Going fullframe meant that I might occasionally feel that 300mm is not enough as a telephoto lens (although, if I had a 1200mm lens, I would probably occasionally think it’s not enough anyway). I have a Kenko Pro 1.4x teleconverter which I hardly ever used with the 40D. It didn’t seem worthwhile to lose a stop of light considering that most of the time when I needed more reach, I was shooting birds in the winter and just couldn’t afford to lose any light because using high ISO was not an option. But now with the 6D, it’s a different ballgame. High ISO is not something I should avoid at all costs, so I wanted to see exactly how good (or bad) the converter is.

I sat by the bird feeder yesterday and took some pictures with and without the converter, but the birds were not very co-operative so I didn’t get many chances. I was happy with the blue tit picture though, taken without the converter, because I had the nice green background provided by a snow-less spruce.

I had another go today, but the birds were not just not co-operating – they just simply weren’t there. But then I had a surprise, found two squirrels eating the spills in the snow! Even though it’s not ideal to shoot down on them, I took some pictures anyway because it was my only chance to test the converter. I’m actually quite happy with the results! It is obviously not pin sharp but I could hardly except that with a combination of high ISO and teleconverter. The real question is, is the quality acceptable? I think it is. It’s passable at full resolution but how often do we look at the pictures at full reso? Reduce the size a little and nobody will be able to tell that either high ISO or teleconverter were used. I haven’t fully learned how to use the noise reduction and sharpening controls (never really needed them so I haven’t bothered to learn) so it’s possible that there’s more detail to be had but this is the best I could do right now.

As soon as I get an opportunity (=the days get brighter) I will try the converter again, using a lower ISO. With these first pictures in mind, I have high expectations on this teleconverter now!