2x Converters - Advice please

Subject: 2x Converters - Advice please 2009-06-04, 13:06

All,

I'm contemplating buying a new lens from the sub-£200 market probably, for my Nikon.

I have looked at the Sigma 70-300mm DG APO lens, which is around £175 over here, but it seems the can be picked up on ebay new, from the States for around £135.

I have also looked at just buying a 200mm lens and a 2x converter, but still trying to keep it all below £200.

What sort of effect will the converter have on image quality, and does anyone have the Sigma 70-300 APO lens?

Cheers
Steve

Location : Lincs

Hi Steve,

Unless the lens is at least an f/2.8 then forget it. You are going to lose two stops when fitting a 2x teleconverter to any lens. If the original lens hasn't got the optical quality then the images are going to suffer badly. Even if the converter fits and the auto focus work the lens will hunt.

For example I've used a Kenko 2x teleconverter on a Nikon Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6 VR. The image quality is poor and the lens hunts badly.

See the following guide for the 80-400mm and teleconverters.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/80400vr.htm

TJ

Location : Bristol

Hi Steve.

As already mentioned, the 2x converter is probably a bad idea. But the Sigma 70-300 APO DG lens is very good and you would not be disappointed with it. You can get excellent results with it.

Mark.

Subject: Re: 2x Converters - Advice please 2009-06-05, 03:20

So I've heard. To be honest I don't really do airshows so perhaps wouldn't need anything more than 300mm - At the places I visit like Valley and Brize, I rarely shoot all the way up to 400mm.

The Sigma lens seems reasonable value, but of course you get what you pay for. Does anyone have any sample images shot with the Sigma 70-300mm DG APO lens?

Steve

Location : Norfolk Spotter Watch Member : no

I bought a "teleplus" 2x converter to use with a canon 90-300, only paid £20 on ebay for it, everytime i used it i was wildy disapointed with any pic i took with it so it stayed in the camera bag then ended up back on ebay!
Dont own a sigma 70-300 APO but do own a 50-500 with APO glas and can say i noticed the difference immediately, the clours etc are so much more vibrant, heard a lot of good things about the quality of the 70-300 as well.

Location : Bristol

Hi Steve. Here's a couple of photos for you - both taken with a Sigma 70-300 APO DG.

Hope they are of use. Mark.

2x Converters - Advice please Hercules

Location : Suffolk Spotter Watch Member : no

1.4x converters from both Canon and Nikon tend to give much sharper results than their 2x converter equivalants and you only have the loss of 1 stop

Cheers Rob