Strange halo when using Fuji 100-400 with Fuji XT 1.4 extender

[severnbore]

Hi

I find that when using my Fuji 100-400 lens with the matching 1.4X extender at full reach my photos reveal a sort of halo effect around the subjects as shown in this small section of a recent picture.

The photo was taken a 1/1000th hand held and I have tried keeping the OS on and OS off, but with no difference. I have no problems when not using the extender and get pin sharp pictures throughout the range

Any thoughts and ideas would be welcome

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[CDBC]

Are you shooting with the lens at full aperture?

Put that camera on a tripod - heck, you're shooting what is effectively a 600 mm (which I think would be a 900 mm equivalent in 35 mm terms), so trying to hand hold the camera isn't likely to work very well anyway.  Those stationary seagulls don't need 1000th of a second, but lenses generally produce a crisper image when stopped down a bit.

[severnbore]

Hi,

Many thanks for your comment which is truly appreciated. However, My aperture was stopped down to f8 and with 1000 and a fairly steady hand I would, from past experience with other long lenses, have expected to get a crisp shot either with or without the excellent OSD provided by Fuji.

Nevertheless I will try using a tripod to check whether that is indeed the problem.

Incidentally, I tried using the Photoshop shake reduction filter to see if that would remove the "halos", but it did not work, perhaps because the algorithm didn't recognise a shake movement?