Ahem.....Ladies and gentlemen, I've got some thrilling news for all my fellow photography enthusiasts out there - I've just added a brand new piece of equipment to my kit that has me feeling like a kid in a candy store.

It's the Canon 2x III extender - eeeeep.   I've been itching to get my hands on one second hand to see if it would work for Dog Events.. so I found one at Kerrisdale Camera and picked up this bad boy, and I got to take it out for a spin today at a disc dog event. Here's how it went.

First things first, let's talk about what the Canon 2x III extender actually is. It's a teleconverter that doubles the focal length of your lens. So, if you have a 70-200mm (that wold be my lens) lens, for example, adding the extender will give you a 140-400mm lens. And let me tell you, that extra reach really comes in handy when you're trying to capture fast-moving subjects.

The Canon 2x III extender is a solid and feels like it could survive a fall off a cliff - like any Canon products I have to be honest. Added bonus, it's weather-sealed, which means you can take it out in the rain ( hello west coast weather ) and not worry about it getting damaged. Plus, it's small and lightweight, so you won't feel like you're lugging around a boat anchor.

Now that we covered the boring bits about the build quality, let's talk about performance. I took the extender out to a disc dog event, which is basically a bunch of dogs jumping around and catching frisbees. It's organized chaos ( kidding ), it is very fast moving though and you need a lens that can keep up.

With the extender attached to my Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, I was able to get right up in the action. - see below - The dogs were jumping and flipping all over the place, but the extra focal length allowed me to capture all the action. I didn't miss a single shot.

But here's the real question – did the Canon 2x III extender affect image quality? Short answer – nope! Even though we were shooting at a relatively narrow aperture of f/5.6, the images were still sharp and detailed. And there was no noticeable loss of sharpness or contrast. I was stoked with how it performed to be honest.

So, what's the downsides. First off, it does reduce the amount of light that reaches your camera's sensor, so you may need to compensate by increasing your ISO or slowing down your shutter speed. And if you're shooting in low light, this could be a real issue. But if you're shooting in good light, then you won't have any problems.  Today was overcast so in reality my settings were 3200ISO and 1/2000 sec at 5.6 - yes, some noise but I sorted that in post.

To wrap this up,  if you're looking to extend the focal length of your lens without shelling out big bucks for a new one, then the Canon 2x III extender is definitely worth it. It's a solidly built piece of kit that can help you capture shots that you might have missed otherwise. And let's be real – who doesn't want to get up close and personal with some adorable dogs? So, go ahead and add the Canon 2x III extender to your kit – you won't regret it!