Cheap teleconverters for digital ultra-zoom? (1 Viewer)

I do a lot of kayaking, rock climbing, hiking and hunting in rough, often steep terrain. Because of that, my gear gets banged about quite a bit - so I try really hard to keep the costs down. My basic principle when it comes to camera equipment is that I simply won't carry anything that I can't afford to lose.

So I've been thinking about picking up a teleconverter lens for my Lumix DMC-FZ50. I've seen several recommendations on this forum for the Olympus TCON-17, which would fit my camera. But in the process of shopping around I've found several teleconverters from other manufacturers that advertise mag levels up to and in excess of 3X, often for significantly less than the going price for the Olympus.

I guess what I'm wondering is - are these things worth bothering with? Keep in mind that I'm strictly an amateur, and I don't need professional quality lenses. But I would prefer not to waste money on something that simply won't work at all, or will be more trouble than it's worth.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

I keep hearing that those cheap teleconverters are garbage. The Olympus Tcon 17 is supposed to be a quality lens, however...at an affordable price. I went with the Nikon Tc-e15ed...but am still waiting for a step down ring. With the Oly Tcon 17, you won't even need a ring! Fits snuggly into the FZ50.

[QUOTE='Card] Keep in mind that I'm strictly an amateur, and I don't need professional quality lenses.
[/QUOTE]
Yes, but you don't want to get something that gives you blurry pictures either. I think the TCON-17 is worth the approx $100 it sells for, and it gives VERY good results. In fact, I see no difference in sharpness with it or without it.

I have also read bad things about most of those other teleconverters, esp the higher magnification ones. And the magnification boost you get with the proven TCON-17 is pretty good, so I stay stick with it.

If it's any help, I have the Olympus B300, the forerunner of the Tcon-17, which I used almost as a standard on my Uzi and Minolta A1. I still use it occasionally today on my Tammy 90mm macro. It's a very good piece of glass imho so I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the Tcon-17 today. It is a large diameter and very heavy mind!. Ones with larger magnifications I tried were rubbish but things may have changed. One was a Tiffin 2x and I actually binned that rather than pass it on to someone as foolish as myself!!

Buy the Tcon with confidence, or the Nikon/Canon offerings. The Panasonic ones made specifically for your Lumix also have a reasonable reputation but I can't offer any personal experience with these. Best advice with the Lumix is to get the alloy adapter that screws to the Lumix body rather than the plastic one. Also try the Panasonic forum at dpreview http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1033 for a more hands on opinion by thousands of users.

If you look at my gallery, wildlife section, any pics with the file name commencing Pxxx.... or Pictxxxx..... are from the cameras mentioned above and will almost certainly be using the B300 telecon.

These telecons, by the way, can still be used with close-up lenses (filter type) between the telecon and the camera lens which give great macro features.

NOTE: You are aware that using these telecons will probably drastically reduce your zooming range.

Hope this helps.

Denis.

DenisG said:

NOTE: You are aware that using these telecons will probably drastically reduce your zooming range.

Click to expand...

No, I have to admit that I didn't know that. I'm new to this, and I was under the impression that the whole point of teleconverters was to increase your zoom range - at least that's the way they're advertised. What am I missing?

[QUOTE='Card]No, I have to admit that I didn't know that. I'm new to this, and I was under the impression that the whole point of teleconverters was to increase your zoom range - at least that's the way they're advertised. What am I missing?[/QUOTE]

I'm guessing that he's trying to say that the low end of your zoom won't be
wide-angle with the teleconverter on. If you want to take wide-angle pictures
you'll have to remove it.

[QUOTE='Card]No, I have to admit that I didn't know that. I'm new to this, and I was under the impression that the whole point of teleconverters was to increase your zoom range - at least that's the way they're advertised. What am I missing?[/QUOTE]
Well, the whole point is to increase the maximum magnification at the top of the zoom range. The lens specifically says that it should be used at maximum zoom. In fact, you can zoom back some and it still works, but if you zoom back too much you get vignetting - a black circle around the edge of the image.

So, if you frequently use the FULL Range of the zoom on your camera, then having the teleconverter on it can be a hinderence. However, generally speaking, wildlife photographers usually use the very top of the zoom range almost all the time. So, adding a teleconverter to get more magnification at the top is perfectly acceptable, and in fact desirable.

OK, I got it now. Thanks for the explanation, folks.

[QUOTE='Card]No, I have to admit that I didn't know that. I'm new to this, and I was under the impression that the whole point of teleconverters was to increase your zoom range - at least that's the way they're advertised. What am I missing?[/QUOTE]Depends on how you look at it. The Lumix is 35 to 420mm (35mm equiv) or 12x. Some folks have the idea that a 1.7x telecon would give (on the FZ50) 60 to 714mm (35mm equiv) but that is not so. RAH's comments are correct in that you only have a fraction of the zoom range available at the top end before vignetting sets in. I don't know what the effective zoom range would be on the FZ50 but on the Oly 2600Uzi it was only around 380-640mm.

I mentioned this simply because it is to be used as a touring add on and a lot of folks are disappointed at not being able to use the full (in your case 12x) zoom range. They are there to give that extra reach for normal photography or increase the camera to subject (working) distance in close-ups.

Incidentally, the minimum focus distance is also increased but if the subject is marginally closer than this, switch to macro mode before you screw the telecon off. This usually overcomes the situation.

Denis.

Vignetting isn't the end of the world, though. You lose the outer 1/3-1/2 of the frame, but you still get the center. I often use the full range with the teleconverter on. (The bottom end of the range 1x-3x gives you pretty much the same angle of image area, though.)