Telephoto lens advice

[icassell]

I have the same lens and love it, and double it occasionally with a 2X TC

Do you notice any image degredation with the TC? That lens may work well for the indoor stuff. I really just need the 300mm for the outdoor games.

maybe a little softer when it is wide open with the 2x == not so noticeable with the 1.4x

 

[Crazydad]

Thanks. I think I'm going to check out the Sigma. Today showed me I do a lot of shooting indoors and the 2.8 may be more important than I first thought.

 

[icassell]

Here's the 50-150 with the Sigma EX 2X TC

 

[Crazydad]

Nice shot. While my son usually doesn't play on the moon, that certainly shows me how well the TC works.

Thanks for the info, definitely going to check out that lens tomorrow.

 

[andrew99]

I have the same lens and love it, and double it occasionally with a 2X TC

Cool, I'm interested in the the 2X TC, can you give a link to it? Is it a Sigma product, or does it matter?

 

[icassell]

Cool, I'm interested in the the 2X TC, can you give a link to it? Is it a Sigma product, or does it matter?

http://www.sigmaphoto.com/lenses/lenses_tele.asp


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleconverter


There are 2 standard teleconverters made -- a 1.4X and a 2X. The 1.4 slows your lens by 1 stop and the 2 by 2 stops. They also may add a bit of softness, although I haven't seen that to be much of a problem. Some are better than others. The Canon ones can only be used with specific Canon lenses. The Sigma ones can be used with specific Sigma lenses or the equivalent OEM lens.

If adding the TC brings your lens over f5.6 (at least on Canon), the AF won't work and you have to manually focus.

Other vendors make teleconverters, but I have no experience with them (except for my old Vivitar I used back in my 35mm days).

 

[TamiyaGuy]

Wow, that is a really stunning photo of the moon there. How large was it on that night? I once used a 200mm lens to capture the moon, and I could just about get a 1024 x 768 crop of it, but in nowhere near as much detail as that.

As for lenses, if you're doing a lot of indoor stuff, then f/2.8 is very useful. Quadruple the shutter speed with the same ISO, lower the ISO to 400 and keep the same shutter speed (compared to 1,600), or a combination of the two.

 

[andrew99]

Thanks for the info, icassell!

 

[Village Idiot]

Using a TC on a 2.8 telephoto kind of defeats the purpose. A 1.4 makes your widest aperture equal to f/4 and a 2.0 makes it f/5.6.

 

[icassell]

Using a TC on a 2.8 telephoto kind of defeats the purpose. A 1.4 makes your widest aperture equal to f/4 and a 2.0 makes it f/5.6.

Yes, but it would be even slower if you didn't start with a 2.8

 

[Village Idiot]

Yes, but it would be even slower if you didn't start with a 2.8

True, but why spend the money on an expensive lens and a 2x TC when you could get something with reach, similar IQ, and the same aperture at 5x's less.

 

[icassell]

True, but why spend the money on an expensive lens and a 2x TC when you could get something with reach, similar IQ, and the same aperture at 5x's less.

No -- I spent money on an expensive fast lens for the 50-150 range. I didn't need to lay out an additional large amount of money on a longer lens until I was ready to buy a reasonably fast longer lens also . The TC was a relatively inexpensive alternative (and I can use it now on my longer tele so the $$ wasn't wasted. When I can afford a 600mm f2.8, then I can stop using it on my 300 and use it on that lens too ).