Back in the ant farm for a few days, I fished the 180 APO and APO 2X out of the dry cabinet, unsure about whether I wanted them along for the next segment. This afternoon afforded a chance to test them on a couple of known targets, very demanding ones for a such a relatively short combo.

One sometimes tough niggle with the SL2 is that when focus magnification is enabled, EV settings and spot metering are ignored. This makes focusing on low-contrast subject matter difficult, especially when the combo is set to f/5.6. The combo has always been a tiny bit better at f/8 because it’s a smidgen contrastier. But on the SL2 it’s almost a necessity for nailing critical focus, less so on the CL and other APS-C bodies.

The afternoon’s doom and gloom weather kept ISO well into four digits so it was sort of a “worst conditions” test for the setup, which I hadn’t shot regularly in about a year. Rendering of details was off-the-charts incredible. The combo could easily take a 100mp sensor to its limits. The only limit to critically accurate focus is my skills. And if a critter is moving, it becomes twist, spray, and pray.

The worst aspect of today’s images was noise. So I’m looking forward to working with the combo in good light. Well, if there is any good light . . .

SL2/180mm f2.8 APO-Elmarit-R I/APO-Extender-R 2X . . .