Wednesday, January 28, 2009

I finally whined enough and got a tele-converter lens for my camera!

Fortunately I read enough reviews on the Canon TC-DC58B 1.5x converter lens (think zoom lens) not to get my hopes up too high. I knew it would be little more than a "bump" for my camera's 12x zoom capability. That's okay with me! The investment wasn't outrageous at about $95 with s/h.


Below: It's my first somewhat clear shot of the Pleiades. Keep in mind, it's only the brightest stars I can see through my viewfinder or on the camera's screen. The Pleiades are not especially bright so I have to point and hope. And point and hope and check and re-point and check and focus and repoint and so on and so forth.

At full focus, the stars were blurry, but if I drew back with the zoom the stars came into focus. If you look closely you'll see that it's a circle of stars surrounded by black. This is because that when the tele-converter isn't at full zoom, you end up shooting the inside of the barrel of the lens. This might be kind of cool for some things--with a little creative editing that is.

The Pleiades are the small cluster of stars in the lower right portion of the shot. I swear it's there, just click the image. You'll see.


Remaining on my S3 wish list is the WC-DC58A which is a wide-angle conversion lens; a macro lens; and a fish-eye lens. And some dang lens caps to fit everything plus an extra adapter or two to save time. And an assistant to carry all this junk for me and keep my lenses clean while I'm out shooting. Yeah, I need a caddy. And a very nice camera bag. Thankfully, I have a photojournalist vest. I'll be putting that to more and more serious use (I hope).

6 comments:

Pat said...

I have a Cannon Pro Shot 1(looks like your Powershot S3 IS) and a teleconverter lens. There not cheap cameras. You'll get great pictures !
I too would like a macro but for the Sony camera I now use. They can be a lot of fun.
Who's the caddy ?

Genie said...

Hi Patsi! I started out with the Powershot S1 IS several years ago and had the good fortune to upgrade to the S3. I wish there were a better tele-converter available for it. The nature shots you get with yours make me SO jealous.

I only have a fantasy caddy. I wish my niece lived closer, I'd put her to work in the summers being my photo assistant.

Pat said...

You'll get the same or better nature shots with your camera. The only plus with a DSLR is that I can change the speed in a second and no lag time for rapid pics of birds. If I didn't pay less than half the price for the sony camera...I wouldn't have bought it. Too COSTLY !

Genie said...

Well, I don't know about the same or better. I think your telephoto has much more zoom than mine. Fortunately, I can really do some pretty darn fast continuous shooting with my cam so that's no problem. It's a feature I use a lot. Speed can be changed fairly quickly too, not quite that fast though. There just isn't that same wonderful quality that you can get with the DSLR.

Bob Johnson said...

Geez, you're getting so good Genie, love your animation on your sidebar, and excellent first attempt at the Pleiades. Don't forget this coming Tuesday night with the Moon and Pleiades getting together. Great price on the converter, where did you get it and how do you use it, do you put it on before the lens?

Genie said...

Hi Bob! I kind of think of LunaPic as "Bob's Animator."

Wow, I just don't know if I can adjust my camera for an remarkable Pleiades/Lunar shot but I'll sure try. Thank you for the heads up!

I got the converter on Amazon, it's the going rate for it, really. It's not a pricey lens (comparatively speaking). An adapter screws onto the camera over its existing lens and then the converter is attached to the adapter.

The tele-converter is pretty limited. You nearly always have to use it at full zoom or just shy of it if you don't want the inside of the barrel in your shot. For the price, I can live with its limitations.

Thanks, always, for stopping by my blog!