Funny Screencap from Amazon

[MattSepeta]

I don't know about you guys, but whenever I am shooting with my 400 mm and my x2 extender, I ALWAYS use my flash

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/4655/picture4le.png

 

[Westside guy]

I also like the way they show the package and the total price, as if the flash were a significant chunk of it (or the teleconverter for that matter).

 

[Full of Win]

Amazon is wacky. Nine months ago I got this

 

[Westside guy]

Amazon is wacky. Nine months ago I got this

I like to put sparkly stickers on my filters - it gives my photos extra pep.

 

[Consultant]

Funny thing is that type of flash don't really go that far.

Pretty useless as an accessory to a tele lens.

 

[maeman]

Funny thing is that type of flash don't really go that far.

Pretty useless as an accessory to a tele lens.

Yeah, good catch...

 

[compuwar]

I don't know about you guys, but whenever I am shooting with my 400 mm and my x2 extender, I ALWAYS use my flash

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/4655/picture4le.png

Funny thing is that type of flash don't really go that far.

Pretty useless as an accessory to a tele lens.

Actually, most bird shooters and many nature shooters will use a flash with a 400, 500 and 600mm Supertele, with or without TC. I'm pretty sure that's most of the super-tele market. I'll often use one with my 400 and 1.7x TC (with a "Better Beamer" attached) if for no other reason than getting a catchlight in the eye if the bird's position relative to the sun isn't right. Especially with the 400mm, which goes to f/2.8, even with a TC you can often use a flash as a fill flash and get better results than not lighting at all. A lot depends on your subject distance, which for smaller animals and birds is often within the range of the flash without an extender, though they're well-worth having.

http://www.birdsasart.com/accs.html#BEAMER
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/better_beamer.shtml

 

[MattSepeta]

Actually, most bird shooters and many nature shooters will use a flash with a 400, 500 and 600mm Supertele, with or without TC. I'm pretty sure that's most of the super-tele market. I'll often use one with my 400 and 1.7x TC (with a "Better Beamer" attached) if for no other reason than getting a catchlight in the eye if the bird's position relative to the sun isn't right. Especially with the 400mm, which goes to f/2.8, even with a TC you can often use a flash as a fill flash and get better results than not lighting at all. A lot depends on your subject distance, which for smaller animals and birds is often within the range of the flash without an extender, though they're well-worth having.

http://www.birdsasart.com/accs.html#BEAMER
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/better_beamer.shtml

I had never heard of that! It looks pretty neat, how effective is the extender?

 

[compuwar]

I had never heard of that! It looks pretty neat, how effective is the extender?

It's a Fresnel lens, and works well enough that I think you'd have to hunt very far and wide to find a top bird or nature shooter that doesn't own one. You have to be *very* careful shooting though- I think you'd also have to go pretty far down the list to find someone who doesn't have at least one flash that's slightly melted too! Not as painful as the price on the Wimberly flash bracket though- ouch!

 

[H2Ockey]

I had never heard of that! It looks pretty neat, how effective is the extender?

i'm not on the right computer to post my with/without pics of a home-made version but I can say very effective.
Here is the only example I have right now, this was shot with an 80-200mm w/ 2x teleconverter, so 400mm @ f/5.6. 1/250s
I had to manual focus by using a flashlight (which was nearly out of batteries) and trying to get some reflection off of the antlers. Basically I could barely see the deer through the view finder it was that dark.

At any distance less than ~400mm it will create a bit of a spotlight. I'll try and remember to get back on and post a with/without shots I took when I first made it. Shot is untouched other than conversion from RAW to Jpeg.