G3 with teleconverter or 10X Olympus

[kellyr]

I received my G3 last week that needs to be returned for flaws in lens. I would like some opinions on G3 with 2x converter. I need this camera as back-up for D60 and want it to be small but with telephoto capabilities incase D60 quits on the road. I am now considering waiting for the Olympus C750 to arrive which is a 4 mp/10X camera slightly smaller than G3. I did look at Nikon 5700, nice but maybe a little too big. Any thoughts?

Kelly

[Chardyboy]

Although I'm really impressed with the G3 features, I also bought the 1.75x telephoto lense - it's nice but I would really really love 10x zoom though.

Just trying to get above 2x with additional lense without vignetting seems to be nigh on impossible.

Good luck!

Dave

[Dana]

I have two friends who have purchased from the Oly long-zoom 700 series - a 720 and a 730, I think. Both really like the cameras (neither is an enthusiast, more home/family user).

Biggest issue for them (as for any non-stabilized long zoom) is camera shake/jitters resulting in blurry images, and some low-light issues, which I think the 750 handles better.

I hate EVFs with a passion (just my personal idiosyncracy) so I didn't consider the camera for that reason - other than that the 750 sounded pretty nice overall. Compact package w/tons o' zoom. :-)

Dana

Added: Oh - I got the G3 and 1.75x - total of about 7x zoom. 7x zoom is about as much as I can handle w/out a tripod, and that's how I do most of my zoom shooting. If you really expect to use most of the zoom on the Oly, you'll probably want to plan to bring a monopod or tripod.

[kellyr]

Dana,
Do you find that you get vignetting with the 1.75x? And do you have any shots to show? I am mostly interested in wildlife and birds for the telephoto. I am a little concerned about delivery time for the C750. I've found it listed as May to August and I have a two week trip to Yellowstone in July that I need to have the camera for.

thanks,
Kelly

[Dana]

Kelly:

I don't have the lenses yet - should be on my doorstep today or tomorrow!

The headline is that you can go to almost full wide before any vignetting appears. So you would have just about the complete range of zoom available on the camera, which is nice.

See http://www.lensmateonline.com/g3_samples.html - (click on the black Canon lens mid-way down the page) for pictures that show the actual results - Canon won't vignette until almost zero zoom, very nice! You can see the results w/the other lenses (Tiffen and Kenko 2x) as well. The Tiffen vignettes even at full zoom, and the Kenko vignettes at about 1/3 or 1/2 zoom, if I remember correctly.

Dana

[PFlor]

Not quite that big of a range. To be exact, the Canon TC-DC58N will start to vignette at roughly the same point when your camera is at full zoom without the teleconverter attached. So to test this,
- turn on digital zoom on your camera,
- zoom in fully at 4.0x
- and zoom in again with digital zoom to around 7.1x and that will be your approximate range.

[Dana]

Well I'm fully confused! :-)

I'm not a technically competent photographer (nor do I play one on TV), so I am not saying you're wrong, but what I see on the Lensmate site pictures left me believing that w/the 58mm adapter/58mm converter, I will be able to use almost all of the G3's zoom range. In other words, I can zoom back from full optical zoom to almost full wide before vignetting occurs. (I understand that I will be at 1.75x my normal optical zoom when the Canon lens is attached.)

The lensmate Canon 1.75 converter example pictures say:

Native G3-no adapter, no converter.
f 5.6
full zoom
focal length- 28.8mm or (140mm)

LensMate 58 with converter
f 5.6
full zoom
focal length- 50.4mm [28.8mm X 1.75] or (245mm)

LensMate 58 with converter
f 5.6
zoomed back out to the point at which vignetting begins.
focal length- 28mm [16mm X 1.75] or (136mm

The first and third picture are almost indistinguishable from each other in terms of what "fits" into the picture, although the Lensmate 58 with converter image does show slightly less than the native G3 image, which is expected, since vignetting begins before the full wide position is reached.

What am I not getting here, PFlor....feeling dumb and dumber. :-) (Also feeling silly calling you PFlor - do you ever share your name, or a nickname?)

Thanks - I appreciate your willingness to explain this stuff! The more I learn, the more I need to learn!

Dana

[PFlor]

Let's look at this again:

Native G3-no adapter, no converter.
f 5.6
full zoom
focal length- 28.8mm or (140mm)

The 28.8mm focal length value means your G3 is at full zoom (zoomed all the way in). If you zoom out at full wide angle the focal length would be 7.2mm. Lensmate didn't show a sample of the teleconverter at full wide angle since there would be no point and you will see full vignetting.

Now to the point where vignetting begins:

LensMate 58 with converter
f 5.6
zoomed back out to the point at which vignetting begins.
focal length- 28mm [16mm X 1.75] or (136mm)

Notice here the range is at 28mm, which is just slightly past the equivalent to being at full zoom of 28.8mm.

Hope this is a little clearer. Don't worry you'll find out soon enough what I mean when you get your lenses.


(Also feeling silly calling you PFlor - do you ever share your name, or a nickname?)


My real name is Peter if you wish to call me that. :-)

[Dana]

Peter:

Thanks for the info (and the name). :-)

I'm looking forward (hopefully) to finding the lenses on my doorstep tonight...

Dana