I Thought This Would Be Easy...

Great video Danny! I love Simon’s videos, and I really appreciate you bringing him as an expert for advise. I just found your channel, but I will be checking the rest of your videos.

Simon nailed it. Perfect your 1.4 TC first. I had learned on my Nikon APS-C cameras + 1.4 TC to get amazing photos. Respecting the need to stop down at least 2/3 of a stop and have excellent long lens technique. Then I switch to Olympus M43 and bought their 300 F4. An amazingly sharp lens and equivalent to 400 mm on APS-C. Every bit as sharp as the Nikon 500 F4. Since the magnification was less than my Nikon, the use of the 1.4 TC should be easier, right? Wrong. Everything was worse. Way worse. The diff? The heavy Nikon setup was always on a tripod with a Gimbal head. The Olympus system is lightweight and always handheld. Despite Olympus' great stabilization technology, my handshake was still ruining everything. I had to redevelop my handheld technique. I also had to relearn to stop down.

Get a 200-600mm and an a6600. That's what I use for wildlife. 300-900mm equivalent is NICE. Even just adding a good crop sensor body is an excellent 4th option, probably with better results than a TC.

I just purchased the same 1.4 teleconverter to use with my Sony 100-400mm alongside my A7r5 and A74. I've noticed my hit rate for birds in flight and even perched birds has gone down, most of the images just seems a little softer (doesn't matter which body) . I'm still testing it but your video added some helpful info for my trying to figure out why my images are worse - Thanks!

Glyn Dewis has a similar video, how he missed birfd photography, go and see the mistakes

Very interesting discussion, particularly in relation to the high mpixel cameras. I use the 1.4tc with the 200-600mm and A7iii and it is more of a challenge in low light, but my experience is that in good light, it’s been excellent when needing the extra focal length.
For sharpness on the 200-600 range, the G lens is definitely the better option.. unless you have the substantial budget required for the primes. Some seem to get good results on the 70-200 f2.8 GM ii on the A7rIV and A7rV and I’m planning both the lens and likely the rV as my next purchase.

Thanks buddy! It was fun!

Great video, very informative and well done!!

Unstable air is a HUGE issue!!!! When I go chasing owls up in the northern Boreal Forests of Minnesota in the winter any warmer air source causes issues. If it is -20 c don't shoot over a road! Don't shoot out of a car (the warm air going out the window is a killer!). Same applies to warm air rising in the summer (heck...glider pilots use it to gain altitude!) uniform surfaces like a grassland help, but not if there is a walking trail between you and your target!  

I use the 100/400 on the new a7R V and the images are spectacular with and without the TC. BUT, the bird autofocus suffers significantly. It is very noticeable. 100% eye lock without the TC, and autofocus struggles with the TC in low(er) light conditions. 

There is an easy solution that us old farts know all about....Manual Focus! The a7R V focus peaking works exceptionally well in manual focus. Give it a try!!

Hey man, interesting video. I used to own 1.4x that I had been using with 100-400mm. It crossed my mind few times that maybe my 100-400 just isn’t the best copy of that lens, but I sold that tc and never looked back. I get the comments about the technique but I just did many simple back to back tests in real life scenarios and conclusion was always that the trade-offs are pretty horrible. So yeah you can buy it and sweat about making your life harder with less light hitting the sensor, inherit sharpness loss and worse af performance, you can put all the tricks you know to get you ahead of these issues ….or you can crop your pictures in post, which in my experience was giving between same or better results. Maybe it’s different when you own 400mm 2.8 or if you are really about this particular form factor and really need slightly soft and more noisy 560mm, but otherwise just save that money towards 200-600

Huge learning curve wow didn't think about the air hit causing issues great tips looking forward to putting them into practice with my Rf 100 to 500 !

Looking into the 70-200mm with TC2x. Now that doesn’t look like that exciting….

That was a learning curve 😂😂 but so much fun!