2X convertors Used W/Wide Angels

[d_f11]

<p>Are 2X convertors ever used with wide-angle lenses? How would one go together W/35 f3.5?</p>

[Jerry_]

<p>Generally, a tele-converter works so-so with a telephoto lens. Trying to get a 70mm lens from a 35mm lens may not give great images...the additional glass in the tele-converter does wonders and at times may make you wonder why you are trying to do so?</p>

[craigd]

<p>A 2x TC with a 35mm f/3.5 lens would give you, in effect, a 70mm f/7.1 lens, and probably not a very sharp one at that, since the TC will add aberrations of its own in addition to magnifying the aberrations of the lens mounted on it. Why would you want such a thing?</p>

<p>The typical use of TCs is to get you longer telephoto reach than you can otherwise achieve with the equipment at hand. Putting 2x on a 200mm or greater lens will get you out to 400mm or more when you may not be carrying (or even own) super-telephoto lenses. Putting a TC on a 35mm lens just doesn't make sense; surely you must own a 50mm or 85mm lens, or a zoom that covers the near-telephoto range?</p>

[kfoster70]

<p>Since many TC's actually protrude into the lens that they are being attached to, you would probably damage the TC and the 35mm lens if you tried attaching them together. Long telephotos generally have lots of distance between the mounting ring and the rear glass element so the TC can easily be attached without the glass from each piece coming in contact with each other. On shorter telephotos and wide angle lenses the rear glass element is nearly flush with the mounting ring.</p>

[mark_ethridge]

<p>A TC is a way to get more focal length where doing so with a lens would be extremely expensive (i.e. 300mm to 420mm or 600mm). Most people who own a modern camera, got a 35 and a 70 in one lens with an included zoom. Even if it did work, the hit you're going to take in image quality and lens speed are likely to be unacceptable. </p>

[nathangardner]

<p>They generally aren't used with wide lenses because you could just use or buy the lens you're trying to achieve. If you have a 35mm, either just use your zoom that covers 70mm or buy one. They become useful from an economic standpoint when you want to turn your 300 or 400mm lens into a 600 or 800mm; the $300 converter is much more attainable than a $8,000-10,0000 lens.</p>

[colin carron]

<p>It is more difficult and costly to make a good wide angle lens than a good standard lens of the same aperture. Wide angles get optically more extreme as the focal length shortens especially those for DSLRs. So to use a TC with a wide angle lens is to get a rather complicated lens and add another layer of complexity to it when you could be using the relative simplicity and good value of the mid-range lenses. There is nothing to stop you of course but it is just not the way to get best image quality.</p>

[jtk]

<p>Didn't necessarily make a lot of sense, but I used that combo very successfully with a minimum backpacking kit involving a Canon F1, the cheapest of Canon's 35mm FD lenses, and a Soligor 2X TC. I billed $250 for the one shot I took for a client during that hike. Sharper than the zoom lenses of that era, and even slower. </p>

[d_f11]

<p>'Don't have an 85 f2, but want something next up from just a 50. An MD 85 f2 is expensive. 'Thought about this for convenience, but responses are telling me what I thought - "don't do it". I won't. Thank you all.</p>

[GerrySiegel]

<p>Usually the teleconverters, the ones I am familiar with, like the sturdy Canon 2XB, were optically "designed" for normal to long lenses. Nothing says you can't do it with a wide angle, of course, but why is the question one poses. Give it a try, for sure, but don't waste money if that is the only reason to buy a TC. If one changes focal length this way you gain something but you lose something. Two stops for a start. (Who wants to take that hit.) And then, guessing as always, wide angle lenses are retrofocus designs, not easy to make and not always very fast to start off with. I bet that it is easy to chop up the quality works by adding on to their already tricky formula. <br>

I never got much use out of my Canon 2XB because of the light loss thing alone. Medium FL lenses of F 2.8 or so being reasonable in price. I bought used stuff for peanuts.</p>

[nathangardner]

<p>Also, just a quick observation, there's a reason the Canon converters are white. </p>

[joe_taylor5]

<p>I own a 2X converter and rarely use it. I just don't get the quality of photograph I want when I use one.<br>

I have used the 2X converter on a 28mm lens just to see what I would get. Ho hum I got about 70% quality of my 50mm normal lens. Kind of a soft focus effect which would be OK if you want to take kind of dreamy portraits.<br>

The only place I do use the 2X converter is on a 600mm lens once in a while and not often.</p>

[the celt 2]

<p>I remember once thinking a 2x TC would be sooo cool with my 28mm. Gee, I ended up with a pretty slow 56mm prime! Oh well, we were all young once. </p>