[sparrowbirder]

Im going to namibia in october,already own a digiscoping setup cant yet afford to go DSLR, was thinking of purchasing one of these little gismos for flight shots and "close to" subjects,anybody got any examples taken with this lens I could have a look at..thanks

[Dave Smith]

If you go to the gallery and do a search on "TC E3" you will get pages of examples.

Dave

[IanF]

As Dave says you can do a Gallery search for photo examples.

I can vouch for it being a decent lens as I used to have one. One misgiving though is that it's a sizable piece of glass, quite bulky and heavy for the CP4500. I found medium distance subjects were better than close up use. Also having an Olympus C2100UZ with 10x optical zoom, the addition of the TC3-ED to the CP4500 I found a little disappointing in comparison.

[sparrowbirder]

How does it compare to say the eagle eye zoom lens,ive seen shots taken with this and have been dissappointed by them,also typed in TC3ed into the gallery search box,nothing came up,might be a problem my end (also been having a problem deleting photos from my gallery)

[IanF]

I used to have the EagleEye Optic Zoom too, a fixed 5x converter. With the EagleEye you can get some good results but it can be difficult especially as you lose 2 f-stops stright away. The technique is more akin to digiscoping than point and shoot. At least with the TC3- ED you can just point and shoot.

Here's a Galley link to some TC3 ED shots. Not many of them so I guess it may demonstrate the populairty of the lens!

As regards deleting photos from the Gallery, whilst there is no issue with removing them, Admin has set things so that you need to pass the details of which shots to deete to one of the Moderators to do it for you. It's a means to try to retain the Database integrity.

[Dave Smith]

But if you type in TC E3 you get 7 pages of examples. So I guess it is popular
The full model code is TC-E3 ED (not TC3 ED)
Dave

[sparrowbirder]

checked out those shots thanks Ian,may just save up for a dslr instead,the quality of these ones doesnt seem that great,may be worthwhile in a place were the light is better though(like namibia) need to think about this one

[cspratt]

I used the TC-E3 Ed lens for many of my gallery shots from last year. I now use a Canon DSLR as it is easier to "point and shoot". The TC-E3 obscures the viewfinder which makes getting a good birding shot difficult.

[Jay Turberville]

Originally Posted by sparrowbirder

Im going to namibia in october,already own a digiscoping setup cant yet afford to go DSLR, was thinking of purchasing one of these little gismos for flight shots and "close to" subjects,anybody got any examples taken with this lens I could have a look at..thanks

The TC-E3ED was my first step toward purchasing equipment for the purpose of bird photography. My conclusion was that the 450mm equivalence provided too little magnification for bird pictures. The TC-E3ED provides excellent optical quality with a CP995 and a CP5000, so I'd presume the same with a CP4500. I'm not sure about the online images mentioned, but if they were in a gallery on this birdforum.net, then I'd assume they would have been resized which renders them of little use for evaluating the TC-E3ED's image quality.

Back when I was just determining that I needed more reach, I did some testing to see if a CrystalVue 5X was better than an uprezzed TC-E3ED image. The test results can be seen here.
http://www.jayandwanda.com/coolpix/compare/compare.html

I also did some resolution testing that included the TC-E3ED and concluded that it can actually be sharper than the CP995 on its own at 4X zoom.
http://www.jayandwanda.com/digiscope...t/reztest.html

The issue with the TC-E3ED will not be image quality. It is darned sharp. The question is convenience and usability. Yes, its cumbersome. But compared to a DSL with a 300mm lens its pretty darned compact. The TC-E3ED is about the same size as the 35-70mm lens for my film SRL (perhaps its a tad larger).

Yes, I'm sure there are 10X cameras that are easier to use. But if you already have a CP4500, you have to ask the question of whether or not its better to get an add-on lens or an entirely new camera? Its also worth noting that it yields a 450mm equivalence on a CP4500 (or CP995). Few (if any?) digicams do that without additional optics. So you may be stuck with an add-on lens either way if you want that much reach. And besides, which of the 10X cameras has a compact lens? I don't recall any of them fitting that description.

Yes, the viewfinder is rendered unusable by the 3X. But then that's almost a forgone conclusion since the Coolpix's little optical viewfinder (which I never use anyway) doesn't use the 3x extender. So you must use the LCD ( which is "through the lens"). This is why I use a converted slide viewer. It gives a more "SLR like" functionality to the CP995 TC-E3ED combo. You can see how it all fits together here:
http://www.jayandwanda.com/coolpix/CPX_shade.html
The scheme actually works better on a CP5000.

Its an adapted solution and won't be as smooth to operate as a DSLR or a camera with a built-in long lens. But you can carry the camera and lens separately. So you still have a nice and compact Coolpix for when you don't want the long lens. Of course, only you can decide whether it makes sense to purchase one of these or whether it makes more sense to save your pennies for a DSLR (and long lens). Perhaps it makes more sense to purchase a used TC-E3ED? I know that someone recently sold one on the CP990 yahoo group for $100!! Since there are no moving parts, this seems to me to be a good candidate for a used purchase.

You can find three full resolution images taken with this camera and lens here:
http://www.jayandwanda.com/coolpix/3X/

You can also find some full resolution images of a friend' kid's little league game taken with the TC-E3ED and a CP5000 here:
http://www.jayandwanda.com/joeyll/
(The pictures of the batter were taken without the 3X. )

I hope this helps you some. Good luck.

[Chuck A. Walla]

I've used it for almost a year. It's a decent lens but disappointing for birding. I usually have to crop heavily. I never had any luck with flying shots either. It may have been my technique, but it wouldn't focus on even fairly large objects like aircraft. Picking birds out while perching was infuriating. I have hundreds of pictures of out of focus birds sitting in front of nice sharp foliage. I generally wish I had gone for the Eagle Eye 5X for both its 750mm equivalent top end and manual focus.

While digiscoping is a viable alternative, if you're at all serious about bird photography, and want a walk around kit, I'd definitely consider a DSLR with at least a 400mm lens plus 1.4X TC and tripod.

bob

[sparrowbirder]

thanks for the info,sounds like a lot of pros and cons here,still not sure on a purchase,especially as i want it for flying shots which sound difficult to do using the lcd ! Does the lens screw directly to the camera or is an adaptor needed! Would I use the same camera settings as for digiscoping

[Dave Smith]

Originally Posted by sparrowbirder

Does the lens screw directly to the camera or is an adaptor needed!

It depends on which camera you are using. It screws directly into the CP4500 and possibly the CP995 and CP990. The CP880 requires an adapter between camera and lens.

Dave

[sparrowbirder]

Ive got a 4500 Dave thanks for that info

[njlarsen]

I have a CP4500 also, and have used the TC-E3 ED extensively. It is difficult to use the lens in flight shots, because you have to find the bird using the LCD, give the autofocus time to focus, and then press all the way. I have however a few examples like this one: http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/njl...&.dnm=5f87.jpg or this: http://www.netfugl.dk/pictures.php?i...icture_id=2039. The majority of the photos with birds on http://photos.yahoo.com/njlarsendk comes from using this combination; exceptions state something like "through scope" in the comment.

For settings, I set the lens to 3X in the Menu, use the setting with 5 brackets for focusing, centre-only for exposure metering, and if the light is poor (which it often is) I activate the best-shot-selector. If you have unlimited memory, you could use the option for continues and shoot in series of three - BSS uses an algorithm for detecting the one of the three with least shake/movement and saves only that one. In the worst case scenario, that is the image where the bird had left the frame :-). I normally do not use the macro setting, I have experienced that on a close up, the macro would not focus with full zoom, while the non-macro setting allowed me to focus at the same distance.

HTH
Niels

[njlarsen]

Here are a couple of examples of central crops without any processing

Niels

[rb_stern]

I have both a TCE-3ED and an Eagle Eye Optic Zoom, which I use on my CP-4500 for birds in flight, small highly mobile birds close by, and when I don't want to lug my scope and tripod around for digiscoping. You can search the Galleries for these lenses, or browse my Gallery for examples using both these lenses. Some recent ones included the Magnolia Warbler May 19 and Barred Owl May 20 (TCE-3), and the Booted Racket-tail March 11 and Red Kite May 4 (EE 5X Optic Zoom). I find the TCE-3 much easier to use, as once it's screwed onto the 4500 I can just point and shoot, using the camera's auto-focus (same settings as njlarsen) - note that I always use an LCD shade attached to the camera, for either of these lenses, digiscoping, and just using the camera for scenics and people.

The problem with the Eagle Eye is two-fold - 1). You have to pre-focus it, and sometimes re-focus it, before depressing the shutter, and sometimes it seems to need a third hand to do a good job, and 2). I find it very hard to hold steady, with no camera shake, so I have more or less stopped using it. The only problem with the TCE-3 is that most images are too small unless the bird is very close - this can be partially relieved by cropping in Photoshop, but that introduces other problems, like sharpening and noise issues. So now I'm saving up for a DSLR with tele-zoom lens ........

[Neil]

I agree with Jay's comments here . I have one for use on the CP4500 and I don't see any loss in quality and there is no loss in light (which is why it's such a bulky lens). It's not easy to use for flight shots or to follow birds in poor light but it's nice to have in the bag for the right occasion (medium size birds, such at doves, or birds at feeders/water).

[Chuck A. Walla]

Originally Posted by rb_stern

note that I always use an LCD shade attached to the camera, for either of these lenses, digiscoping, and just using the camera for scenics and people.........

I've used the LCD shade exclusively for over 9 months now. I finally epoxyed it to the camera body. That is one aspect of the CP4500 I won't miss. It's a great camera for scenics and macro shots though and it was a good introduction to digital photography for me but I am biding my time for a DSLR to fill the 500mm to 1000mm equivalent gap, _and_ for an honest to god manual focus instead of that hokey electronic thing I'm stuck with now.