pros and cons of extenders

pyrgal · Jul 27, 2005

In anticipation of my trip to Alaska I having been begging lenses. My sister-in-law has a 2x extender and a 500mm that I can use on my AE-1. What are the pros and cons of using an extender? Are there setting changes that need to be made,etc? I don't have much time to play around with things before my trip so I thought I would ask THE EXPERTS:hail: !

Digital Matt · Jul 27, 2005

Cons: With a 2x extender you'll lose 2 stops of light. Also, since it's another piece of glass you'll lose some sharpness, and probably see some light fall off.

Pros: you double your focal length

I use a 1/4x extender with my 70-200 f/4 which makes it a 98-280 f/5.6, with acceptable sharpness. Is the 500mm your borrowing an f/4? It will become an f/8 then.

pyrgal · Jul 27, 2005

I'm not sure if the 500mm is an f/4 but I probably would not use the extender on that anyway. I was considering the use of it with my 135mm f/2.8. We are limited with what we can take to Alaska because we will be bringing home 200lbs of salmon in lieu of luggage. Our stuff for the trip will have to be in our carry-on luggage.