Teleconverters and/or lense extension tubes

[BB3126]

I have been reading about teleconverters. I am wondering if they are worth serious consideration? They are much smaller than hauling another lense with you, I understand you loose an F stop or 2, but do you loose quality as well. I would like some input and ideas on this from some of you who have used one .

Thanks BB

 

[Roger]

Honestly it will depend on the lens. ; Yes, you do lose quality. ; However, some of them are still better than the equivalent at the non-teleconverter length.

Like Nikon's 300/4 with a 1.4 TC is better than the 80-400 VR zoom, which is considered to be professional.

 

[mSummers]

Yes you can loose image quality in certain situations. ; Teleconverters work best on prime lenses. ; You can use them on zooms, but there tends to be some quality loss unless you stop the lens down 2 or 3 stops. ; If for example you wanted to use a 70-200 f2.8 wide open to get ; a shallow depth of field for a wildlife shot, you may have some image quality loss. ; Also from what I've read, the teleconverters that are less than 2x magnification produce a better image quality. ;

If you are thinking about buying a teleconverter, I would suggest renting the ones you are interested in and testing them to see if you are happy with the results.

 

[Roger]

The other thing to remember is that if your effective f-stop is greater than 5.6 with a consumer/prosumer dSLR it won't even try to AF, f/8 for the pro bodies. ; I've heard that some of the third party teleconverters trick a camera into letting them AF, but I haven't tried that myself. ; (Since some of the Tamron lenses go beyond 5.6 at the long end, they had to trick the body so the consumer zooms would AF)

 

[mSummers]

I forgot one other thing. ; Make sure the lens that you want to use is compatible with teleconverters. ; If you try to mount a lens that's not compatible, you could destroy the rear element of the lens and the front element of the converter.

 

[WDWFigment]

Interesting discussion. ; I had the same questions as the original poster, and it was nice to know the tradeoffs for using a teleconverter.

If you are thinking about buying a teleconverter, I would suggest renting the ones you are interested in and testing them to see if you are happy with the results.

I was under the impression that a teleconverter was only around $100-200. ; It seems like renting one for $50 or so might be a bit excessive given the low cost. ; Why not buy it, and if you don't like it, resell it?

 

[Grumpwurst]

Why not buy it, and if you don't like it, resell it?

I would have to say that you are probably one of the most comfortable person's I know with using e-bay as your digital garage sale (not meant to be taken as a negative comment). ; The idea just doesn't sit well with me and I know it does for many people I know in and out of the community. ; That may be the foundation for the comment on renting before you buy. ; Because a $50 expense is a whole lot better in my mind than spending $100-200 and then finding out I didn't like it and am stuck with it because I don't like the idea of selling something over the internet

 

[Paul]

The $50 rental seems high to me. ; Calumet lists a EF 1.4X II Tele-Extender rental for $10/day or $30/week (without shipping since I work close to the Boston location).

I have the EF 1.4X II Tele-Extender and teamed it up with my Canon 70-200mm F2.8 IS and I could not be happier. ; When in use F4 is the largest aperture you can obtain, but the picture quality in my opinion does not suffer.

 

[WDWFigment]

I guess I figured everyone nowadays buys and sells on eBay. ; I certainly have been burned a couple of times, but I take every pre-caution to protect myself from scam transactions, so the risk is fairly negligible (and this is something I do a lot--I frequently scour eBay for newly listed auctions with below-market Buy-It-Now prices to flip). ; But it is something for which you must account. ; I consider it just one of the costs of doing business. ; I never risk more than I can afford to lose. ; I would wager quite a bit that I'm still coming out ahead compared to renting things.

Would you consider selling via Craigslist? ; What about at a physical garage sale?

The $50 rental seems high to me. ; Calumet lists a EF 1.4X II Tele-Extender rental for $10/day or $30/week (without shipping since I work close to the Boston location).

I have the EF 1.4X II Tele-Extender and teamed it up with my Canon 70-200mm F2.8 IS and I could not be happier. ; When in use F4 is the largest aperture you can obtain, but the picture quality in my opinion does not suffer.

I based it on the approximately $30 plus $22 shipping (I think) from LensRental.com. ; Around here, as far as I know, we don't have any B&M rentals (one of the fellow Indy folks correct me if I'm wrong, I'm new to the area--does Roberts do it). ; If you're not in a major metropolitan area, you'll have to pay that shipping fee. ; If it would only cost $10 for the rental, that would probably be a better option than buying/reselling, as transaction and time costs would probably eat about that much of the amount you'd recover.

 

[Roger]

The branded teleconverters are in the $300-$500 range. ; And those are the ones that LR usually rents.

 

[WDWFigment]

The branded teleconverters are in the $300-$500 range. ; And those are the ones that LR usually rents.

Holy cow! ; I had no idea those were so expensive. ; That makes me really regret passing on the Tamron 1.4x that was posted on Slick Deals for $49 a few months back. ; Wow.

 

[Grumpwurst]

Would you consider selling via Craigslist? ; What about at a physical garage sale?

I would only sell my stuff if cash changes hands with the goods in person. ; So that means that a garage sale is on my list of methods. ; In fact, I've sold a lot at garage sales. ; I just don't trust e-commerce with unestablished services (B&H, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble are probably the only places I've purchased online). ;

I listen to podcasts about online computer security and they don't paint a very secure profile for doing business on sites like e-bay

My sister-in-law was taken for thousands by paypal when her hardly-ever-used account was hacked and then they took the money out of her bank account without her knowledge to cover the actions of the thief. ; Paypal refused to acknowledge the theft of her identity and she was out $5000 (she setup the account for a business she was trying to setup for my brothers digital paintings)

 

[WDWFigment]

I would only sell my stuff if cash changes hands with the goods in person. ; So that means that a garage sale is on my list of methods. ; In fact, I've sold a lot at garage sales. ; I just don't trust e-commerce with unestablished services (B&H, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble are probably the only places I've purchased online). ;

I listen to podcasts about online computer security and they don't paint a very secure profile for doing business on sites like e-bay

My sister-in-law was taken for thousands by paypal when her hardly-ever-used account was hacked and then they took the money out of her bank account without her knowledge to cover the actions of the thief. ; Paypal refused to acknowledge the theft of her identity and she was out $5000 (she setup the account for a business she was trying to setup for my brothers digital paintings)

I think whenever you have more knowledge about something, you are more likely to be overly-cautious about it (my fiancee is a nurse, and I constantly hear about germs and my handwashing "form". ; I do the same thing with other subjects). ; There certainly are dangers, and your sister-in-law's example demonstrates just how dangerous it potentially can be. ; I think cases like that are the exception rather than the rule, and when you hear how bad things are (such as through the computer podcast) you also don't hear about the thousands of successful transactions each day that take place without incident. ; It also doesn't hurt that I can do my own legal work for free, and any issue I've ever had (like your SIL had with Paypal) with a company like that has been quickly resolved by sending a letter.

 

[mSummers]

Holy cow! ; I had no idea those were so expensive. ;

yeah, they're certainly not cheap. ; I went out and got a used TC-20E II to put on my 70-200 because I thought it would give me a cheap 400mm lens. ; I was not happy at all with the quality so now it sits on the shelf collecting dust. ; That led me to get the 80-400 which I should have gotten to begin with. ; That's a rather expensive mistake...

My sister-in-law was taken for thousands by paypal when her hardly-ever-used account was hacked and then they took the money out of her bank account without her knowledge to cover the actions of the thief. ; Paypal refused to acknowledge the theft of her identity and she was out $5000

That's exactly the reason why my paypal account is not tied to my bank account. ; I only use it as a way to pay with credit card on ebay and other sites that don't allow you to use credit cards.

 

[Grumpwurst]

I think whenever you have more knowledge about something, you are more likely to be overly-cautious about it (my fiancee is a nurse, and I constantly hear about germs and my handwashing "form". ; I do the same thing with other subjects).

My wife is also a nurse (RN working in ER) and I always tell her that she suffers from the burden of knowledge.

There certainly are dangers, and your sister-in-law's example demonstrates just how dangerous it potentially can be. ; I think cases like that are the exception rather than the rule, and when you hear how bad things are (such as through the computer podcast) you also don't hear about the thousands of successful transactions each day that take place without incident.

I think one really bad incident like what happened to my sister-in-law or Leo Laporte's very public story about being taken for thousands by a seller with a falsified high reliability rating on ebay can really void all the successful transactions and sour you to the service. ; I view ebay like vegas. ; Don't go in for more than you are willing to lose. ; I'm not willing to lose anything, so therefore I don't gamble at vegas. ; I have the same view of the stock market