Extender too little or too much?

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Since going full frame im finding the 70-200 f2.8 L IS II rather short at my frequent zoo trips etc and am considering a tc, so if i have got this correct the 1.4x would give me 280mm for 1 stop and the 2x 400mm for 2 stop, the 400mm sounds alot where as the 280mm sounds too little, does anyone have experience with a tc with this lens, ideally on a 5dmk2?

I would go for a mk III version as they appear to be better suited to this lens.

Thanks
 
With the 1.4x and cropping a little bit (which this body/lens combo should easily handle with excellent quality) you can easily equal the effective reach you would have got with the 70-200 on a crop sensor.
 
With a 2x converter,you would get an 140-400mm F5.6 zoom,you could then just zoom into how much of the frame,you want to fill :)
 
Forgive me if I am relaying the wrong information to you, but with converters, it literally doubles the lens. In the same respect as aperture. If you are hoping to do wildlife photography or something similar, you may end up losing the required aperture to get sharp shots. If course, you can bump the ISO up some what. But I remember playing around with a 2x converter on a Canon 70-300 f/4-5.6 and as nice as that lens is, when you want to shoot at ISO100.. you can't in all honesty, you're shooting at far to small of an aperture to get the shot you want, without having to deal with the grain.
 
A 2x TC gives double the focal length and on the 70-200 F2.8 still gives you a useful f5.6 maximum aperture. However, the 2x designation is a bit of a misnomer because it quadruples the area magnification. A teleconverter can only magnify what is there, so you effectively have to have a lens that will be capable of handling a substantially higher resolution than your sensor. Usually this can only be achieved with a very high quality prime, and although I've seen some nice results with your lens and a 2x TC, you may be disappointed by the hit in IQ that you'll get.
A 1.4x TC is less demanding and would be a good addition to any 'L' glass provided it'll fit, but with a 2x I would try before you buy.
 
farrance said:
Forgive me if I am relaying the wrong information to you, but with converters, it literally doubles the lens. In the same respect as aperture. If you are hoping to do wildlife photography or something similar, you may end up losing the required aperture to get sharp shots. If course, you can bump the ISO up some what. But I remember playing around with a 2x converter on a Canon 70-300 f/4-5.6 and as nice as that lens is, when you want to shoot at ISO100.. you can't in all honesty, you're shooting at far to small of an aperture to get the shot you want, without having to deal with the grain.
Click to expand...
tcs are only recomended for primes and fast zoomes ie 2.8 so it will still only be f5.6 with a 2x on.
 
There is always a trade off in the use of a converter/extender, in this instance you lose 1 or 2 stops of light depending on converter/extender, some loss of IQ again the amount will be dependant on the converter/extender. The gains are in the focal length, price and weight, as buying an additional L lens with IS would cost and weigh considerably more (such as a 300L f4 IS or 400mm f5.6 (no IS on this lens) or even a 100-400L IS)

If you buy the Canon Mk2 extenders or better still Mk3 extenders you will have less loss of IQ than you will with other makes. But you will always lose more IQ with a 2x extender than with a 1.4x, but with your lens I found that the 2x Mk3 Extender was very good on it.

You are fortunate in that the 70-200L IS Mk2 takes the 2.0x converter really well and gives an extra 200mm with very little loss of IQ or added weight, but only you can decide if the resulting IQ loss will be worth the price, Personally I found the 70-200L f2.8 Mk2 was more than good enough with the 2x Extender Mk3 even wide open at f5.6.

See this thread for details, the images were either shot on Canon 1DsMk3 or 5Dmk2 (same sensor) you will have to check exif for full details of the camera.
 
Thanks for all the comments, excellent food for thought.

@EdBray your post is excellent, just what i was after. Thank you
 
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