Konica Minolta Telephoto lens; NEED HELP!

[Tuckit]

I'm relatively new to photography, and just last year took some classes, and got a decent camera.

I have a Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z6, here's a link to the camera if you're not familiar with it. It's a great camera for a beginner, and I'm very happy with it.
http://www.butterflyphoto.com/shop/p...x?sku=DIMAGEZ6

I received a telephoto lens for my birthday, which of course I was very excited to use. Here's the lens:
http://www.butterflyphoto.com/shop/p...152T#topHeader

It came with this adapter:
http://www.butterflyphoto.com/shop/p...TUBE#topHeader

And also, these filters:
http://www.butterflyphoto.com/shop/p...FK52#topHeader

I've never used a telephoto lense before. When I attached it properly (To my knowledge, it is compatible with my camera, fits perfectly, and was listed as one of the camera's accessories.) I have to zoom in to photograph anything, as there is a large black circle around the object I'm photographing; the lens. If I zoom in, all is well except for the photograph quality! I had my apeture set to F4.5, my shutter speed at 1/1000 and exposure at -0.7. It is also on auto focus. When that didn't work, I tried the camera on the auto setting, which was better, but still crap.The picture quality is crappy, it will not focus, and everything appears to have a glowing light around it. I have no idea how to fix this, I've been experimenting with it, and have yet to figure it out. I've attached all filters with the lens, and still am having problems. What can I do? Is this normal? How can I fix it? Is my camera simply not good enough quality to handle a telephoto lens?

Here are some sample pictures. These were just 'see how close I can get with my new lens' pictures. Excuse the poor photography.

WITH the new lens. Blurry, glowing, and poor quality. Picture of my horse's back, from the porch of the house.







Better, but it's now distorted, and looks like I'm looking through a fish bowl. Still HORRIBLE quality, but the best one I've managed to take with this new lens.


Now these are WITHOUT my new lens. Just the camera itself. MUCH better.





Anyone have any idea what the problem is? Very frusterating.

[another view]

Hi and welcome - and I feel your pain... I'm not familiar with that particular camera but I did have some thoughts reading thru your post.

Accessory lenses won't be as sharp as the lens that's attached to the camera. I have a somewhat similar camera and some accessory lenses for it but I've been pretty happy with them. It's a Nikon Coolpix 5000 which hasn't been made for a few years, and the accessory (wide and fisheye) lenses are also Nikon. They weren't cheap but are pretty good. However, this lens wasn't cheap either. Can you return it? It may not be anything you're doing wrong; especially with a 1/1000 shutter speed. A lot of times I've seen blame put on lenses when it's really a slow shutter speed and camera shake to blame but this probably isn't the case if you're holding the camera relatively still. With accessory lenses, and especially telephotos, you'll usually have to zoom all the way out to use them, so nothing really wrong with seeing the black area (assuming you mean it's a ring around the edge and the outside is black).

In the flower shot, you've got really contrasty light which is a hard test for any lens. It didn't do well here at all. Look at the shots (possibly taken in the same light conditions) at the bottom for comparison. This isn't a fault of you; it's the lens.

Filters can't ever do anything to sharpness but degrade it. They can be very handy to solve other problems, like using a polarizer to cut glare - and good ones really won't cost you any sharpness. Generally, I wouldn't recommend using a filter unless there's a specific reason to use it but a lot of people use UV filters as "protective" filters. Problem is that other than sharpness, they can also cause lens flare.

Sorry to break it to you, but I think that telephoto lens isn't going to get any better and it's not anything you're doing wrong. Happy birthday...

[Tuckit]

Thanks so much, I appreciate the help, detailed explanations, and the birthday wish!

As the day progressed I've figured out a bit more about it. It doesn't do well in bright light, and if I lower the exposure, it does a little bit better. On the above shots, where it was blurry, ontop of using a 1/1000 shutter speed, I was also using a tripod, which is why I was so shocked to see it turn out so poorly! It's bittersweet to hear it's nothing I'm doing wrong. I'm glad it's no fault of my own, but that also means there is no way to correct the problem, and that the lens is probably a dud. I can return it, and I may do just that. Is there another type of lens what would possibly work better with my camera that you know of? I'd really love a good telephoto lens, but I'm not willing to spend $1,000 for one.

That's great to know about the filters, I've been using them the whole time. I'll definately try it tomorrow without the filter, and see how it looks.

Thanks again, I appreciate the help!

[Photo-John]

Your photos shouldn't look like this. It's bad glass - probably the lens and the filters. I would only buy filters from recognized manufacturers. Same goes for accessory lenses. In this case, I would probably only consider a Konica Minolta telephoto. You should return the lens and filters. We can help you get better stuff, if you want. There are brands that I can guarantee will not cause problems.

Sorry about the bad lens and filters. It happens. Live and learn. We're here to help.

[Tuckit]

John, I would really appreciate that! Thank you! I'd love to return the telephoto, and get another that actually works. Think you could help me find a good quality one in the same price range? $300-$400.

Thanks again, I really appreciate the help!

[Tuckit]

I did a little researching on my own, and came upon this lens.

http://www.sigmaphoto.com/lenses/len...03&navigator=3

What do you think of it overall? Would it be compatible with a konica minolta camera? It was used in a 'shootout' here:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...ssage=16929724
and was the photographers personal favorite. I have to agree, I prefered it's pictures over the others. Do you have any opinions on this lens, or any other lenses you suggest? Thanks again!

[deckcadet]

I'm afraid you got yourself confused- those lenses are for digital SLRs that have interchangeable lenses. You woul need to have one for it to work. Look and see if Konica-Minotla made any conversion lenses. This lens is causing you some major loss of sharpness and optical aberrations. A tip: whenever you see something that is no name brand that says digital professional high definition, it is NONE of those things. Same goes for the 'extreme speed'. Your camera at the long end is f/4.5. a 3x conversion lens will not only degrade quality massively but it will cut the light coming in by at minimum 3 f/stops, possibly more. this means you're at approximately f/13 effectively. Most point and shoots only allow you to go to about f/8.0 for a number of reasons.

I think another thing impacting this beyond the low quality of the lens is diffraction. According to my research, a 1/2.5" sensor has dimensions of 5.76x4.29mm. so horizontally, you have an average of more or less 489 pixels per millimeter. I don't want to bother converting this further into actual pixel size approximations or get into a long explanation of it, but let's just say that with a diffraction calculator that had a minimum size of sensor roughly 50% larger and pixels also larger than yours, the camera was suffering from diffraction that would be visible on the computer screen at 100% viewing even at f/4, though the effect does have a gradual transition to maximum effect, which is probably reached around f/8. It would also be visible in as little as a 4x6 print by someone with good vision at 1 meter distance at f/13, 50CM distance at f/8, and so on. Your camera has a smaller pixel size- therefore diffraction would come into play even earlier. This lens is kicking you well into the areas where diffraction is impacting the image severely. But that may be a bit scientific even for me. Let's just say it has more than just poor quality huting your shots.

[freygr]

The Tele converter has some very bad chromatic aberrations, as seen with the white post with the horse. I would return that lense.

[SmartWombat]

It may be that like the A2 and Z1 there is a MENU option to tell the camera you have the additional lens fitted.
I wondered why it would need a menu option, but perhaps it alters the focussing.

Definitely try it without a filter on the fornt and see if it's better.

The telephoto lens is designed to work with the zoom at its longest (xzoomed in) setting and what you described with that black ring is normal when you zoom out.
Maybe one of the things that the menu.option for accessories does it restricts the zoom to prevent that problem

[WsW-WYATT-EARP]

i have the nikon coolpix 5700 and the teleconverter for it ... as you stated smartwombat ... i too have that option in the menu and it extends the camera zoom to where "viginetting" (spelling ?) doesn't occur... there is an option for the wide angle converter and tele converter for it ... I have taken pics without the setting used and they come out as well as with the setting enabled ... but it is a different camera and something to look into as it may help with focusing and other settings ... worth a shot ..

[Tuckit]

Thanks so much for all the replies, and help. Especially your detailed explination DeckCadet, I appreciate it. Definately learning alot here! I didn't know that there was a difference between the interchangeable lenses for SLR camera's and the teleconverter for camera's like mine. I figured they were all the same.

My camera does have the wide converter option in the menu section, but unfortunately it doesn't help at all. The pictures turn out as poorly as with the fuction disabled.

I definately do NOT want to saccrafice my picture quality, for a little more zoom. That defeats the purpose in my opinion, and apparently that's the trouble with teleconverters? Either that, or my camera simply wasn't made for a teleconverter lens. Either way, I think I'll send it back. I spoke with the rep my mom bought the lens from, and I'm planning to exchange it for a wide angle converter. He assured me my camera was made for a wide angle, and that it will not take down my picture quality. I'll give it a try!

Hopefully in the next few years I can improve my photography skills and knowledge, and get an SLR, so that I can get the telephoto lens that I want. I'm not ready for that high tech of a camera yet, but maybe some day. Thanks again for all your help, very much appreciated!

[WsW-WYATT-EARP]

my camera i believe is the same as yours as far as attaching a telephoto lens .. i use an adapter ring then add on the lens .. the lens i have is only a 1.5 ... but here are some examples of what it does to the quality of pictures ... these pictures were taken from inside my living room through the front door of the neighbors cars across the street ... it was mounted on my tripod and i took 4 pictures to see the difference ... #1 is the camera with no lens at full optical zoom ... #2 is the camera with no lens at full optical and digital zoom .. # 3 is camera with tele lens at full optical zoom ... and #4 is camera with tele lens at full optical and digital zoom ...
i really think you should see if you can trade the lens in for a different one ... as everyone else stated it seems the issue is in the lens ... here are the pics ... nothing special to look at ... just a comparison..

I also have the wide angle converter for my camera (nikon coolpix 5700) and it doesn't really add that much ... but i got it for a killer deal so i had to get it ... make sure the lens you get will do what you want it to ...

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