First photos with the new 150-600 on my XT4

LarsPolarBear wrote:

Hi Doc,

Thanks for the beautiful pictures! Looks like you had a great day! 😃

Could you be so kind and give us your (first) impression on the optical performance of the 150-600mm in comparison to the 100-400mm with the 1.4x extender attached? Since both have f8 as their fastest aperture, and the maximum focal length is quite similar, it is a big question for many of us if there is and optical advantage.

Thanks a lot for you help,

Lars

I plan to look into this more deeply to make a final decision for myself as I am in the return period for all three. Have to love bestbuy total tech. My first impression is that the 150-600 is optically better, significantly. I think AF is the game changer for me but I intend to shoot a lot of BIF and wildlife which can be a big difference in what I need from the lenses vs others. Again I haven't had a ton of time to pixel peep and test for myself but will have to figure that out by the end of the week and I can post what I decided.

I like to shoot rocket launches here in FL and plan to try the 1.4x and 150-600 combo out for a possible Falcon launch on Thursday if they settle on a good time. The toll the 1.4x takes on the AF is so brutal I think that's about all it would be good for and only reason I'd keep it at this point. At these focal lengths we're basically using a telescope so I'd imagine it's really coming down to air quality for a decent shot, not the optics or camera. Handheld shot of Jupiter would be cool, though!

On a side note, I've been struggling with AF so much recently I've started to eyeball the h2s.  Pretty steep price though. Anyone switch to it for BIF or for AF reasons?