Teleconverter in wildlife by Jacques Gillon

06.10.2016

Written by... Jacques Gillon

Jacques Gillon, a scuba diver, was granted several awards at the Underwater Film Festival in Antibes, including two gold awards ("palmes d'or") in the 1980s. He created a CD-Rom after spending several months in Madagascar. He also produced a DVD on Indonesia - "A wildlife and nature experience".

He was granted several awards in 2005, 2006 and 2008 at the International Wildlife Photography Festival in Montier en Der. As a photographer, he illustrated a book called “Instants d'Oiseaux" in collaboration with Claude Feigné, an ornithologist. This book, which was published by "Editions du Sud Ouest", is prefaced by Allain Bougrain-Dubourg.

In 2008-2013, Jacques Gillon was the guest of honour of the International Ornithological Film Festival in Ménigoute. He takes part in many exhibitions everywhere in France and Europe.

Jacques Gillon and his wife, Christine, have been travelling throughout the world for many years. He made a portfolio of their favourite shots of Southern Africa; this portfolio features the most beautiful wildlife and nature locations. In 2010-2011, Christine and Jacques spent more than 6 months taking pictures of the biodiversity in the rainforests of Central America and Brazil. They also dedicated more than one month to sloth preservation in a sanctuary on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.

In 2011-2013-2015, Christine and Jacques worked as volunteers and photographers for several months in Cameroon in a sanctuary dedicated to chimpanzee preservation.

"I use three cameras: one X-E2 and two X-T1 with a XF14mm, XF23mm, XF35mm, XF56mm or XF55-200mm lens.

I chose the X series for three main reasons:

- The cameras are compact and the sensor is high quality

- I can see my settings immediately without going through the menu

- When I release the shutter, the result will be the same as what the sensor sees... A real pleasure.

To me, the X Series is a beautiful equipment tailored for photographers and the lens range is of the highest quality."

Christine and I travel around the world, looking for wild places where animals live out their lives in peace. We go trekking with our photography gear very often. The new FUJINON XF100-400mm zoom lens, alone or used with teleconverter XF1.4X TC WR or new XF2X TC WR, makes us rediscover the pleasure of photography, without the weight constraint, while covering a 35mm focal length equivalent of 150mm to 1200mm.

After trying and being convinced by the teleconverter XF1.4x, I have had the opportunity to try the new teleconverter XF2x. I recommend this conversion lens that gave me surprising results! For photographers who love small wildlife and birds – or in general for those who love close-up photography – it is a light, easy-to-handle and good quality tool. The proof is in the images I obtained of water birds, passerine birds or small mammals such as this young squirrel that was moving on pine trees of the Bay of Arcachon in France. Of course, a CSC like the X-T1 gives the possibility to see clearly when using a teleconverter such as the XF2xTC, while a DSLR camera would have given a darkened view. I took all these pictures with my X-T1 camera.

Very soon we will be leaving and we will travel for a long time. Our main companions will be the FUJINON XF100-400mm zoom lens and the teleconverters XF1.4X TC WR and XF2X TC WR.