Phoenix 2x Teleconverter Mini-Review

[Michael_Shannon]

This is the first time I've screwed any kind of lens onto my G2, so I have nothing to compare it to. But I think the picture using thing teleconverter speaks for itself. Warning: The full images may take a while to download if you have a slow connection.

http://www.geocities.com/darthskaven/phoenix.htm

Can someone who has used other teleconverters on their G2 provide some comments? Are the teleconverters from other manufacturers any better?

[warren]

I hope you don't take this the wrong way and it is nothing to do with your skills as a photographer, but... the photo taken with the tele converter is quite appalling. Massive softness to the point of being almost gaussian-blurred, plus severe chromatic abberations all over the shop... ouch.

I have a Tiffen Megaplus 2x tele and although it shows very slight vignetting even at the G2's full zoom (102mm), the image quality is vastly superior- very sharp and little or no CA.

Oh well, i hope it was cheap! :) As has been discussed hundreds of times on the "Canon Talk" forum at www.dpreview.com, you normally get what you pay for... and there have been scores of user reviews of Raynox, Kenko and other cheap 3rd party lenses which confirm that these are cr*p for high-megapixel cameras like the G2. They might be passable for video cameras, but no good for high res, high quality images. oh well!

[danielchtong]

I venture to disagree. There is no conclusive proof of that yet.

The first pict has shown that G2 completely misreported the distance. There is no way that it was 2.593 m (10 ft) away. I would guess it was about 10 M (30 ft) away. I note that the 2nd pict reported distance was 14.526 M away. With F stop at 8, the d of f would still be way way too close. It was completely off focus. Period.

The red/blue band were there though.

I do agree that you get what you pay for

Daniel
Toronto

[Michael_Shannon]

I'm not offended. I just went to the zoo to try out the new lens. I wasn't trying to create anything spectacular. Every shot I took using the converter had similar blur and CA. The converter has a 30 day money back guarantee. I'll try sending it back tomorrow.