Telephoto

[Justin Thomas Leonard]

Hi all,

new here. I got a few questions about some very telephoto work i am interested in doing with my 500CM. I have never shot very telephoto before, and am looking maybe to start with a minium 250mm or even the behemoth 500mm ive seen online. obviously all these lenses are very expensive- most of us are on a shoestring. in my experience image quality is far better with a good lens, but how bad are teleconverters for 150, maybe 250mm lenses-as these seem to be far more affordable.

thanks

justin

 

[Ed Bray]

Hi all,

new here. I got a few questions about some very telephoto work i am interested in doing with my 500CM. I have never shot very telephoto before, and am looking maybe to start with a minium 250mm or even the behemoth 500mm ive seen online. obviously all these lenses are very expensive- most of us are on a shoestring. in my experience image quality is far better with a good lens, but how bad are teleconverters for 150, maybe 250mm lenses-as these seem to be far more affordable.

thanks

justin

I think you have answered your own question.

Aside from the 2 stops light loss when using a teleconverter you will also take a big hit on image quality.

 

[polypal]

Teleconverters do not always have a serious negative effect on image quality.
Besides light loss they also have an advantage: The minimum object distance of the lens fitted with a converter does not change giving opportunities to focus closer than comparable tele lenses.

Zeiss teleconverters offer very usable images.
Keep in mind the fabulous 300/2.8 lens came standard with a 1.7 teleconverter offering 510 mm focal length at f 4.3.

The 110 mm F(E) lens is often used with a 2x converter with excellent results making it a fabulous 220 f 4 lens.

Komura and other Japanese converters offer a usable alternative for the Zeiss ones at the price of a couple of films.
THey arenot as good as Zeiss converters but cost only a fraction of decent used Zeiss converters.
It does not hurt to experiment with these Japanese converters.