Using the Canon 1.4x Teleconverter and the Canon 70-200 f2.8 for Wildlife Photography

With a little less than a month before my trip to Yellowstone, I was looking for a car camera and lens combo.  My primary lens and camera combination for the trip will be the Canon 5d Mark III and 500mm f/4 lens.

But in Yellowstone, you need to have a good zoom combo handy as you are driving through the park.  Wildlife can often be seen right near the side of the road and you need a camera handy as you don’t have the time to set up a big lens.

For trips to Yellowstone, you can also be challenged with the amount of gear that you can bring as most of the flights to Bozeman and Jackson Hole use smaller planes.  If I can use the Canon 70-200mm f2.8 as both a backup wildlife lens (with the 1.4x teleconverter) and for close in landscape photography, I could save valuable room in my photo backpack.

While in Mississippi photographing White Pelicans, I took the opportunity to test out a Canon 7d,   Canon 70-200mm f/2.8, and Canon 1.4x Mark II teleconverter.  I also have a Canon 1.4X Mark III teleconverter but I want to reserve it for use with the 500mm f4 lens.

Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 & 1.4x Teleconverter Photography Results

The results from the test with the Canon 7d, 1.4x mark II teleconverter, and Canon 70-200mm f2.8 were mixed.  First off, the light was not great.  It was a cloudy, overcast day on the Mississippi River that caused me to use the Canon 7d at ISO 800.

The Canon 7d is rather noisy in bad lighting conditions.  That coupled with the use of the teleconverter had me convinced that the test would fail and I would be looking for other alternatives for my car lens for Yellowstone.

However, I was surprised by the quality of some of the photos.  The photos were noisy and I had to reduce the noise in the photos in Lightroom before I started processing.  But overall, I got some relatively good shots in poor lighting conditions.  I am going to try this combination for my back up camera at Yellowstone.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

All of the photos in this blog were taken with the Canon 7d, Canon 70-200mm f2.8, and Canon 1.4x mark II teleconverter. Click on the photos in the blog to see a larger version of the image.

Written by Martin Belan

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