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70-300 with EC14 OR EC20 opinions

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Allen Chernack

Allen Chernack

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I sometimes want more reach when shooting wildlife with the 70-300 and wondered how those extenders would work out. Any experiences, opinions to share?
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Allen C.

Travel in RV when not home.
 
There are several past posts from users here who have paired the 70-300 with the EC14 and have included images that look very good. I use an EC20 with my 50-200 f2.8-3.5 and really like the results. I also own a 70-300 but have never tried the combination of the 70-300 and EC20, mainly because the aperture at the 300mm end becomes f11 with the two stops of light that are lost.
 
...if you can afford to give up one stop worth of light (for the EC-14) or two stops (for the EC-20)I've found the 70-300 can struggle to find focus in low light, and I imagine this would be worse w a converter attached, tho I don't yet have either to try.

One thing I've been looking at is a screw on TC from Raynox, which supposedly doesn't cause the same light loss, but introduces another issue- added weight on the nose of the lens could strain/damage the AF motor.
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Art P
Select images may be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sigvarius/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cecropia_grove/
 
Allen Chernack said:
I sometimes want more reach when shooting wildlife with the 70-300 and wondered how those extenders would work out. Any experiences, opinions to share?
Click to expand...
I bought a used 70-300mm last year, and I've shot with it twice as much with the EC-14 on it as without. You do need to have good light to focus in, as it will be shooting at f/8 at the long end.

If you really have the light, you probably will get somewhat sharper pictures by using aperture priority and shooting at f/10 or f/11. You don't want to go with a smaller aperture than f/11 because you will start noticing diffraction effects, but the 70-300mm is one of those lenses it is best to stop down a bit at the long end (on the other hand, most of my shots were done wide open).
 
I tried EC20 on 50-200 SWD, focus performance in low light is horrible. In bright light this combo works well, I found Bigma works better for lowlight focusing.
 
Art_P said:
...if you can afford to give up one stop worth of light (for the EC-14) or two stops (for the EC-20)I've found the 70-300 can struggle to find focus in low light, and I imagine this would be worse w a converter attached, tho I don't yet have either to try.

One thing I've been looking at is a screw on TC from Raynox, which supposedly doesn't cause the same light loss, but introduces another issue- added weight on the nose of the lens could strain/damage the AF motor.
Click to expand...
I agree that the 70-300mm is hard enough to use without an EC. Some people have posted results with the combo, but probably only under fairly ideal light conditions.

As to a screw on TC, it would be a huge burden on the AF motor, because it has to move the inner tube of the lens, sometimes over quite big distance. I have used a TCON-17 with an 18-180mm with good results, but that lens does not move during AF.
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JonathanF
Oly E330, E510, 1122, 35, 1450/2.8, 70300 TCON17, FL36
Canon SX10, S1IS, Casio QV-3000
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. It looks like the max to get is the ec14. I'll search for some examples. My last trip to Yellowstone convinced me of the need for more reach. I got some bear pics at 300mm that had way too much scenery and not enough bear. That bear was at least 100 yards away.

I realize this lens needs light so if need be I'll go ISO 1600.
Thanks again.

--
Allen C.

Travel in RV when not home.
 
My question is with the 70-300 + ec14 combo is that as I know you don't have AF. Is it true? Isn't hard to get sharp images with manual focus? I have the e-510 with the 70-300.
As I see the best choice is the ec14 but I don't know how difficult focusing is?
 
Barney42 said:
My question is with the 70-300 + ec14 combo is that as I know you don't have AF. Is it true? Isn't hard to get sharp images with manual focus? I have the e-510 with the 70-300.
As I see the best choice is the ec14 but I don't know how difficult focusing is?
Click to expand...
The comments I recall seeing from people who use the 70-300+EC14 is that AF does still work.
 
Barney42 said:
My question is with the 70-300 + ec14 combo is that as I know you don't have AF. Is it true? Isn't hard to get sharp images with manual focus? I have the e-510 with the 70-300.
As I see the best choice is the ec14 but I don't know how difficult focusing is?
Click to expand...
Olympus officially says AF doesn't work on the combination, but in bright light, it will work. Presumably Olympus is being conservative, because they can't guarantee it will focus, but hey give it a try. If it doesn't focus, you can always fall back on manual focusing. As the light gets dimmer, it will likely start hunting and eventually not get a focus lock.
 
AF gets worse with diminishing light to the point it is not usable on anything but subjects that are stationary. Based on what I have seen at F3.5 end on 50-200 with EC20, hunting in bad; 70-300 with EC14 should be worse but slower.
 
I used the EC 1.4 on the 70-300 before I bought the 50-200 and found that good light is essential for reasonable results. Forget about the 2.0 on this lens--way to slow for wild life. I found the 2.0 works great on the 50-200 tho--but this combo also needs pretty good light. The 50-200 plus 2.0 = 800 mm. The 70-300 plus 1.4 =840 mm. The former combo IMO is way better IQ and faster. Of course, so it should be for the cost.

Dharma
 
I've been using the 70-300 w/EC-14 for wildlife (on E510) over the past year.

I thought about the EC-20 and still do but I can't see it working well unless you are prepared to shoot ISO 1600 most of the time.
Right now I use ISO 800 most of the time and ISO 400 in good light.
Every now and again I can use ISO 200, and sometimes i have to go to ISO 1600.
This is mainly because I keep the aperture at f/11.
I've found f/11 gives the sharpest results.

AF does struggle from time to time in low light but it hasn't been a huge deal for me.

So in my experience the 70-300 + EC-14 works for wildlife, you just need to understand its limitations.

--
-Leo3
 
Those are good enough for me. They're great. I'll use the teleconverter on a E510 until I upgrade. I'm waiting for the next wave of announcements. The current 620 suits my budget but I really want a better grip.
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Allen C.

Travel in RV when not home.
 
I've used the EC-14 with my 70-300 on the E3 a bit and liked the results quite a bit. AF works fine in decent light. My first attempts, late in the afternoon in a game park in India, were discouraging, but on a trip to Africa last summer, shooting wildlife, I was happy with the results.

I also thought about the EC20 but am glad I didn't go for it.
 
Allen,

I've also had the same problem you have of not having a long enough lens for some wildlife. I have also considered the EC14 and EC20. But I've read a mixed bag of experiences here on DPReview and other sites and I'm not convinced that those extenders are the solution, unless under ideal situations. I believe those extenders were really designed for f2.8 lenses.

One of the other options is the Sigma 50-500mm f4-6.3. I've read mostly good reviews about this lens. The one drawback I've heard about is that its big and heavy. Its price is $1,059 USD through Amazon. Also, I've heard a rumor that Olympus was going to have a new long Zuiko zoom lens released in 2011.

I don't know if this reply was of more help or to add to your frustration....

s.
--
'Don't mistake lack of talent for genius'
-Type O Negative
 
Steviecool said:
One of the other options is the Sigma 50-500mm f4-6.3.
Click to expand...
I have Sigma 50-500mm and used 50-200 w EC20 briefly.

Bigma beats the combo in everything aspect but weight. 50-200 w EC20 is so much more handholdable, too bad that most wildlife photo ops don't show up in brightest light.
 
Allen Chernack said:
Those are good enough for me. They're great. I'll use the teleconverter on a E510 until I upgrade. I'm waiting for the next wave of announcements. The current 620 suits my budget but I really want a better grip.
Click to expand...
Sorry, but in ideal lighting, focusing will be done at f/11, which will be impossible to manual focus unless on a tripod with LV, 3-10X magnification, and LV boost enabled. AF may or may not work, meaning you will never know if you will lock onto your target. Sharpness will be so soft wide open that you'll wish you had spent your money elsewhere. Stopping down to f/16 may or may not increase sharpness, but it will surely reduce image quality due to diffraction.

I don't want to rain in on your parade, but using the EC-20 on the 70-300mm (especially on an E-510 at that) is not a wise choice. Unless, of course, you can live with the above.

--
Tim
'I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list.'
E3/7-14/12-60/150/50-200/25/25/EC-14
http://www.flickr.com/photos/timskis6/
 
I've tried 70-300 with EC20 on my E520 and i found that it works fine, granted i used it for about an hour (EC20 wasn't mine) , but it was in sunset time with sun already gone. I found that the AF works fine, but you have to have IS off while focusing. With IS on this combo hunts focus, but when you turn IS off it locks almost immediately , then you can turn IS again on

--
my gear:
E-520+14-42+70-300+Sigma 105 + FL-50R
and good amount of legacy lenses (list in profile)
 
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