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RWill

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Well, I've been considering a teleconverter for my fz10. I've tried a tcon17 using the lens hood and stepdown rings. I've also seen many of the comparisons and mentions of other options. The Canon TL55 (a 1.4X digital camcorder tcon) seems most popular for quality. A sony (forget which model) has also been mentioned along with the olympus tcon14s etc. The panasonic is $800 canadian which is way too much for me.

So, browsing around, I came across some other canons. Has anyone tried or heard anything about the TC DC58s? They seem to be 58mm (a bit bigger than the tl55 and tcon17s 55mm) designed in variants for the A series canons, and the G1 and G3/G5. Any input from anyone?
What else have people tried and liked (or not liked)?

--
Someday maybe I'll think of something useful to put in here...
 
RWill said:
What else have people tried and liked (or not liked)?
Click to expand...
I used TCON-17, TCON-14B (1.45X) and Sony VCL HGD1758 (did you mention this), and found out that the TCON-14B provided the best results so far. I will post my findings in a couple of days.

The following are two nearly 100% crops. Note that I just got the camera and am still trying to determine its "personality." I used aperture priority mode with aperture F2.8. The lens used was TCON-16B, making the total focal length 420*1.45 = 609mm (35mm equiv.). Chromatic aberration is reasonably low; however, I am still not used to FZ10's multisegment metering as I usually obtained slightly over-exposed images (so I switched to spot mode). Both images have a little noise (shot at 100) in the shadow areas. Consequently, I used NeatImage to clean up the image and use default values of Nik SHarpener to sharpen the image for web display. Since this camera is still new to me, please do not judge the camera (and my skill, of course, :-)) based on these images.





CK
http://www.cs.mtu.edu/~shene/DigiCam
Nikon Coolpix 950/990/995/2500/4500/5700 User Guide
 
Of all the lenses I have, I to like the TCON-14B, (although I don't have the Sony VCL HGD1758). The only complaint I have about it is that it is heavy, but it's a wonderful piece of glass.
 
I have both the TCON 17 and Canon TL55, but have not had a chance to do much shooting with them. From what I have seen so far the TL55 creates sharper images and is small/lighter than the TCON. If the sun ever shines for more than 5 minutes, with a temp above 50F, I will be able to do a lot more shooting.

Giles in Toronto
http://alcorn.smugmug.com/
 
RWill said:
Well, I've been considering a teleconverter for my fz10. I've
tried a tcon17 using the lens hood and stepdown rings. I've also
seen many of the comparisons and mentions of other options. The
Canon TL55 (a 1.4X digital camcorder tcon) seems most popular for
quality. A sony (forget which model) has also been mentioned along
with the olympus tcon14s etc. The panasonic is $800 canadian which
is way too much for me.
So, browsing around, I came across some other canons. Has anyone
tried or heard anything about the TC DC58s? They seem to be 58mm
(a bit bigger than the tl55 and tcon17s 55mm) designed in variants
for the A series canons, and the G1 and G3/G5. Any input from
anyone?
What else have people tried and liked (or not liked)?

--
Someday maybe I'll think of something useful to put in here...
Click to expand...
The TCON-14B (Olympus) is by far the best optic of the available choices. It's big, heavy (over 1 pound) and you need to support the lens as well as the camera when using it, but if optical quality is what you are after, there is currently no better glass available for your FZ10 than the TCON-14B.

Lin
 
Since I will probably be connecting it via stepdown rings on the lens hood, weight is a bit of an issue. The tcon17 was ok for this, apparently the tl55 is smaller and lighter which is even better. I was curious about the TC DC58N (the 1.75X for G5), since it seemed not to be too large overall, and had a larger diameter. Also on the plus side, it's about the same proce or lsightly cheaper than the tcon17 or tl55 up here, just over half the price of the tcon14B. From what I've seen adn heard, the tl55 seems to give a bit higher quality shots than the tcon17, and wondered if this was also true of other canon tcons like the TC DC58's.

The Sony seems to be heavy and more expensive as well, and I was hoping to avoid spending over $200 can, if it could be done and still give decent quality pics. Otherwise, I may wait and save for the sony or tcon14b and a more stable adapter to handle the weight.
Has anyone got any info on any other decent options?
Lin Evans said:
RWill said:
Well, I've been considering a teleconverter for my fz10. I've
tried a tcon17 using the lens hood and stepdown rings. I've also
seen many of the comparisons and mentions of other options. The
Canon TL55 (a 1.4X digital camcorder tcon) seems most popular for
quality. A sony (forget which model) has also been mentioned along
with the olympus tcon14s etc. The panasonic is $800 canadian which
is way too much for me.
So, browsing around, I came across some other canons. Has anyone
tried or heard anything about the TC DC58s? They seem to be 58mm
(a bit bigger than the tl55 and tcon17s 55mm) designed in variants
for the A series canons, and the G1 and G3/G5. Any input from
anyone?
What else have people tried and liked (or not liked)?

--
Someday maybe I'll think of something useful to put in here...
Click to expand...
The TCON-14B (Olympus) is by far the best optic of the available
choices. It's big, heavy (over 1 pound) and you need to support the
lens as well as the camera when using it, but if optical quality is
what you are after, there is currently no better glass available
for your FZ10 than the TCON-14B.

Lin
Click to expand...
--
Someday maybe I'll think of something useful to put in here...
 
RWill said:
The Sony seems to be heavy and more expensive as well, and I was
hoping to avoid spending over $200 can, if it could be done and
still give decent quality pics. Otherwise, I may wait and save for
the sony or tcon14b and a more stable adapter to handle the weight.
Has anyone got any info on any other decent options?
Click to expand...
The Sony is not worth your money. As a number of posts pointed here in this thread, your best choice is the TCON-14B. Use the PD62 tube will be much better. The Panasonic hood/tube pushes the converter lens forward too far and will not provide you with a descent zooming range. On the other hand, the PD62 makes sure that the mounted converter is close to the lens front element. In tis way, the TCON-14B can have a zoom range from about 4X+ to 12X without vignetting. The two images in my previous post used 12X, though.

CK
http://www.cs.mtu.edu/~shene/DigiCam
Nikon Coolpix 950/990/995/2500/4500/5700 User Guide
 
Ok, thanks. Unless someone has another recommendation, I may either try to find a tl55, or save for the tcon14b.
nick c. said:
nick c. said:
nick c. said:
nick c. said:
tried or heard anything about the TC DC58s?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
I tried theTCDC58 on the FZ10. Result: The image shows too much
CA. Image quality is very poor. I will not recommend
this lens.

Hope this help.

nick caranto
Click to expand...
--
Someday maybe I'll think of something useful to put in here...
 
Ching-Kuang Shene said:
RWill said:
What else have people tried and liked (or not liked)?
Click to expand...
I used TCON-17, TCON-14B (1.45X) and Sony VCL HGD1758 (did you
mention this), and found out that the TCON-14B provided the best
results so far. I will post my findings in a couple of days.
Click to expand...
Ching-Kuang, please tell me which is which, TCON 14 or TCON 14B?

http://www.etronics.com/listproducts.asp?order=stk_price_a&catid=4012&store=&Make=&Model=&type=&kit_id=&prod_type=&manaf=Olympus&cid=1A70D08821414542911A247B236197B5&image1.x=14&image1.y=16

sc
 
slchan said:
Ching-Kuang, please tell me which is which, TCON 14 or TCON 14B?
Click to expand...
The TCON-14 and TCON-14B are all 1.45X teleconverters; however, the former TCON-14 is for Olympus lower end digicams while the TCON-14B is for the high end E10 and E20. I don't know about the optical formulas of the two and don't have any experience with the TCON-14. My shots were taken with the TCON-14B. Sorry for not being very helpful.

CK
http://www.cs.mtu.edu/~shene/DigiCam
Nikon Coolpix 950/990/995/2500/4500/5700 User Guide
 
Ching-Kuang Shene said:
slchan said:
Ching-Kuang, please tell me which is which, TCON 14 or TCON 14B?
Click to expand...
The TCON-14 and TCON-14B are all 1.45X teleconverters; however, the
former TCON-14 is for Olympus lower end digicams while the TCON-14B
is for the high end E10 and E20. I don't know about the optical
formulas of the two and don't have any experience with the TCON-14.
My shots were taken with the TCON-14B. Sorry for not being very
helpful.
Click to expand...
Google, Google on the net.
Tell me which lens should I get!

The TCON-14 has 3 elements in 2 groups and 46mm threads.
The TCON-14B has 5 elements in 3 groups and 62mm threads.

--
Tentative location of the unofficial FZ1 FAQ:
 
AO said:
Ching-Kuang Shene said:
slchan said:
Ching-Kuang, please tell me which is which, TCON 14 or TCON 14B?
Click to expand...
The TCON-14 and TCON-14B are all 1.45X teleconverters; however, the
former TCON-14 is for Olympus lower end digicams while the TCON-14B
is for the high end E10 and E20. I don't know about the optical
formulas of the two and don't have any experience with the TCON-14.
My shots were taken with the TCON-14B. Sorry for not being very
helpful.
Click to expand...
Google, Google on the net.
Tell me which lens should I get!
Click to expand...
Too many TCON on the net.
Hard to desire which one I should get.
This really makes me mad.

sc
AO said:
The TCON-14 has 3 elements in 2 groups and 46mm threads.
The TCON-14B has 5 elements in 3 groups and 62mm threads.

--
Tentative location of the unofficial FZ1 FAQ:
Click to expand...
 
slchan said:
Too many TCON on the net.
Hard to desire which one I should get.
This really makes me mad.
Click to expand...
It's exceedingly simple - you absolutely DO NOT want the TCON-14. You want either the TCON-17 or TCON-14B. Of the two, the TCON-14B is the better match for the FZ10 and the better optic by far.

Lin
 
I have the TCON-14 (and TCON-14B). The 14 is actually not too bad of a lens if you need that last little bit of reach (1.9x), but it's not a good lens for the FZ10. I use mine on my FZ1. There is a little bit of vignetting, but you can either post-process or use a tiny bit of digital zoom to correct the vignetting. For the 14B, I would recommend the Yoshida adapter over a plastic one. The lens is heavy and made of metal which tends to "stick" to plastic threads.
 
Lin Evans said:
RWill said:
Well, I've been considering a teleconverter for my fz10. I've
tried a tcon17 using the lens hood and stepdown rings. I've also
seen many of the comparisons and mentions of other options. The
Canon TL55 (a 1.4X digital camcorder tcon) seems most popular for
quality. A sony (forget which model) has also been mentioned along
with the olympus tcon14s etc. The panasonic is $800 canadian which
is way too much for me.
So, browsing around, I came across some other canons. Has anyone
tried or heard anything about the TC DC58s? They seem to be 58mm
(a bit bigger than the tl55 and tcon17s 55mm) designed in variants
for the A series canons, and the G1 and G3/G5. Any input from
anyone?
What else have people tried and liked (or not liked)?

--
Someday maybe I'll think of something useful to put in here...
Click to expand...
The TCON-14B (Olympus) is by far the best optic of the available
choices. It's big, heavy (over 1 pound) and you need to support the
lens as well as the camera when using it, but if optical quality is
what you are after, there is currently no better glass available
for your FZ10 than the TCON-14B.

Lin
Click to expand...
Lin:

You will also need a big lens support. See "big lens support" thread in this forum. I have made some additional, simple refinements and now my lens support looks professional. I only have about 90 minutes of time making it and all you need is a sabor saw or jig saw.

Van

--
Van G Abbott
907 228-5468
 
Lin Evans said:
Member said:
Too many TCON on the net.
Hard to desire which one I should get.
This really makes me mad.
Click to expand...
It's exceedingly simple - you absolutely DO NOT want the TCON-14.
You want either the TCON-17 or TCON-14B. Of the two, the TCON-14B
is the better match for the FZ10 and the better optic by far.

Lin
Click to expand...
Sold!! Thanks for solving the problem.

sc
 
I forgot to ask: which TCDC58 did you try? TCDC58 (1.5X), TCDC58N (1.75X) for the powershot G1/3/5 series or the TCDC58A (1.5X?) for the powershot pro?
nick c. said:
nick c. said:
nick c. said:
nick c. said:
tried or heard anything about the TC DC58s?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
I tried theTCDC58 on the FZ10. Result: The image shows too much
CA. Image quality is very poor. I will not recommend
this lens.

Hope this help.

nick caranto
Click to expand...
--
Someday maybe I'll think of something useful to put in here...
 
RWill,

I have the TCDC58 (1.5X) teleconverter which I use for my Canon G2.

nick_c
RWill said:
I forgot to ask: which TCDC58 did you try? TCDC58 (1.5X), TCDC58N
(1.75X) for the powershot G1/3/5 series or the TCDC58A (1.5X?) for
the powershot pro?
Click to expand...
 
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