hi fellows, fairly new G5 owner here...i got a few questions

[nitewulf]

hi, im a hobbyist photographer. currently i'm just trying to get better at taking pictures, i have been taking lots of shots w/ the G5 since i bought it around the beginning of the year.
at times though, the 3x optical does bother me a bit, so i have been looking for a tele converter lens. some of the lenses i came upon on ebay seem pretty cheap compared to the canon TC-DC58N, so i was wondering if i'd be better of buying a lens from an alternative manufacturer or not.
i also found a kenko 3x lens for the G5, which is pretty tempting. the problem is, im qorried about the quality of these lenses.
can you guys help me out here?

[ScottK]

My quick and dirty answer would be, generally, you'll get what you pay for. There are probably some third party lenses that work well, but in my experience (trying a few, and looking at pictures taken with some others), the cheap lenses (say, less than $80-100), aren't worth the effort - they just cause too much distortion and degradation to the picture. You'll probably get just as good, and maybe better, results using the digital zoom or resizing in software later.

I'm not saying none of them are any good, and some of the regulars here have posted some shots with some 3rd party lenses recently that look quite good. I would just personally avoid the temptation to go with the cheaper brands/models. Do a search for teleconverter in the forum and see what others are using and look at examples.

[nitewulf]

while the price is an issue, i wouldnt mind paying around $100 for the kenko 3x teleconverter. the thing is, the canon lens is not adequate for my purposes. i searched the forum, but some of the example shots posted by other users are not available anymore so i couldnt judge the quality.
i was basically wondering if anyone could recommend decent to good quality third party lenses that were at least 2x or greater, and are compatible with the G5.

[s00pcan]

I wouldn't recommend my kenko 2x. ($56) Lots more purple fringing, CA (especially noticable on the background), and the magnification isn't really 2x. The left side is unusually blurry too, but that's probably just mine.

[4walls]

I know you are looking for a 2X or greater...I have a 1.85X RAYNOX lens and I am very happy with the quality. Raynox makes a 2X lens, but I think it is quite expensive. Actually my 1.85X lens is expensive too, but I got mine used on eBay.

Pics from my 1.85X lens here...
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=34731&highlight=
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=38716&highlight=
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=37065&highlight=