Teleconverter

[robbins.photo]

Just out of curiosity, if you're already thinking of getting one, shouldn't you knowt he answer?

Good point. I like to ask stupid question, now. Make better decision, later.

I look at Tamron teleconvertors, and the prices are tempted. It mentioned some quality issues, so I rather hear from you guys.

Well if your already having quality issues with the 250 mm adding a teleconverter is just going to make that problem worse. You also need to consider that at 250 mm your at F/5.6 without a teleconverter, you'll be losing an F stop on top of that. This means less light which of course might require you to up the ISO to maintain the same shutter speed, introducing even more noise into your image. The tamron teleconverters are right around $150 as I recall, for that sort of money you can probably get a used 75-300 mm lens for your Canon. Now granted it probably won't have IS at that price but throw your system on a tripod or monopod and you'll probably get much better results from it than you will from the 250 mm you already have with a teleconverter.

 

[tecboy]

Something that I don't quite understand. I use 250mm zoom with 100 iso, and I get clear, sharped shots with less noise on small subject about 15 feet away. When I shoot 250mm with 100 iso on car about quarter mile away, I get soft and little noisey shots. Is it all about better glass?

 

[robbins.photo]

Something that I don't quite understand. I use 250mm zoom with 100 iso, and I get clear, sharped shots with less noise on small subject about 15 feet away. When I shoot 250mm with 100 iso on car about quarter mile away, I get soft and little noisey shots. Is it all about better glass?

Ok, the answer to your question is yes. And no. And maybe.

Hope that clears it up.. lol..

Ok, seriously though there are a lot of reasons why your images at 200 mm might be softer at the same ISO - many things could be coming into play. It might be the quality of the zoom at 200 mm - zoom lenses don't perform the same at every focal length, some lengths give better results than others. Other factors might be involved here as well, such as camera shake, shutter speed, aperture settings, etc. A lot can play into how sharp the final image is, including the quality of the glass.

 

[Derrel]

At a quarter mile away, atmospheric conditions can wreak havoc on long lens images!!! heat mirage, airborne haze, airborne water, like the mist above the ocean's waves for example, can affect the clarity of longer-range photos. In many areas, the amount of air pollution from cars, or even agricultural particulate matter, smoke from winter time wood-burning fireplaces and stoves, fog, whatever....ALL of those things can affect long-distance shots to a VERY high degree.

Here is a 6MP Nikon D70 image from 2004, taken with a $99 Quantaray 500mm f/8 pre-sent manual focus lens. The distant trees are around 800 yards away TOPS...this was in the early fall, when the air quality here is bad--filled with pollen and dust...

[ DSC_6500_500f8_3/4mile.jpg photo - Derrel photos at pbase.com ]

The air is, as we say, "full of cr@p!"

 

[tecboy]

At a quarter mile away, atmospheric conditions can wreak havoc on long lens images!!! heat mirage, airborne haze, airborne water, like the mist above the ocean's waves for example, can affect the clarity of longer-range photos. In many areas, the amount of air pollution from cars, or even agricultural particulate matter, smoke from winter time wood-burning fireplaces and stoves, fog, whatever....ALL of those things can affect long-distance shots to a VERY high degree.

Here is a 6MP Nikon D70 image from 2004, taken with a $99 Quantaray 500mm f/8 pre-sent manual focus lens. The distant trees are around 800 yards away TOPS...this was in the early fall, when the air quality here is bad--filled with pollen and dust...

[ DSC_6500_500f8_3/4mile.jpg photo - Derrel photos at pbase.com ]

The air is, as we say, "full of cr@p!"

I guess it is time for me to be a suicidal photographer. For now on, I'm standing really close to the racetrack! LOL!

 

[robbins.photo]

At a quarter mile away, atmospheric conditions can wreak havoc on long lens images!!! heat mirage, airborne haze, airborne water, like the mist above the ocean's waves for example, can affect the clarity of longer-range photos. In many areas, the amount of air pollution from cars, or even agricultural particulate matter, smoke from winter time wood-burning fireplaces and stoves, fog, whatever....ALL of those things can affect long-distance shots to a VERY high degree.

Here is a 6MP Nikon D70 image from 2004, taken with a $99 Quantaray 500mm f/8 pre-sent manual focus lens. The distant trees are around 800 yards away TOPS...this was in the early fall, when the air quality here is bad--filled with pollen and dust...



[ DSC_6500_500f8_3/4mile.jpg photo - Derrel photos at pbase.com ]

The air is, as we say, "full of cr@p!"

I guess it is time for me to be a suicidal photographer. For now on, I'm standing really close to the racetrack! LOL!

Lol.. well first I'd probably try a couple of tests under more controlled conditions, and take a look at some of the EXIF data from what you've already shot to see if maybe there might be some other factors involved that you can reduce or eliminate. Does your current lens have IS (Image stabilization) and if so were you using a tripod or monopod for this shot? If so was the IS on or off? Also, what is your shutter speed set at for this shot?

 

[tecboy]

At a quarter mile away, atmospheric conditions can wreak havoc on long lens images!!! heat mirage, airborne haze, airborne water, like the mist above the ocean's waves for example, can affect the clarity of longer-range photos. In many areas, the amount of air pollution from cars, or even agricultural particulate matter, smoke from winter time wood-burning fireplaces and stoves, fog, whatever....ALL of those things can affect long-distance shots to a VERY high degree.

Here is a 6MP Nikon D70 image from 2004, taken with a $99 Quantaray 500mm f/8 pre-sent manual focus lens. The distant trees are around 800 yards away TOPS...this was in the early fall, when the air quality here is bad--filled with pollen and dust...



[ DSC_6500_500f8_3/4mile.jpg photo - Derrel photos at pbase.com ]

The air is, as we say, "full of cr@p!"

I guess it is time for me to be a suicidal photographer. For now on, I'm standing really close to the racetrack! LOL!

Lol.. well first I'd probably try a couple of tests under more controlled conditions, and take a look at some of the EXIF data from what you've already shot to see if maybe there might be some other factors involved that you can reduce or eliminate. Does your current lens have IS (Image stabilization) and if so were you using a tripod or monopod for this shot? If so was the IS on or off? Also, what is your shutter speed set at for this shot?

If you see my other thread about drifting, I tried to get the car very sharped and good motion blur in background. The shutter speeds are from 50 to 80. The IS is always on.

 

[Overread]

I guess it is time for me to be a suicidal photographer. For now on, I'm standing really close to the racetrack! LOL!

Lol.. well first I'd probably try a couple of tests under more controlled conditions, and take a look at some of the EXIF data from what you've already shot to see if maybe there might be some other factors involved that you can reduce or eliminate. Does your current lens have IS (Image stabilization) and if so were you using a tripod or monopod for this shot? If so was the IS on or off? Also, what is your shutter speed set at for this shot?

If you see my other thread about drifting, I tried to get the car very sharped and good motion blur in background. The shutter speeds are from 50 to 80. The IS is always on.

If you're panning a shot then IS should be only on mode 2 or off - at least for if you're panning a shot on a monopod or tripod (and at speeds that slow whilst hand holding you'd be needing that support under the camera otherwise you'd be introducing your own hand shake - even with IS that would be a factor esp if you're panning and thus moving at the same time instead of braced still for a shot).

 

[tecboy]

Lol.. well first I'd probably try a couple of tests under more controlled conditions, and take a look at some of the EXIF data from what you've already shot to see if maybe there might be some other factors involved that you can reduce or eliminate. Does your current lens have IS (Image stabilization) and if so were you using a tripod or monopod for this shot? If so was the IS on or off? Also, what is your shutter speed set at for this shot?

If you see my other thread about drifting, I tried to get the car very sharped and good motion blur in background. The shutter speeds are from 50 to 80. The IS is always on.

If you're panning a shot then IS should be only on mode 2 or off - at least for if you're panning a shot on a monopod or tripod (and at speeds that slow whilst hand holding you'd be needing that support under the camera otherwise you'd be introducing your own hand shake - even with IS that would be a factor esp if you're panning and thus moving at the same time instead of braced still for a shot).

My low end telephoto lens does not have mode 2. What is Mode 2?

 

[Overread]

On lenses with two mods of IS the first mode is typically compensating for shake in two axis - up and down - left and right. In mode two only one of the axis (left and right) is being compensated since the up and down isn't taking place (because the lens is fixed on the tripod).

The other mode, is of course, off. If you lack a second mode and you're panning a shot with a tripod/monopod then I'd turn the IS fully off. Even if it has tripod detect its best off if you don't need it (in my experiences tripod detect is not perfect - using slow shutter speeds or the action of panning will cause it to fail to detect the tripod being present).

 

[robbins.photo]

I guess it is time for me to be a suicidal photographer. For now on, I'm standing really close to the racetrack! LOL!

Lol.. well first I'd probably try a couple of tests under more controlled conditions, and take a look at some of the EXIF data from what you've already shot to see if maybe there might be some other factors involved that you can reduce or eliminate. Does your current lens have IS (Image stabilization) and if so were you using a tripod or monopod for this shot? If so was the IS on or off? Also, what is your shutter speed set at for this shot?

If you see my other thread about drifting, I tried to get the car very sharped and good motion blur in background. The shutter speeds are from 50 to 80. The IS is always on.

As overread mentioned for that type of shot you either want IS off or in mode II - what I'd recommend to start would be to take a shot of a stationery object at 200 mm first with a shutter speed high enough to eliminate any camera shake, say 1/600 or higher. Best test shots I've found are ones with something with some lettering on it, such as a street sign, house number, mailbox - etc. Check and see if the image is soft at 200 mm or if it's nice and sharp under these more controlled conditions. If it's nice and sharp then we can eliminate the lens as the source and concentrate on the technique.

 

[tecboy]

I wonder why a lot of photographers at the raceway don't use a tripod?

 

[robbins.photo]

I wonder why a lot of photographers at the raceway don't use a tripod?

My guess is because most likely they've found it easier to pan without one. I don't shoot car races myself but I'm guessing they probably also want to stay a little more mobile than what a tripod would allow. I know I don't use my monopod much when I'm out shooting wildlife for much the same reason, I've found that with VR (Nikon's version of IS) I can generally get the shots I want even at the lower shutter speeds without one.

 

[SCraig]

I wonder why a lot of photographers at the raceway don't use a tripod?

Mainly because they slow one down, they get in the way, and they just aren't needed. You can't move your camera fast enough with a tripod hung on the bottom of it and when shooting fast-action sports you must be able to respond quickly to what is going on around you.

The main thing is to get as close as you safely can. These guys:

were less than 25' away from me. My left toe was on the edge of the asphalt that they were racing on however I was shooting over the top of a huge tractor tire they used as a safety barrier at the corner of a fence. If anything went wrong all I had to do was duck behind the fence or the tire to be relatively safe. Plus the bikes were only going around 50mph at that point on the track.

I was shooting using a 70-300 zoom hand-held. There was a woman beside me shooting with something a LOT bigger on a tripod. She kept missing shots I was getting easily because I had flexibility whereas she was locked to a tripod.

 

[gsgary]

Thanks guys for the infos. Here is a sampled image. I wonder if you can help me out. I have canon 55-250mm, and I know it is not a high end lens. If I crop it, it gets soft and plenty of noises. It is because of winter season that I get poor lighting. It is the smog or hazy out there. Or, my lens is not good enough, and I need to buy more expensive telephoto lens.
View attachment 62877

The Canon ones will not fit that lens for one reason, it is not good enough to be used with one

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