Canon or Kenko

[Ollie]

Hi all.
I am going to purchase a 1.4 teleconvertor for use with my Canon 400D and Canon 400mm f5.6 lens. The Canon brand 1.4 tc can be had for around 200 notes. The Kenko Pro 1.4 tc in Canon fit can be had for around 100 notes. Is the Canon one worth the extra 100 notes or do I go with the Kenko. Anyone had experience with either or both of these.
Thanks
Roger

[matt_xyz]

Hi Roger,

I went for the Kenko, I think I got it for around £70 from URGalaxy. Everything I've read suggests that the image quality is comparable to the Canon, although someone did say that the AF hunts more wildly on the Kenko than the Canon. I really don't know how true this is and I've never had a chance to use a Canon to compare with my Kenko.

Matt

[Ollie]

Thanks Matt I will check URGalaxy out for price. The Kenko certainly gets decent reviews on various other sites I have looked at. Decision time coming up in the next couple of days because I've a week off shortly and would like to get it for then, so expect the weather to take a turn for the worse when I'm off.
Roger

[nightshade]

Have the 1.4 Kenko,initially I thought it a bit soft but recently found out that
Nikon leave sharpening to the user it is certainly excellent with my sigma 105

[JeffH]

Hi Roger

I've got the Canon 1.4 and have been very pleased with its performance, but have no idea how it compares to the Kenko.

I simply took the view that having splashed out nearly £2k on a quality camera body and long lens I didn't want to risk prejudicing my results by spending a little less on a cheaper teleconverter, particularly as I'd read reviews that suggested that in order to avoid compatibility problems it was generally thought best to use the lens manufacturers own version. But them I'm a sucker for such marketing tactics

I believe Boddie and John also use the Canon version and are very pleased with their results also.

Jeff

[Maple]

I have the Kenko Pro version but did think about the Canon. After a lot of research online and looking at the quality of both and remarks by users, I decided for the Kenko as it was nearly half the price. I use it about 30% of the time on my 400mm and you'd be hard pressed to notice a difference in quality of the photograph, with it being on or off.

For what its worth, my opinion is get the Kenko and use the money saved to get something extra (it may be up to £80-£100 savings).

By the way if you find a Tamron Pro even cheaper, apparently it is the same as the Kenko, just under a different brand.

[eeyore]

the jessops own is cheaper still (again the same brand with a different badge) - I have a 2x one of these and find it satisfactory

with regard to focus hunting this is always going to happen to a certain extent if you put a tc on an f5.6 lens regardless of brand - one other advantage of the cheaper brands is that you dont have to mess about taping contacts like you do on the canon.

[matt_xyz]

Originally Posted by eeyore

one other advantage of the cheaper brands is that you dont have to mess about taping contacts like you do on the canon.

although just to clarify, you do still need to tape the pins on the Kenko Pro and the Tamron Pro. I'm not sure whether you have to with the Jessops converter.

Matt

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by matt_xyz

although just to clarify, you do still need to tape the pins on the Kenko Pro and the Tamron Pro. I'm not sure whether you have to with the Jessops converter.

Matt

okaaaay - well you dont need to tape them with either the kenko or the jessops converter (or the sigma one) with the little bigma - maybe its a lens and converter issue

[Ollie]

Thanks for the replies everyone, haven't got round to ordering it yet been that busy but I'm definitely thinking of the Kenko version. Not too bothered about the focus hunting as I would be using manual focus with the convertor 90% of the time anyway.
Roger