TAMRON tc converter pics

[jgredline]

Hi Folks.
I have done much reading and my own research on TC converters. After much reading I decided that 1.4 is the max before image quality is destroyed. To make a long story short, Samy's camera had one in stock.. I picked it up and I must say that I am impressed. So far today I have tested it with my K100D super with the 18-250 tamron lens and with the sigma 70-300apo lens...Here are some ''snap shots'' I took from outside the window of my truck while driving back to work. These are rushed shots, but I must say I am impressed. These pics have been only resized to fit here...

K100D Super with Tamron 1.4 TC and Sigma 70-300APO


k100D Super with Tamron 1.4 TC and Tamron 18-250 DI lens


k100D Super with Tamron 1.4 TC and Tamron 18-250 DI lens extended



K100D Super with Tamron 1.4 TC and Sigma 70-300APO shot at 70mm = 98mm



K100D Super with Tamron 1.4 TC and Sigma 70-300APO shot at 300mm = 420mm


k100D Super with Tamron 1.4 TC and Tamron 18-250 DI, shot at 18mm = 25.2mm


k100D Super with Tamron 1.4 TC and Tamron 18-250 DI, shot at 250mm = 350mm


These snap shots were taken with out any thought and simply for the sake of sharing here. When I get home tonight I will hook it up to my K10D and try it with my DA* LENSES and some primes and see what happens.

By the way, I paid $118.00 bucks for it and worth every penny so far.

[ken1953]

NICE...I've been considering a converter...do you think the Pentax 2x would give a little better quality at the longer end than the Tamron would? I know the price is quite a bit higher but since it may be my best chance at a much longer lens with my SMCP 50-200, I am seriously considering the 2x.

[jgredline]

NICE...I've been considering a converter...do you think the Pentax 2x would give a little better quality at the longer end than the Tamron would? I know the price is quite a bit higher but since it may be my best chance at a much longer lens with my SMCP 50-200, I am seriously considering the 2x.

I spent quite a bit of time researching these TC converters. From everything I heard, read and saw, all 2x converters produced very soft images. I

[jgredline]

Here are a few more examples taken today.
The lens was the 70-300 APO With tc converter 420mm..Not bad.
All hand held....

[jgredline]

Ok, here is one more pic from today.
I am really surprised at how well this Tamron 1.4 tc works.
This is 420mm and pretty sharp. Hand held and thats it.

[jgredline]

Understand that I am nothing more than an amateur photographer so I come from a very simpleton point of view...and my tests are far from perfect, but I suspect most folks here fall into my category....

I did test the 1.4TC on 4 other lenses today...
The bigma 50-500...The auto focus really hunted...I suspect the only way the TC would work on this Lens is with a TriPod and lots of light...

The Sigma 135-400 did OK...While it did not hunt, the sample pics I took were rather soft...Here is a sample of some lemons shot from about 100 feet away at 400mm x the 1.4 TC = 560mm


I also ran some test shots on my 50mm F/1.4..It really worked well on this lens..Other than a longer focal point, I would not notice it was their...

Another lens, I tried it on was my DA*50-135 and again..Amazing results...Everything worked as if the TC converter was not there...Yes the HSM was in full effect..







Likely Tuesday when the 1.5 TC i ordered comes In, I will post more pictures of all the lenses involved...

[jgredline]

Hi Folks
Well, I received the Kenko a couple of hours ago Via UPS....As palmor noted, they are the same..At least they appear to be the same...A couple of quick notes...
1) They doo indeed look the same.
2) The Kenko has a little bit larger glass, liklely the difference between 1.4 and 1.5x
3) While the Tamron works great on my DA* series Lenses, the Kenko hunts like a coon dog...The Kenko also does not like my super zoom 18-250 Tammy...I suspect the electronics are different between the two...Inspight of the fact they look the same..
4) The Kenko works great on both my primes and on all my Sigma glass except the Bigma...
tomorrow and over the next few days, I will set up a tripod and do a proper test, but for now here are a few snap shots...

Sorry for this hack job, just wanted to get the pics on page..


The Kenko on my 50mm f1/4 ..as a side note, the only filters and polarizers I use when I use them are B+W


Here is a quick snap shot of my son on my lap top using the 50 F/14 with the Kenko so what is this, 75mm.....

[jgredline]

OK
I think I am getting someplace with this Kenko...
First after studying the Histograms, I noticed that the pictures were way underexposed.
(not a problem with the tamy) So, I cranked up the ISO to 800 on the ole K110D and not bad....While it did not cure the hunting, during the day with lots of light, it did auto focus ok...

Here is pic of a sign I took at 300mm with Kenko 1.5tc = 450mm
This was with my Tamron 70-300 cheapo telephoto lens...


Here is another shot at 70mm...


Here is the same basic shot but at 300mm or 450mm.

[jgredline]

Hi Folks
Today, I had a chance to spend some time at the park / golf course / duck pond...
Anyway, it gave me the opportunity to try out the Tamron 1.4TC..I took two lenses with me...These pictures are with the DA*50-135..I should note that after a while, I did not even notice the TC was there...It worked very well with the lens and frankly, I could not even notice the loss of a full stop as far as speed and focus goes...All these are at the max of 135mm + TC1.4 = 189mm (hope my math is right)

[jgredline]

These pictures were taken @ 300mm x 1.4 = 420mm with the Sigma 70-300 APO lens and the Tamron 1.4 TC..
I must say, that this lens and this TC was made for each other...
Here are the photos resized to 900 px across with 100% crops for the pixel peepers...
Not to bad, I think..All shots where hand held and all between 70 and 125 yards away...

[spiraleyes]

Thanks for the updates! That's a neat accessory to have on hand!

[jgredline]

Hi Folks...Well, I took my K2OD out today just to get more accustomed to it and discovered that Neither the Tamron 1.4 or the Kenko 1.5 TC will work with SDM DA* lenses....In fact, not even in manual mode...Sure the camera will fire, but then there is no way of knowing if the subject is in focus. Even if you have the diopter adjusted to your eye, how do you know it is adjusted to the camera? As much as I tried, all the images I took with the K20D and the TC came out like Junk...To make matters worse, even my good ole reliable Sigma and tamron lenses do not work with this combo....Quickly, I pulled out the ole K1OD and everything including the SDM lenses worked perfectly.....Do you smell what the Rock is cooking? It smells like Pentax did something in the firmware to deactivate this...Maybe it is a conspiracy, but Tamron discontinues a perfectly good TC and Pentax conveniently shows a TC in their road map?!?:hmm: ....I will bet that Tamron will be the manufacturer of this new TC which is why they discontinued theirs and the electronics will once again be different....

Has anyone else noticed this?

[A.M.D.A.]

Great thread, jgredline! :thumbsup:

Some recent shots of the interior of a red bell-pepper at approximately closest lens focusing distance. In case you saw similar ones before in VF forum as shot with a Lumix FZ7K, I was shooting with both that camera and my *ist D. Here are the *ist D's...

PENTAX *ist D with SMC PENTAX-F F2.8 100mm MACRO lens.

Attachment 63164
Attachment 63165
1/10 second @ F5.6
ISO 200



PENTAX *ist D with SMC PENTAX-F F2.8 100mm MACRO lens and TAMRON 2X TC.




Attachment 63166
Attachment 63168

Attachment 63172
1/3 second @ F5.6
ISO 400

Also used a Velbon CX-540 tripod. Pepper-seed shots unedited except for resize/watermark/border.

I know that these lack DOF/sharpness, but they are the shots I currently have at hand and are meant more to show that TC's can be employed for macros too, not just the obvious "tele-reach". I will definitely be shooting more, especially in spring when more insects/blooms/birds start arriving...

By the way, pepper-seeds are about 2mm to 4mm across...

[spiraleyes]

Nice! I love the difference that the TC makes!

[A.M.D.A.]

Thank you for your comment, Jim.

[A.M.D.A.]

Grabbed my *ist D, 300mm F4, 2X TC, a tripod, then went for a walk in my backyard today. Been sifting through my shots, here's one of a little black-capped chickadee. I do think he/she needs a napkin...

Attachment 63925

Camera/lens: PENTAX *ist D with PENTAX SMC PENTAX-A* 300mm F4 lens. (MF-only).
Other equipment used: TAMRON 2X tele-converter, Velbon CX-540 tripod, PENTAX AF-330FTZ external flash unit (did not fire).

1/200 second @ F1.7
ISO 800
900mm (35mm equivalent)
Spot-metering mode
Aperture priority
Contrast: Hard
Saturation: Normal
Sharpness: Hard

Above data is according to EXIF*, which should still be intact.

*Except focal length (recorded as "0.0mm") and other equipment used.

Another chickadee.

Attachment 63952

Camera/lens: PENTAX *ist D with PENTAX SMC PENTAX-A* 300mm F4 lens. (MF-only).
Other equipment used: TAMRON 2X tele-converter, Velbon CX-540 tripod, PENTAX AF-330FTZ external flash unit (did not fire).

1/200 second @ F1.8
ISO 800
900mm (35mm equivalent)
Spot-metering mode
Aperture priority
Contrast: Hard
Saturation: Normal
Sharpness: Hard

Above data is according to EXIF*, which should still be intact.

*Except focal length (recorded as "0.0mm") and other equipment used.

Now, I am aware that the super-fast apertures have to be bogus – maximum with this setup would be F8.0, so I guess that's what it is. But this is still a very "fishy" issue for me, I'm not completely sure what the *real* aperture value is, only I do know that F1.7 is the largest the camera allows me to dial in, and only when using the 300mm F4/2X TC combo. Also, the focal length reads as "0.0mm" in the EXIF data, lens/camera probably aren't communicating like they should.

However, I really do like my TC, it provides plenty of reach, making MF easier because you can see the subject's details larger in the frame. And the *ist D's 6 megapixels don't leave much cropping flexibility, so every extra mm of focal length is most welcome. Bokeh seems to improve with the TC.

The only disadvantages in my opinion are a very noticeable loss of light, and very ugly chromatic aberration problems (see below).

Attachment 63926

Camera/lens: PENTAX *ist D with PENTAX SMC PENTAX-A* 300mm F4 lens. (MF-only).
Other equipment used: TAMRON 2X tele-converter, PENTAX AF-330FTZ external flash unit (did not fire).

1/400 second @ F2.0
ISO 1600
900mm (35mm equivalent)
Spot-metering mode
Aperture priority
Aperture priority
Contrast: Hard
Saturation: Normal
Sharpness: Hard

Above data is according to EXIF*, which should still be intact.

*Except focal length (recorded as "0.0mm") and other equipment used.

[spiraleyes]

You have a great bird selection in your backyard! Thanks for sharing these.

[A.M.D.A.]

Thanks... yes we do have many birds in our backyard, more in spring/summer. In winter many go farther south.

[A.M.D.A.]

Two from yesterday morning at a local park. Weather was bright & sunny – perfect for using my 2X "light-sucking" TC. I find a huge improvement in quality when the lens' aperture is stopped down a bit from maximum, but not when stopped down too much. F1.7 is the maximum. Based on my personal experience, F2.2 - F3.5 yields best results. Pictures are still somewhat useable wide open, but you will need to apply heavy sharpening and even then quality will suffer. Chromatic aberrations are always present, note there are a still few traces of PF around the pebbles by the sparrow's feet.

Photo #2 was trimmed a tiny bit off the edges, #1 only slightly off the top. That is how much "reach" a TC can deliver. Click on first two photos and scroll down to view selected EXIF information. Please do not download images.

#1. Song sparrow spying breakfast.

Photo © A.M.D.A 2009 All Rights Reserved. DO NOT download, copy, use or modify in any way and in any form without the owner's express prior written permission.

#2. Song sparrow eating breakfast.

Photo © A.M.D.A 2009 All Rights Reserved. DO NOT download, copy, use or modify in any way and in any form without the owner's express prior written permission.

P.S. I do think #2 is my sharpest bird shot to date with the *ist D. Manual focusing was very tricky with such shallow DOF, plus, I only fired off three images. One is not posted here because it came out blurred due to sparrow movement.

[AQUA1963]

DID YOU FIND WHAT IS WRONG? I' ABOUT TO BUY A TAMRON TC, I OWN K20D ALSO?


[/QUOTE]

[ken1953]

Hi Aqua, welcome to PR and the Pentax forum. Nice pair of cameras you've got there. I'm curious as to what camera you took the shots with? Also, what other gear do you have, especially Pentax gear.
We would really be interested in seeing some of your photographs. We have a nice users gallery and also a great photo critique forum.
We would also like to know what you think about your gear. Our Reviews section is one of the reasons PR can remain free and at such a high quality, so we urge everyone to please review their gear. Here is the link to the section: http://www.photographyreview.com/writeareviewcrx.aspx.
If you need any help, just ask and we are glad to help in anyway.
I look forward to your future posts!!!