Tamron 150-600 with 1.4x TC

[dean messenger]

went out to try get a little owl shot yesterday. no show ( maybe due to all the darn squawking Parakeets.
however i did get a chance to try out a sigma 1.4 TC on the tamron.
couple of surprising things. the tamron at 600mm is f/6.3 . yet i was able to shoot at 7.1 ( as shown in the image below ) with no AF hunting or any other issues.
so heres what i got instead of the little owl, and then below that shows the shot without and with the TC and finally the last shot shows a shot taken on mobile phone to get an idea of the distance and the subject.

Note the hole in the tree ( this shot taken without the TC on btw but has been cropped )

heres that same hole without and with the TC on

and here it is showing how far away we were with arow indicating the hole

 

[altetkph]

Dean,
which one Sigma 1.4x TC did you used? The 1401 or the APO EX DG?
Stefan

 

[dean messenger]

that was with the EX DG which was a friends but I have the Kemko teleplus 1.4 DGX which also works.
can be a little slow and struggle in low light but in all honesty id only be using it when in a hide or similar location for wildlife where I have camera tripod mounted and shooting live view anyway

 

[altetkph]

Thanks Dean! Please specify your camera model. There are only a few people with positive experience on using the Tamron 150-600 with a TC in AF mode and you are one of them.
Stefan

 

[dean messenger]

canon 60D . and yes there are plenty of reports of issues with focusing, not locking on, hunting etc etc, but then that will be no different from pretty much 99% of big zooms out there where you would use a TC anyway. unless you can afford a 400mm + 2.8 or fixed f4 lens then you will also have that little extra challenge to deal with and sure you aren't going to be handhold tracking with a tc on the tamron without getting problems . think people have unrealistic expectations then complain that its not performing at light speed and they are getting oof shots, but if you use it sensibly with the right settings and conditions it will work just fine.
heres three examples taken with my kenko tc on

 

[HoppyUK]

Regardless of Exif, at 600mm f/6.3 with 1.4x telecon, the lens is actually 840mm f/8.8.

 

[dean messenger]

Regardless of Exif, at 600mm f/6.3 with 1.4x telecon, the lens is actually 840mm f/8.8.

plus its on a 1.6x crop sensor body so its FOV is equiv to 1344mm
but though it reports the exif it ignores the TC in the exif data and only reports the lens focal length used