Using zoom lenses with 2 x extender?

If two years ago someone had told me to try a zoom lens with a 2 x extender - I would answered with a polite no-thank-you-! Today, however, with the new 2 x extenders and the new 70-200mm / 2.8 zoom lens the focusing seems to be working well and one can produce very sharp images! I just read a newsletter from Arthur Morris - and he was very impressed with his new Canon 70-200mm / 2.8 zoom + new Canon 2 x extender!

I used my new Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm / 2.8G VR IFED II + a TC-20E III-extender combination last summer quite a few times with very pleasing results! I used the combination while photographing Red-footed Falcons in the tower hide through glass in Hungary in June. I was impressed at how well the autofocus kept following the flying birds and the image quality was good. Naturally, there was a lot of light in Hungary - so I guess that also helped the autofocus to work so well? This fairly light-weight system was surprisingly comfortable to handhold, which made the fast flying birds easy to follow!

One of the Red-footed Falcon images can be seen here.

Last summer I was able to follow a young Hawk Owl which had just left the nest in a very difficult terrain where the use of a long lens with a tripod would have been impossible. By handholding the Nikon D3s + Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm / 2.8G VR IFED II + TC-20E III-extender combination I got a very useful range of 140 - 400 mm! I still am very happy with the results. So, this combination will definitely find more use in my work in future!

Some of the Hawk Owl images can be seen here.

Apparently - by what I have heard from my friends - the new Nikon 2 x extender works well with the Nikkor 300mm / 2.8 and the 400mm / 2.8 lenses! I have also been able to make some sharp images with my Nikkor 500 mm/4 + the new 2 x extender. However, I must admit that I also tried the new 2 x extender with my Nikkor AF-S 200-400mm / 4G VR IFED II and it didn´t work! It was as good as impossible to make sharp images of a perched Osprey in September in Finland. So I will not be using that combination any more. I still have to test whether this new 200-400mm lens can be used with a 1.4 x extender?

Image of Magpie taken with Nikkor 500 mm/4 + the new 2 x extender can be seen here