TC-2e III

[glamy]

Anybody has one? I would like some feed back about the IQ when used on a 70-200.

[aim54x]

Greg has this set up....

[Mr Darcy]

I have nothing to complain about.
I'll either track down some photos, or do a test shoot in the next couple of days for your viewing pleasure.
In the mean time, this is the review that convinced me to buy:
http://www.naturalart.ca/artist/fieldtests/tc_series3.html
A partial quote:

1. 70-200mm f2.8 VRII: The addition of the TC-20EIII teleconverter turns this lens into a 140-400 f5.6 zoom lens. I was extremely (but pleasantly) surprised how well this combination performed. There is slight image softness when shot wide open (f5.6) but stopping down by one stop (to f8) removed most of this softness and produced minimal (and very acceptable) image degradation. This hand-held grab shot of my young Portuguese Water Dog (at 400mm EFL) is typical of the results I regularly obtained using this lens/TC combo. Any decrease in the speed of initial acquisition of autofocus was barely noticeable, but I did notice a slight decrease in the ability of the lens/TC combo to keep fast moving objects in focus (in this case, the number of in-focus shots of my dogs running directly at me was about 40% lower than when I use the 70-200 VRII alone). Focus-tracking subjects moving slightly slower (see, for example, this shot of my other Portie trotting at me at moderate speed) - which represents a scenario more similar to what I would commonly encounter when photographing wildlife in the field - produced a very high ratio of in-focus to out-of-focus images. Overall I found the results of this new 2x TC paired with the 70-200 f2.8 VRII virtually on par with those obtained when pairing the lens with the 1.4x TC-14EII - it's THAT good! There will be very few photographers who will be unhappy with the results produced when the TC-20EIII is used with the 70-200mm VRII.

My Usability Rating for the 70-200mm f2.8 VRII plus TC-20EIII: Moderate to High

[Murray Foote]

I've used it extensively with the 300mm f2.8 on my recent trip to Antarctica with Greg. 20% of my shots in Antarctica and 36% in the Falklands were shot with this combo. Perfectly usable wide open; no loss at all stopped half a stop down. Most excellent with this lens. Value depends on intended purpose and intended lens. Several reviews. Mansurovs comes to kind.

[glamy]

Thanks for the replies. I had seen these reviews but it is comforting to know people can back them up. I want to use it for wild life (kangaroos, birds...)

[Murray Foote]

You've no doubt seen all these before but these ones are at 600mm:
mountains (panorama), glacier and tree, flamingo, moon, albatross, crabeater seal and whale, wandering albatross, penguins and double-banded plover, penguin, elephant seals and geese, penguins, armadillo, fox, seals and orca and toucan (100% crop).

[glamy]

Thank you for the feed back and samples. I ordered one tonight.