Are any front-mounted 2x attachment converters very good?

MattKing

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I have a Vivitar unit for my OM stuff that also serves as a variable extension tube. It gives reasonable results with distant objects, and is a very flexible tool for close-up work.

Paired with a 50mm lens, it gives me the flexibility of a 100mm close-up lens that has decent low-light capability (50mm f/1.8 becomes a 100mm f/3.5).
 

David Lyga

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Usually, no, but I remember back in the (70s or 80s) I think Pop Photo touted some that had more elements than others. These are rarely encountered but, theoretically, "yes" to your question. I do not like extenders and cringe when neophytes call them 'lenses'.
 
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darinwc

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I am speaking about the front-mounted converters. Not the ususal behind-the-lens converters.

Yeah I know they normally cheap plastic things. But there are some made for rangefinders and tlrs. Some made by mainstream manufacturers like canon and nikon.

In my case, I am looking to get some extra range on a camera where I dont have the option of another lens.
 

Paul Howell

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They only front end converters that were any good like the 35mm and 80mm for the Retina and some other German 35mm range finders and SLRs, the front element of the 50mm standard lens comes and the converter is attached, but the others made from lower end rangerfinders in my limtied experance were not very good at all.
 

BMbikerider

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The only converter I have found to be anywhere near good was one for my long gone manual focus Nikons. Mind you that was an AF adapter so I should have kept it. It was brilliant when coupled with a 300AI telephoto.
 

StoneNYC

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The canon and Nikon 2x converters are good, they aren't as good as just the glass, but for the price... Think about it, a 300mm prime is like $1,000, a 600mm prime is 13,000 but you could spend $1,300 and save yourself 10 grand and still have pretty good glass...


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Russ - SVP

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The Vivitar "macro-focusing" teleconverter, is a high quality 7 element one. As is the Kiron MC-7 model.

 

benjiboy

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No, not to me they aren't Darin, because with any 2X converter whatever the optical quality of the converter you lose 2 stops in aperture effectively reducing the film speed to a quarter of it's normal speed .
 

E. von Hoegh

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benjiboy said:
No, not to me they aren't Darin, because with any 2X converter whatever the optical quality you lose 2 stops in aperture.
Click to expand...

Yep. That said, I have an old 5-element Vivitar (!) that is certainly useable as far as IQ goes. But, they don't get along well with wideangles, and basically they halve the resolution of any lens you use them with.
As for the general run of before-the-lens converters, I've never been happy at all with the few I've used.
 

benjiboy

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That's true Mr. Von Hoegh, there are sound optical reasons why converters were never intended to be used on wide angle lenses.
 

John Koehrer

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AgX said:
People, read further than the first posting.
Click to expand...

Why start now?

There many for those non-film devices aka tools of the devil. Both wide and tele.
Quality? you may have to investigate tools of the devil web sites.
 

David A. Goldfarb

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There are some high-end front-mounted converters mainly for video lenses made by companies like Century Precision Optics (which is now part of Schneider Optics), and there are some pretty good ones from manufacturers like Nikon for small-format digital P&S cameras, but I don't know if any of those would cover 35mm still format. Maybe you could use them on an 8mm or 16mm movie camera, but given how C-mount lenses are cheap and plentiful in a wide range of focal lengths, I don't know why you would.
 

David A. Goldfarb

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StoneNYC said:
Pretty sure my Canon 1V takes all the current "devil" lenses....


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Click to expand...

You're a film/video guy, getting back to the original query, do you know if any of those front mounted converters, including the high end types for professional video cameras, cover 35mm still format? Even the front-mounted teleconverters designed for satanic P&S cameras vignette at wide focal lengths, and have to be used with the lens zoomed in.
 

StoneNYC

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I'm a still film guy, not a video guy, the Canon 1V is a 35mm film camera...

I don't know the first thing about video


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Pioneer

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At one point one of my older Sony digital cameras used add on convertors on the front to convert the normal zoom lens to telephoto or to wide angle. I did use them once in awhile but never was able to get any decent pictures with them.

I also have some 27mm Proxar lenses that thread into my Contaflex's 50mm filter threads and provide close up focus. These actually work quite well and I like them. I also have a set of 49mm close focus lenses for the Pentax but I have never really tested them so am not sure how well they work.

I suspect that they work fine if they were manufactured by the company to be used with certain lenses for a defined purpose, like the Zeiss Ikon Proxar lenses. The others may be a bit more chancy.
 

AgX

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It depends on the diameter of the rear lens of the converter attachment. I just got at hand a japanese consumer, factor 0.4 attachment with 40mm lens diameter which I could screw in without adapter ring into a Helios 58mm F2.0 lens with 30mm lens diameter.

No vignetting visible in the finder. But a lot of barrel distortion. (The Zenit body itself produces some barrel distortion in its finder, so I double-checked at a Canon body.)
 

jeffreyg

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While the discussion has centered on 35mm I have been using the Hasselblad 2x with their 150mm, 250mm and 350mm (the 350 of 35 year vintage) and find it to be super sharp. This past Saturday I used it with the 350 of course on a tripod and got negatives with very fine detail including details of sailboats that were less than half an inch on the negative and of buildings were perhaps a half a mile or more across the water. The film was Ilford Delta 400 developed with ID11. I haven't printed yet but did check with a Schneider 6x loupe.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/
 

AgX

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Does Hasselblad offer front-attachment converters? As this is what is inquired about. The thread got a bit confusing by now...
 

StoneNYC

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AgX said:
Does Hasselblad offer front-attachment converters? As this is what is inquired about. The thread got a bit confusing by now...
Click to expand...

I just checked, the OP said nothing about front attaching converters.


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jeffreyg

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I am quite sure Hasselblad doesn't although they have Proxars for close-up. I'm not familiar with lens construction but I suppose one could be designed. Since the setup I have gives great results I'll stick with it.
 
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