2x telephoto lens

Vanquish-Storm

Vanquish-Storm

Vanquish-Storm

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Hi guys,

I have an adapter for my Fuji bridge camera that allows me to add 58mm or 72mm filters. With this i could also attach a 2x telephoto lens. Are these as simple as increasing the zoom by 2x or am i thinking of it wrong?

Thanks in advance
 
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Basically yes but with some important caveats.
These teleconverters will reduce the amount of light entering the camera and will degrade the image quality, quite substantially on a bridge camera. I am hesitant to add a 300GBP teleconverter to a 1200GBP lens but to IQ concerns, I don't imagine the results on a bridge camera will be particularly useful.


What you tend to find on lower quality optics is that simply cropping the image and up-resizing is more beneficial.

I would also question the need to have such an attachment on a bridge camera, usually they come with a huge telephoto zoom range anyway.I don't know what resolution your camera is but 4-6MP is plenty to print at A4, so if your camera is say 12MP you could crop by a factor of 2, the same as adding a 2x teleconverter, and still print a fairly large photo.


I have never owned a bridge camera or any such attachments but I don't see that the results are really going to be that useful, or at least not significantly better than simply cropping.
 
as for dslr from what i read in my research on teleconvertors/extender was that using them increase all the aspects of the lens so for example a 200mm f5.0 - f8.0 will become a 400mm f10 - f16 lens also it would add 2 stop to it so you would need longer exposure then normally plus high iso. so from what i read a lot of the reviews and thread didn't recommend using a 2x but instead use a 1.4x teleconvertor/extender as 2x would impact the image quailty quite badly. so now you talking about a brigde camera depending what sort of brigde camera as their some with inter-changible lens and some where it a fix zoom lens(HS10). again if you going to use a teleconvertor/extender on it, then i would strongly suggest staying away from the 2x and get a 1.4x instead.

ps i would go say what the review and forum thread say of the image taken using a 2x teleconvertor/extender meaning what impact it as on image quality but im way too tried to remember excatly what they said best i can do is that heavly venetting as well as not as sharp as it would be without the 2x plus a lot of Chromatic Aberration.
 
as for the Chromatic aberration you do get little when using any teleconvertor/extender but with the 1.4x it not as bad or noticible than the 2x. if you shoot it raw then the chromatic aberration you do get with the 1.4x can be very easliy fix in post-processing. also another note to take in quality of the len you using the teleconvertor/extender with.

p.s. forgot to mention is that quite few of the teleconvertor/extender will only work with one type of len for example kenko/canon teleconvertor/extender will not work with ef-s lens only with ef lens. also some will not have autofocus or do have autofocus but because of the 2 stop unless it a really bright day the autofocus will not work. as you mention it a Fuji bridge camera i guessing the teleconvertor will hook up the same as it does on the hs10 were the teleconvertor attaches to the end of the len either a screws into the filter thread or clips on. either case their the strong possible that you will have to use manual focus as the autofocus will not focus.
 
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Thanks for the answers guys much appreciated. Let me see if i got this correct.

Using my camera without a telephoto lens i get a photo as shown below:

7046414873_26832c6500_c.jpg


Cropping it i get the image as shown below:

7046414851_afd4fa2eed_c.jpg


Using a telephoto lens will give me the same result as cropping?

Will using a telephoto lens not give a clearer image over cropping?
 
some brigde and dslr camera have an digial zoom on top of the optical zoom so the trick is on a tripod hook up a remote shutter cable, then use the optical zoom on the target, manual focus it in. once done then use the digital zoom and again manual focus it in. then use remote shutter cable to get a stable non-shaking image. using the digital zoom on top of the optical zoom can help get a sharper/clearer image in better focus. now as for you question your camera will most likely go from 18-300mm or 18-200mm Focal Length if you want even clearer image you need 400mm and above Focal Length. now when you start hitting Focal Length of 1200mm and above you will need some sort of tracking system to keep you lock on the moon or planet so that it stay in the center and focus. as without a tracking system you see the moon move very quickly so taking a 2 second shot will look blurly.
 
My camera does not have a remote shutter but when on the tripod i give it a time delay to take the photo, i assume this is the same kind of thing?

I think the camera has an auto tracking system, i will have to check, also this might not work with the telephoto lens I have heard.

I will also have to check out on a digital zoom to see if that works!

I think the camera has a Focal length: 28-504mm.
 
i've done some post on astrophotography in this thread astrophotography EOS 60d in their you see photo of the moon that i took using my canon 550d hook up to my telescope at a focal length of 600mm. plus i think i might of crop the image too can't remember as it was quite awhile ago i took it. their also a link to a youtube video on using dslr in astrophotography done by the bbc so that worth a look at as it cover a using only a camera and lens to take photo of the night sky.

ps the other photo of the moon im guessing someone took at a focal lengh of 800m to 1800mm thought a telescope on a tracking mount..
 
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Vanquish-Storm said:
My camera does not have a remote shutter but when on the tripod i give it a time delay to take the photo, i assume this is the same kind of thing?

I think the camera has an auto tracking system, i will have to check, also this might not work with the telephoto lens I have heard.

I will also have to check out on a digital zoom to see if that works!

I think the camera has a Focal length: 28-504mm.
Click to expand...

camera auto tracking system will not work it is something completely different to the tracking system i'm talking about. the tracking system i am talking about is where the camera/telescope stay fix on the target and the tripod mount move the head where camera/telescope attach to via motor on the tripod so that it stay fix with it. the precsion of these system is so good that you don't notice it moving when it is which is good for long exposure as no vibration are cause by the motor moving the camera/telescope so you get a stable and clear photo. these can keep track of target object for up to 2hr or longer so you can get long exposure of that lengh.
 
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well i've borrow my dad kenko 1.4x dgx 300 pro teleconvertor and i've hook it up to my telescope to take few shots of the moon and will post them in here and the astrophotography eos 60d thread either tomorrow or at the weekend. telescope Aperture is 80mm with a focal length of 600mm so with the teleconvertor the focal lenght becomes 840mm.
 
Vanquish-Storm said:
So to conclude, to make sure i have got what you guys say right.

adding this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...2UG_1?ie=UTF8&m=A39LSTY4A9J2UG&n=&s=&v=glance

to my camera will give me the same affect as cropping the image?
Click to expand...

Well, in theory adding that should give better results than cropping, however, for a number of reason you will probably find that cropping and running an up-resizing (upscaling) algorithm gives better results. You could always try it but might be a waste of money.

I think what pecnarf is getting at is that is that when you have a lot of reach the apparent motion of the earth leads to a lot of blur in the image, therefore astro-photographers need special tracking devices that will rotate the camera to compensate for the motion of the earth. You would be surprised how much blur you get in 15 seconds. On a wide angle image this is not too bad but the more you have zoomed in the bigger this blur is. Doubling your focal length will double the length of motion blur you see, and what is worse is that these teleconverters will decrease the amount of light reaching the sensor so will onl increase your exposure time, so you will either get even more motion blur or you will have to increase sensitivity which will increase noise.
 
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Ah i see, i think i get you now. It make sense when you think about it!

Thanks for all the info. I think my options are:

Try some different settings and re crop better,
See if i can borrow a teleconverter to test it,
Get a new camera with a better lens,
Spend the pennies on the item that pecnarf discusses.
 
Astro-photography is pretty special. You really need a telescope, and as said due to t motion you really need a tracking system.

Would be something I'd love to do but I think it is just outside my budget. Saving for a better wildlife setup.
 
it is their only two way to combat earth motion buy computerzise telescope as they come with mount that are motor, computer does the tracking, buy a tracking mount with onbroad tracking. as for camera and standalone apo telescope their is a mount system called astrotrac that astrophotographer use. the basic package is a motto tripod and head with astrotrac motor and tracking system that attaches to it. so it can track object for 2hrs but to buy astrotrac that package is £760.
 
here crop photo of the moon without the 1.4x teleconvertor


here crop photo of the moon with the 1.4x teleconvertor


equipment i used are as followed

Canon EOS 550d
Red snapper Tripod
Remote Shutter Release cable
Kenko 1.4x DGX 300 PRO Teleconvertor
Skywatcher EVOSTAR 80ED pro
Max DSLR 2 inch camera adaptor for canon
spacer
 
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the equipment that i used i listed at the bottom of my post. as for software i used adobe photoshop CS5, adobe brigde, adobe camera raw plugin.

adobe brigde to transfer raw files from camera to mac, then camera raw plugin to do some minor touches and crop, then cs5 to convert the raw file to Jpg.

ps. the way i hook it up is as followed

(camera body>Kenko 1.4x DGX 300 PRO Teleconvertor>max dslr 2 inch>skywatcher eveostar 80ed) im using the telescope in a prime lens configuration.
 
as you using a brigde camera and that it a fixed lens if you wanted to hook it up to a telescope you would have to use the eye piece projection method. where the camera is looking through a eye piece to capture the images very trick to do but once you got the basic's down it can be very simple solution for photographing when you can't connect the camera directly to the telescope.

ps if i remember too i post what setting i was using on my camera when i was taking photos.
 
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