Canon EF 1.4X III Telephoto Extender for Canon Super Telephoto Lenses

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This review is based on use with a Canon EOS 5D mark IV and the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM II lens. The Canon EF 1.4X III Telephoto Extender gives this lens a max of 560mm f/8, so you loose one full stop. To put that in perspective, from f/5.6 to f/8 (one full stop), you are only getting 1/2 of the light that you were getting at f/5.6. For me, there was a slight learning curve and it took some fiddling with settings to get good exposure in lower lighting. The day I got this, it was one of those overcast days where the sun just looks like a smudge in the sky, but I just couldnt wait for better conditions, and really, why should I? It was a pretty good test actually. Five of the shots Ive attached were taken that day; the Downy Woodpecker, two of the Eastern Bluebirds, the Dove, and the Tufted Titmouse. My settings ranged from 1/200th shutter / ISO 1200 to 1/1000th shutter / ISO 800, and the darker images were at f/8. Most were taken under 60 feet away with the flying birds being over 150 feet. All shots have been cropped to various degrees. There is a wee bit of IQ loss, but nothing that you will notice on prints from 11x17"ish below and for general use, like Facebook, forums, and other places you might want to post images, even high quality ones. Once you convert to JPeG or other "lossy" formats, its a moot point anyway. I am a "pixel peeper" so I did notice some IQ loss when zoomed past 100%, but honestly, how many people do that?. I dont see any color fringing or vignetting , even though that has been reported, however, I seem to concentrate on the subject, which I know will be cropped, so if it is indeed there, its of no concern to me. I tested it, using the mentioned 100-400mm lens, on the 5D mark IV, the 7D mark II, and the Rebel T7i. All focus points worked on each of these cameras, even in outside lighting that wasnt optimal. I was really surprised because reviewers have stated that you loose some peripheral focus points. Focus did slow down in low light on all the cameras I tested on, but honestly, it wasnt that bad. Good lighting was a different story, all cameras AF was snappy as usual. Now, when Canon says the Canon EF 1.4X III Telephoto Extender will only work with certain lenses, it has nothing to do with optics or light, it just plain wont fit other lenses. For the heck of it, I tried to attach it to an EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 L IS USM II, an EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM II (non L), and an EF 100mm f/2.8 (I know, I just wanted to see), and it just would not fit the lens. The front element of the Canon EF 1.4X III Telephoto Extender went too far into the lens to allow it to attach. This device will not replace a dedicated long lens, but it will sure improve your reach with very little loss in IQ. You just have to pick your lighting battles.

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I upgraded from my 1.4x II to use on my 70-200 f/2.8 II lens and have been impressed with it, minus one optical flaw... At 70mm, it actually shows more CA/fringing than the previous model. However, at 200mm it performs better in that regard with less CA/Fringing. I actually returned the first one Amazon sent to me because I thought it was damaged somehow. The replacement performed exactly the same. I am thinking because these Mark III converters were designed for use with the super-teles that the optical construction was developed to maximize IQ at those focal lengths. On the wider end, it may not correct these aberrations as well, even though it does offer higher resolution all around (see below). Sharpness wise, the 1.4x III is better. I compared carefully doing side by side test shots... Tripod, mirror lockup, live-view focus, etc... The 1.4x III always had finer detail and more contrast. It was actually quite noticeable, although not as much in real-world shooting. AF performance is the same (with this lens), but I do like the build quality better. More mounting screws, better switch to release the lens, etc... I think it was worth the upgrade after seeing the additional resolution it offers. I am very happy with it.

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I currently use this on my Canon 70-200 f4 L IS with an EOS 7D. I chose the 70-200 f4 IS over the f2.8 primarily because of IS and the weight. With the teleconverter at f5.6 I can still get good pictures and the IS helps quite a bit. When used with a 70-200 f4L IS, it gives me an equivalent: 98-280mm and f5.6 - f45 aperture. When used with the 70-200 F4L IS and an EOS 7D you get approximately: 157-448mm and same aperture. Ill try to post some picture examples above for the product description because "they" wont let us put links here. :-( PROS: Extends the length of professional quality Canon L Lenses with little or no noticable degredation in image quality. COS: Only works with certain Canon and 3rd party lenses. Some of the 3rd party teleconverters such as Sigma and Tamron will work with other lenses that this TC will not because of the protruding element but I just cant beleive they are as good of quality. If you are ONLY using this with the compatible Canon lenses, then get this one definitely. YOU MUST CHECK THE COMPATABILITY CHART BEFORE PURCHASING THIS SO YOU ARE NOT WASTING YOUR TIME. As of 4/29/13, this is what Canons website states: Note: This lens is only compatible with fixed focal length L-series lenses 135mm and over, as well as the EF 70-200/2.8L, EF 70-200/2.8L IS, EF 70-200/4L, and EF 100-400/4.5-5.6L.

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I have been a Nikon user for a long time with my last camera being D810. I was about to upgrade to D850, but instead decided to buy the Sony A7R iii due to its form factor and its ability to use lenses with different mounts via adapters. Since then, I have purchased Sony FE 12-24mm f/4, FE 24-105mm f/4 and a large number of Canon EF mount lenses coupled with the Sigma MC11 adapter. I will post my experiences with other lenses elsewhere. This review focuses on the use of Canon extenders with EF 100-400mm II L lens in my system. Please be advised that all my conclusions are valid only for my system. The results may be different for other camera/lens combinations. I purchased all three versions of Canon 1.4x extenders (used) to perform a side by side comparison using brick wall images. Since, it is mostly pointless to use extenders at smaller focal lengths, I did the comparison only at 400mm for an effective focal length of 560mm. Below are my findings. 1. All three extenders had no problem with auto-focus in my system without any obvious difference. However, my primary objective was to compare image quality. I did not perform any test for auto-focus under difficult conditions. 2. At all apertures (f/8, f/11 & f/16), 1.4x ii was only marginally better than 1.4x at one of the extreme corners. There will not be any difference in real world images. If you are thinking of buying a used one, I wouldnt recommend paying significantly more for ver ii. 3. I also performed one interesting test to investigate the utility of even having an extender in the first place with a super sharp lens like 100-400mm ii l. I cropped an original image by the 1.4x factor with Photoshop and then upsampled the cropped image to the original 42MP image. I was shocked to see that the upsampled image was virtually indistinguishable from the images with the extender. Sure, in extreme corners you may find some tiny differences in detail (if you look really hard!). But keep in mind that with the extender, you are adding size/weight, losing one stop of light apart from the inconvenience of putting it on and off as needed. For me, I wouldnt bother to use ver. i or ii in my system. 4. With ver. iii, I could easily see the added sharpness at extreme corners compared to the earlier versions. The center looks pretty similar for all 3 versions. Needless to mention that the upsampled image was inferior this time. Again, the difference is not huge but noticeable. If you need the extra reach, my recommendation will be to buy it (if you can afford it). 5. I plan to do a comparison with Kenko Teleplus Pro 1.4x DGX. I will update the review once the comparison is done. 6. I am not posting any images since the comparison is only meaningful at full resolution.

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I have a Tamron 2x Teleconverter and the quality is awful, YOU LOSE THE HALF OF YOUR MEGAPIXEL OR MORE IN EVERY SHOT. Now.. Its another story The Canon EF 1.4X III Works perfect with my lenses canon 70-200mm 2.8L ll and Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6l is ii. STILL SHARP AND THE AUTOFOCUS IS ACCURATE. This is what I was looking for.

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It appears that some who are having problems with lens extenders are attempting to use them with incompatible lenses. These extenders are designed for use with "L" series lenses and not all of them. Uses with the lenses for which they were designed the result is like adding a new lens to your battery of lenses. I am using this extender with my EF 70-200mm f4 L USM lens. The image is very clear. I notice no difference in the response of auto focus. Also, the closest distance that I am able to focus has not changed. Although the focal length is increased only to 280mm the increased magnification brings the subject closer than my EF 70-300mm f 4-5.6 IS USM lens.

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This is top flight equipment. I use it with a 500mm f4 Canon and it maintains sharpness throughout the frame. Focusing is very fast. If youre doing sports and/or wildlife, this is a great addition to your kit.

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This Canon 1.4x III does the job of extending the range of any Canon lens 40% and thats why Im giving it four stars. Im taking off a star because it affected the background blur/bokeh to a degree that I ultimately returned the item. I purchased it because I was looking for a something to extend the range of my 5dMK2 and 70-200mm IS2 (used the extender primarily when shooting youth soccer) and it did extend the range to a max of 280mm and allow me to get good photos on more of the field. I shoot soccer on manual at 2.8 and have always loved the subject separation and bokeh I get from my 70-200mm. Visually, a slight change in the quality of the background was enough for me to return the item to Amazon and instead buy a used Canon crop sensor body as a backup body for shooting sports. The only way I can describe the background change is that it went from a very creamy bokeh to slightly "disk-shaped" bokeh. Its not just the fstop that you lose, it slightly changes the quality of the image and I just thought Id share my experience for others considering the purchase for a similar use.

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Update: after having used it for over a year, I can say I am still pretty happy with the sharpness. However, it DOES slow down the AF speed of my lens (100-400mm II) pretty significantly. WOW! I looked at the photos with and w/o the extender, and couldnt see any difference! So there is no reduction of image quality, which is awesome. Of course, with the 7D ii, adding it means reducing the focus to only center and surrounding four AF points, but I dont see a reduction of AF speed either. Love it!

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This is one of those items that you either need or you dont. Or at the very least, THINK you need. One of my workhorse-carry-everywhere-with-me lenses is my 70-200 f/2.8L. Doesnt matter where Im going, that lens WILL be in the bag. But every once in a while...a little bit more reach would be nice. This solves that. (I also carry its 2x bigger brother.) Yes, I lose a stop...but its SOOOO much lighter and easier to pack than a 300 2.8L. Do they compare? Only in reach...and, perhaps obviously, the amount of bokeh. (Or as a friend says, "Those out of focus circle things." LOL) Clearly, IMO, it will not replace something like the 300 2.8L...but for many (most?) uses it works just fine. So yeah, its a GREAT way to get a bit more out of an already great lens. NOTE: Fairly sure that this, and its sibling, will NOT work with all lenses. Check to make sure yours works before you spring for it and are frustrated.

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