2x converter

Hello Darrell,

How many MM are the threads on the ProOptic 2X...49?...is the lens threaded at the front...I can't tell...thanks.

Darrell Spreen said:

LeeTee said:

Darrell,

Where did you get the Pro-Optic 2X? I am thinking about this for my
UZI.

Click to expand...

Adorama still shows it -- it's item number SKU VD2X -- price is
still $40.

Here's their photo of it.



Darrell

Click to expand...

This looks identical to my Acetar 2.0x lens...in fact, it probably is a re-branded Acetar. The quality is horrible - color fringing everywhere except for the center 20% area of the image. The label "Video lens" is a dead give-way the quality will be poor.

I learned my lesson with cheap lens' - it's just not worth the bad pictures to save a few bucks on quality optics. I have an Olympus C-210 and a Canon TL-55. Both use high quality coated glass.

miscellaneous59 said:

How many MM are the threads on the ProOptic 2X...49?...is the lens
threaded at the front...I can't tell...thanks.

Darrell Spreen said:

LeeTee said:

Darrell,

Where did you get the Pro-Optic 2X? I am thinking about this for my
UZI.

Click to expand...

Adorama still shows it -- it's item number SKU VD2X -- price is
still $40.

Here's their photo of it.



Darrell

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Thanks Guys! With your help, I found it on their site!--LeeTee

Jared,

Hmmmmm. The pics someone posted using this vs. the TL-46 looked comparitable to me.--LeeTee

Jared Hunter said:

This looks identical to my Acetar 2.0x lens...in fact, it probably
is a re-branded Acetar. The quality is horrible - color fringing
everywhere except for the center 20% area of the image. The label
"Video lens" is a dead give-way the quality will be poor.

I learned my lesson with cheap lens' - it's just not worth the bad
pictures to save a few bucks on quality optics. I have an Olympus
C-210 and a Canon TL-55. Both use high quality coated glass.

Click to expand...

Don't know if it's the same as your Acetar lens. It doesn't look well made,
as I've said before, but the sharpness is excellent. You can check the
samples I posted about 6 postings back. It does have some color
fringing, but that's solved 2 different ways which I have also mentioned
before. It may not be the same as your Acetar, because the ProOptic is
fully coated.

By the way, I think I was the first to recommend the Canon lens about a
year and a half ago -- it is very good if you don't want any fuss, but if you
really need 2X, the ProOptic can give very sharp results. Here's my latest
with the ProOptic 2X.



Darrell

Terrific!--LeeTee

Darrell,

What is the thread size on the Pro-Optic 2X; is it 49mm?

BTW, I looked at your pictures again from both the TL and Pro-Optic. The pictures are great!

Thanks!--LeeTee

Darrell Spreen said:

Jared Hunter said:

This looks identical to my Acetar 2.0x lens...in fact, it probably
is a re-branded Acetar. The quality is horrible - color fringing
everywhere except for the center 20% area of the image. The label
"Video lens" is a dead give-way the quality will be poor.

I learned my lesson with cheap lens' - it's just not worth the bad
pictures to save a few bucks on quality optics. I have an Olympus
C-210 and a Canon TL-55. Both use high quality coated glass.

Click to expand...

Don't know if it's the same as your Acetar lens. It doesn't look
well made,
as I've said before, but the sharpness is excellent. You can check
the
samples I posted about 6 postings back. It does have some color
fringing, but that's solved 2 different ways which I have also
mentioned
before. It may not be the same as your Acetar, because the
ProOptic is
fully coated.

By the way, I think I was the first to recommend the Canon lens
about a
year and a half ago -- it is very good if you don't want any fuss,
but if you
really need 2X, the ProOptic can give very sharp results. Here's
my latest
with the ProOptic 2X.



Darrell

Click to expand...

We cannot tell much from looking at a resampled image. Any image looks better when resampled to a smaller size. As well, your image has no detail at the edges or corners, the most important tell-tale area of a poor quality tele.

A test that really shows off the quality of a tele convertor is to shoot a picture of foliage/thin tree branches/brick wall and show us 100% non-resampled CROPs of sections from the corners or the left-edge, middle-left, middle-right, right-edge of the image (the center will always be sharp). A poor quality tele will have red or blue fringing on the edges of objects with high contrast. The corners will significantly blur as well.

Also, I suggest doing some tests to determine the TRUE magnification of your lens. If I recall correctly, my Acetar that is stamped 2X actually only had a magnification of 1.7 times.

LeeTee said:

Darrell,

What is the thread size on the Pro-Optic 2X; is it 49mm?

BTW, I looked at your pictures again from both the TL and
Pro-Optic. The pictures are great!

Thanks!
--
LeeTee

Click to expand...

It comes with 46, 49, and 52mm adapter rings. It's basically a 49mm
thread with step-down and step-up adapters.

Jared Hunter said:

We cannot tell much from looking at a resampled image. Any image
looks better when resampled to a smaller size. As well, your image
has no detail at the edges or corners, the most important tell-tale
area of a poor quality tele.

A test that really shows off the quality of a tele convertor is to
shoot a picture of foliage/thin tree branches/brick wall and show
us 100% non-resampled CROPs of sections from the corners or the
left-edge, middle-left, middle-right, right-edge of the image (the
center will always be sharp). A poor quality tele will have red or
blue fringing on the edges of objects with high contrast. The
corners will significantly blur as well.

Also, I suggest doing some tests to determine the TRUE
magnification of your lens. If I recall correctly, my Acetar that
is stamped 2X actually only had a magnification of 1.7 times.

Click to expand...

When I've compared the ProOptic 2X to the Canon TL46 (which is, along
with the Canon TL55, a video lens too), the ProOptic 2X appeared
to be a little sharper in the corners. I posted those results a while back
and you may want to look for them (They may have been lost along with
Photopoint, however). The Canon showed a little bit of corner softness
although not bad. The Canon and the ProOptic seem to be similar for

color fringing after mods, although I haven't taken the same shots with both. I did
also check for magnification, and the ProOptic 2X was very close to 2X.
(Very few lenses are exactly the claimed magnification).

This is the closest I have to a brick wall test with the ProOptic -- again, it's
not full size -- I have made 8 x 10 prints from the lens, however, and they
are on display in a gallery, so they're not too bad.



I think the ProOptic is actually similar to the Kenko HV200-Hi, but I'm
not sure of that either.

Darrell

...have you tried the Pro Optic 2X with any of the Oly x0x0 (mainly 2020 or 2040) cameras?...
...thanks for taking the time to share your experiences...
buzzy

Darrell Spreen said:

Member said:

We cannot tell much from looking at a resampled image. Any image
looks better when resampled to a smaller size. As well, your image
has no detail at the edges or corners, the most important tell-tale
area of a poor quality tele.

A test that really shows off the quality of a tele convertor is to
shoot a picture of foliage/thin tree branches/brick wall and show
us 100% non-resampled CROPs of sections from the corners or the
left-edge, middle-left, middle-right, right-edge of the image (the
center will always be sharp). A poor quality tele will have red or
blue fringing on the edges of objects with high contrast. The
corners will significantly blur as well.

Also, I suggest doing some tests to determine the TRUE
magnification of your lens. If I recall correctly, my Acetar that
is stamped 2X actually only had a magnification of 1.7 times.

Click to expand...

When I've compared the ProOptic 2X to the Canon TL46 (which is, along
with the Canon TL55, a video lens too), the ProOptic 2X appeared
to be a little sharper in the corners. I posted those results a
while back
and you may want to look for them (They may have been lost along with
Photopoint, however). The Canon showed a little bit of corner
softness
although not bad. The Canon and the ProOptic seem to be similar for
color fringing after mods, although I haven't taken the same shots
with both.

Click to expand...

You should have tried the TL-55 instead. I've found that all tele lens blur the image at the edges. The key to getting sharp corners is to be able to zoom in enough (beyond the vignette-free range) so that the corners are within the inner 10% or so of the glass after clearing the vignette zone. If the TL-46 had smaller diameter glass, the corners would have still been in the 'blurry zone' at full zoom. It's true that the Canon lens are meant for their video cameras, but the quality is high and not typical of most consumer video lenses.

Member said:

I did
also check for magnification, and the ProOptic 2X was very close to
2X.
(Very few lenses are exactly the claimed magnification).

This is the closest I have to a brick wall test with the ProOptic
-- again, it's
not full size -- I have made 8 x 10 prints from the lens, however,
and they
are on display in a gallery, so they're not too bad.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, this is still too small to form a strong judgement on the quality of the lens.

buzzy said:

...have you tried the Pro Optic 2X with any of the Oly x0x0 (mainly
2020 or 2040) cameras?...
...thanks for taking the time to share your experiences...

Click to expand...

Hi old friend buzzy,

The lens was tested by the magazine eDigitalPhoto a while back on an
Epson 850Z and their results looked great. They found no faults in their test

report (which is why I decided to try it). I don't know anything about the 850Z,
but at least there's a chance it would work on Oly x0x0 cameras.

The lens stays sharp and doesn't vignette when I zoom out a bit, so I'm
sure it's compatible with other cameras.

Darrell

Those are some great pictures!

Steven
D7, C2100, S300

Darrell Spreen said:

LeeTee said:

Darrell,

What is the thread size on the Pro-Optic 2X; is it 49mm?

BTW, I looked at your pictures again from both the TL and
Pro-Optic. The pictures are great!

Thanks!
--
LeeTee

Click to expand...

It comes with 46, 49, and 52mm adapter rings. It's basically a 49mm
thread with step-down and step-up adapters.

Click to expand...

Thanks Darrell!
--LeeTee