Two from yesterday morning at a local park. Weather was bright & sunny – perfect for using my 2X "light-sucking" TC. I find a huge improvement in quality when the lens' aperture is stopped down a bit from maximum, but not when stopped down too much. F1.7 is the maximum. Based on my personal experience, F2.2 - F3.5 yields best results. Pictures are still somewhat useable wide open, but you will need to apply heavy sharpening and even then quality will suffer. Chromatic aberrations are always present, note there are a still few traces of PF around the pebbles by the sparrow's feet.

Photo #2 was trimmed a tiny bit off the edges, #1 only slightly off the top. That is how much "reach" a TC can deliver. Click on first two photos and scroll down to view selected EXIF information. Please do not download images.

#1. Song sparrow spying breakfast.

Photo © A.M.D.A 2009 All Rights Reserved. DO NOT download, copy, use or modify in any way and in any form without the owner's express prior written permission.

#2. Song sparrow eating breakfast.

Photo © A.M.D.A 2009 All Rights Reserved. DO NOT download, copy, use or modify in any way and in any form without the owner's express prior written permission.

P.S. I do think #2 is my sharpest bird shot to date with the *ist D. Manual focusing was very tricky with such shallow DOF, plus, I only fired off three images. One is not posted here because it came out blurred due to sparrow movement.