"Bring 'em Closer"

I took the plunge and bought a 2x teleconverter for my Canon DSLR. I bought a generic model for less than half the price of the Canon model. I wasn't sure that twice the price would be worth it so I started at the low end of the price range.

My telescopic lens has a 75 to 300 mm focal length, so this little baby will double it. This first picture is taken at the 75 mm length without the teleconverter. The red truck is about 150 feet away (although I am terrible at judging distances, but close enough.)


And this is with the teleconverter at 75mm focal length. Not too shabby. And it's lovely that the camera's auto-focus works just fine at this length. Actually, it's based more on aperture size, as I learn later on. At this focal length, the aperture wide open is 4. At a longer focal length, the maximum aperture value is 5.6. The teleconverter only auto-focuses at aperture values of 4.0 or "less".


So I took another picture at 300mm without the teleconverter. Works great for large objects, but my favorite subject is birds, not vehicles.


And with the teleconverter, this is the result.


Notice the lack of sharpness in the picture? Three issues. The first is that auto-focus doesn't work with the teleconverter at the longer focal length because the aperture size is smaller. So the lens has to be focused manually. That's not such a bad thing according to a photography instructor I learned from. He thinks it is better than relying on auto focus.

The second issue is the ability to keep the camera very very steady as you are shooting. This can be accomplished through not moving at all (yeah, right) or using a tripod and/or remote shutter release. In a lot of situations, I could live with that, but when you are photographing birds that move around quickly, I find a tripod to be a hindrance. Plus, if you have to manually focus, even if it takes just a second, the shot can be blown.

Finally, my lens doesn't have image stabilization which would correct some of the blur. My dream lens is one with image stabilization and up to a 400mm focal length. I don't think I'll be getting one of those very soon. The price is way more than the Canon DSLR camera itself cost.

So, while I'm glad I have it, I see that it will take a lot of practice and patience to take decent pictures with the teleconverter. Hopefully, I'll be able to post some "incredible" pictures soon.

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