Canon 70/300 L f/4-5.6 & Kenko Pro 300 1.4X TC Reikan FoCal... Several Questions

[Dave Throgmartin]

Bill,

It could have been the autofocus. I took this hand held, but if I had some time to work with and a tripod maybe I could have manually focused to get better results. The other difference could be Sigma vs Kenko. Like you said the Kenko is highly regarded.

The picture was taken at Rock Cut State Park in northern Illinois just before Halloween using a 60D and center point focus. Camera settings were f/5.6, 1/2000 second, and ISO 320. The eagle was a long ways away! He was all the way across the lake. The above pictures show the original at 300mm and 420mm focus distances. The eagle itself in the non-TC shot is only 147 x 284 pixels.

I think the overall quality would be better if the branch hadn't been in front of his face. If the bird's eye isn't clear, or visible at all in this case, it really hurts the image. I actually thought the feathers look ok.

Dave