Test/ First Impression Sigma TC-2011 2x Teleconverter First Impression

[Lsake]

Today I took a walk with the Sigma TC-2011 2x Teleconverter attached to my Sigma 100-400mm f5-6.3 DG DN and Lumix S5. The teleconverter turns this lens into a 200-800mm f10-13. The sun was mostly out with minimal cloud in the sky so I had ideal conditions for the slow aperture. After a few hours of using it completely hand held here are my take aways:

• The dual stabilisation is excellent even at 800mm.
• It is an incredibly light 800mm FF setup
• Loss of image quality seems minimal so long as your close enough to the subject
• The TC does shift the focus and zoom rings a bit further away from the body
• ISO 8000 on the S5 might even perform better than 3200

Below are a couple of images captured with the TC. I used a bit if AI noise reduction in LR on the crow because I had to lift the shadows quite a lot to bring back feather details (Jet black birds can be tricky like that). So far I would consider this a usable setup in good outdoor lighting. I will hopefully be able to use it for a much longer time this weekend.

Robin Caught Mid Preen by Peter North, on Flickr

Crow by Peter North, on Flickr

 

[Quentinquirelino]

Thank you for sharing your experience. Can you tell something about the autofocus with TC in comparison without.

 

[Lsake]

Thank you for sharing your experience. Can you tell something about the autofocus with TC in comparison without.

So far the only things I've noticed regarding auto focus are:

• The hunting pulse when locking onto a subject seemed more jarring, this may be the massive focal range it was searching as I didn't set the focus limiter on the lens
• The burst mode in AFC sounded slower, but could have been my settings so will have to retest that

In terms of detecting subjects and aquiring focus it didn't feel slower, I didn't struggle more than I normally would, animal detection worked the same as without the TC. The biggest difference is just having to more strictly manage your shutter speed, if you think you need to move to 1/800+ speeds you have to really consider if the light is going to support you. Thankfully with the stabilisation and ISO performance on the S5 you can get away with ISO 10,000 shots fairly easily. I did take a shot at ISO 25k that has cleaned up reasonably well with lightrooms new AI noise reduction.

 

[Lsake]

Part 2​

Yesterday I had another few hours to test the TC-2011 in some more mixed light conditions. It was pretty overcast initially, and I did think it would be a waste of time.

Some key findings of the day:

• I was able to get sharp shots at 800mm with shutter speeds as low as 1/160
• haze can be a real problem at longer distances
• Good post processing software is key to squeezing the most out of images taken with the TC
• Images are definitely a bit softer vs without the TC. But you have to examine at 100% to really see it
• AFC does not feel as reliable. I was in AFC the whole time in high burst and it missed quite a lot even on static subjects.

Below is an image taken at 1/160 shutter speed at 800mm hand held from a standing position. It feels like the stabilisation is just as effective at 800mm as it is natively at 400mm. The sky was still quite grey when taken.

Grey Squirrel by Peter North, on Flickr

Below is an image that has been cropped and shot at ISO 10,000. AI noise reduction applied in Lightroom has basically cleaned it all up. The wren was in a bush inside woodland, quite a dark scenario.

Wren by Peter North, on Flickr

Below was an image taken at quite a distance, maybe 40 metres. The ground was wet with a visible haze over the field. The detail isn’t great, but I think this is more down to the haze rather than the ridiculously slow 1/125 shutter.

Magic Horses by Peter North, on Flickr

Below is an image with quite a bit of post processing, including Photoshop to correct the wing mangled by the electronic shutter. Despite AFC not doing great, this was more luck than anything else.

Swallow by Peter North, on Flickr

 

[CharlesH]

including Photoshop to correct the wing mangled by the electronic shutt

Why are you using electronic shutter?

 

[Lsake]

Why are you using electronic shutter?

I was mostly in a quiet woodland type of environment, looking to spot perched birds. For this the S5 electronic shutter is fine as there wont’t be any noticeable distortion, and it’s completely silent so doesn’t scare things away.

The swallow was unexpected, I’d not seen any this year, must be the first to arrive. I was trying to photograph a coot swimming around the water surface when the swallows started skimming the water. I opportunisticly tool some spray and pray bursts, I didn’t realise until later that I was still in electronic shutter.

 

[inspiredtimothy]

Part 2​

Yesterday I had another few hours to test the TC-2011 in some more mixed light conditions. It was pretty overcast initially, and I did think it would be a waste of time.

Some key findings of the day:

• I was able to get sharp shots at 800mm with shutter speeds as low as 1/160
• haze can be a real problem at longer distances
• Good post processing software is key to squeezing the most out of images taken with the TC
• Images are definitely a bit softer vs without the TC. But you have to examine at 100% to really see it
• AFC does not feel as reliable. I was in AFC the whole time in high burst and it missed quite a lot even on static subjects.

Below is an image taken at 1/160 shutter speed at 800mm hand held from a standing position. It feels like the stabilisation is just as effective at 800mm as it is natively at 400mm. The sky was still quite grey when taken.

Grey Squirrel by Peter North, on Flickr

Below is an image that has been cropped and shot at ISO 10,000. AI noise reduction applied in Lightroom has basically cleaned it all up. The wren was in a bush inside woodland, quite a dark scenario.

Wren by Peter North, on Flickr

Below was an image taken at quite a distance, maybe 40 metres. The ground was wet with a visible haze over the field. The detail isn’t great, but I think this is more down to the haze rather than the ridiculously slow 1/125 shutter.

Magic Horses by Peter North, on Flickr

Below is an image with quite a bit of post processing, including Photoshop to correct the wing mangled by the electronic shutter. Despite AFC not doing great, this was more luck than anything else.

Swallow by Peter North, on Flickr

These are quite good for 1/160s at 800mm but I can't help but feel that especially for moving subjects the motion blur would be reduced if the shutter was faster. It's difficult to evaluate the sharpness of the TC when it's unclear how much it is impacted by the slow shutter speeds.