New Tele-Converter

I purchased the Quantaray 2x tele-converter for my Canon EOS (Digital Rebel - older body). With my Tamron 70-300mm lens (f4-f5.6) that boosts me to 600mm view (conversion factor 1.6 - 960mm!!!!!). There are now two complications that I am going to have to learn to overcome.

One - manual focus at extreme focal lengths. The lens is not fast enough to keep up with the autofocus circuitry at the longest focal lengths unless you desensitize all the way to sports mode and use the auto-servo. I don't know if you've ever used the auto-servo, but it has a tendency to focus on whatever you're not shooting at the moment. Shooting wildlife is why I wanted the lens, and you're normally shooting through brush or intervening woods, so focusing on your target is too hard for the constant focus mode...

Two - camera shake - Oh my lord. If I was Kate Hepburn before, now I'm Kate Hepburn on methamphetamines. On a cloudy day, at full focal length, open all the way (f5.6 for this lens)at 400 ISO, I was getting about 1/200th of a second (shake, shake, shake your booty) and fuzzy pics. At ISO 800 the result was a still picture, with about the quality of a 110 film blown up to 8"x10".....

I'm going to want lots of sunlight, and I'm going to have to take my tripod with me when I want to shoot.

My hobby just got a bit more complicated, and all for less than $100. Will post pics as soon as I get a clear one (out of 30 shots so far, nothing good enough to be associated with).