Oly 45 1.8 with Pana GTC1 converter... works !!!

MT wrote:
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MT said:

MT said:

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--As has already been established such a combination results in effective 180mm/f1.7. A front mounted extender is far preferable to a back mounted one because of no loss of lens speed. However because of the larger size and weight of the front elements works best with smaller sensor cameras and ones with fixed lens ie internal focusing to reduce the strain on the lens and camera. The choice of trying on an Oly 45/1.7 works because this tele converter was specifically designed to work between 18mm and 42mm lenses and going much larger or longer would result in problems. Tell where could you find a 180mm/f1.7 FF lens in the real world? Actually that combo should also work well for portraits and out of focus backgrounds.

I did a cleanup on my hard drive and found two more relevant photos.

Better to share before I delete this - maybe someone will search this forum for this converter.
First, bare Oly, then with Panasonic GTC1.

See shutter speed. Don't pay attention that shot with converter is a bit blurred (and sorry for subject, this is what I had handy).
This is just to show how bokeh-tastic this converter is.

Yikes.

You sent the converter back?

I see the two photos of the jar.

I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking at, could you explain the positioning and framing and distances you chose?

What's important is that the adapter reduces the speed of the lens radically, rather than leaving it unmodified. This indicates that the adapter failed to gather enough light for a fast lens. It's unsurprising because it was not specified for the 45/1.8, but was designed for slow zooms.

Ideally, front-mounted converters should leave the speed of the lens unmodified, i.e. an idean front teleconverter should convert a 45/1.8 lens to a 90/1.8 one. In this case it made it into an effective 90/5 or something. Look at the shutter speeds of those photos.

In addition, the previously excellent bokeh of the 45 has been all but destroyed

For a 42/5.6 zoom this will be fine, converting it to a 84/5.6, leaving the speed not changed. It just could not cope with anything faster than f5 at 42-45mm. Anything faster will be slowed down to f5 or so.

Ulfric M Douglas said:

I see the two photos of the jar.

I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking at, could you explain the positioning and framing and distances you chose?

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Look at background blur. Important thing is that the jar has the same size on both photos. In such conditions longer lens should defocus background more than shorter lens with the same aperture. What you see is the opposite (and bokeh sucks IMO).

For comparison, look at my other photos in this thread where I compare background blur of 45mm F1.8 lens with and without TCON-17.

markintosh13, I returned the converter in few days after I got it.

Forget about 45mm F.8 lens. It would perform poorly even on lens it was designed for. I tried it briefly on Oly 14-42mm kit. On 14-42mm zoom it would not reduce aperture, but quality degradation is significant.

For $130 it's way overpriced. One can add few bucks and get Oly 40-150mm zoom which will be as fast and will destroy this converter in IQ.

Edit: Oly 40-150mm will be as fast as this converter on Oly 45mm (F5.0 at 90mm).

It will be half a stop faster than this converter used on 42mm F5.6 zoom. 40-150mm lens is F4.8 at 85mm.

Hi!

I can't understand something... when panasonic tell that TC is attachable only at teleend i suppose it means that i can attach the tc only with lenses in tele end... but after i attache gtc1 i can zoom normally?

I found these two videos, recorded with gx1 with gtc1 on... you can see gx1 zooming but at wide aperture it shows through a dark hole!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfAVMS6wFmU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zPJXGGdx8o

I am a noon, but i was convincted that on 14 aperture i can shot with TC in 28x2 = 56mm without this effects...

So 2 questions:

1) with gtc1 i can zoom normally from 14 ( x2x2= 56 ) to 42 (x2x2= 168)???

2) if i shot in wide i always see that "black hole"???? ( gx1 maybe has a teleconverter angle option...)

Thanks to all

tt321 said:

In addition, the previously excellent bokeh of the 45 has been all but destroyed

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Very informative thread, thank you all!

I decided to end of wet dream of having a 90mm F1.8 lens after seeing those samples.

I will send my sincerely apology to that buyer on ebay. Gotta cancel that deal.