200
Exposure: 1/640 @ f/9

Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM
Extender: Canon EF 2x II
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 140 (70x2)
Exposure: 1/640 @ f/9

Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM
Extender: Canon EF 2x II
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 400 (200x2)
Exposure: 1/640 @ f/9 (Mirror Lock-up Feature used)

 

[ErectedGryphon]

Once I finished that, I took some shots of my neighbors squirrel feeder, unfortunately there were no squirrels out at that time. I kept the camera in the same location, this was done to show the actual zoom factors.

Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM
Extender: None
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 200
Exposure: 1/250 @ f/5.6

Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM
Extender: Canon EF 2x II
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 400 (200x2)
Exposure: 1/160 @ f/5.6 (Mirror Lock-up Feature used)

Camera: Canon EOS 30D
Lens: Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM
Extender: Canon EF 2x II
ISO: 200
Focal Length: ~640 [200x2x1.6(Crop Sensor)]
Exposure: 1/500 @ f/8 (Mirror Lock-up Feature used)
** White balance adjusted post, to match previous shots.

 

[ErectedGryphon]

Well that's all for now...

I'm happy wih the Extender, it's a keeper! :thumbup::thumbup: