teleconverter for Bigma

I plan on buying a Bigma for an early Christmas present for myself and figured I should get a teleconverter as well. Which one(s) work best with the Bigma?

I use the kenko pro 300. Remeber there will be no Autofocus with TC's

Why not just get Sigma's teleconverter?

Man, Bigma + teleconverter is a LOT mms. What are you doing?

I really want to get some eagle shots this year. There are a few locally (rarely) but the Mississippi is not too far away and they are more abundant there. Also, I want to do more bird/ wildlife stuff. I figure I may as well go with as much reach as possible. sigma4less has the Bigma for $ 929.95 but they don't have ther Sigma teleconverters. Go figure.

I'd recommend the Sigma one as they'll work with the bigma. Sigma4less sell gray market sigmas if memory serves me right, FYI.

I just checked sima4less and this is what I found. Kenko, Phoenix, Tamron, and Nikon teleconverters. Would the Phoenix be the grey market ones? I did not see any sigma t-cons on B&H either.

fishyone wrote in post #2212231
I really want to get some eagle shots this year. There are a few locally (rarely) but the Mississippi is not too far away and they are more abundant there. Also, I want to do more bird/ wildlife stuff. I figure I may as well go with as much reach as possible. sigma4less has the Bigma for $ 929.95 but they don't have ther Sigma teleconverters. Go figure.

Sigma4less does sell Sigma teleconverters. I just placed an order for 1.4x with them.

http://www.sigma4less.​com …BEOS%2B%3D28SG1​4XDCA%3D29

Tee Why wrote in post #2212245
I'd recommend the Sigma one as they'll work with the bigma. Sigma4less sell gray market sigmas if memory serves me right, FYI.

What are gray market Sigmas?

Thanks for the quick responses. For some reason when I serched for T-cons sigma's never came up. Looks like Christmas is coming early at my place.

Nah, it's right here. Sigma4less sells gray market sig's b/c US versions come with a 4 year warranty vs 1 year international one. The TC's also come in DG versions now as well.
http://www.sigma4less.​com …2BEOS%2B%3D28SG​14XCA%3D29

Tee Why wrote in post #2212344
Nah, it's right here. Sigma4less sells gray market sig's b/c US versions come with a 4 year warranty vs 1 year international one. The TC's also come in DG versions now as well.
http://www.sigma4less.​com …2BEOS%2B%3D28SG​14XCA%3D29

I now see what you mean by gray market - the international version. That reminded me a Sigma flash I bought from them recently. The flash is fine, but the tripod mount for the flash had a metric tap instead of the regular 1/4-20 tap (it is not a big deal for me. I just re-tapped it with a 1/4-20 tap).

I have both Sigma and Tamron SP AF teleconverters. I believe the Kenko Pro converters are similar to the Tamron. When I did comparison shots with the 50-500 there did not appear to be any difference in resolution. Colour balance was slightly different, but not enough that it mattered and it depended on the subject which looked better.

I prefer to use the Tamron teleconverter. The Sigma projects into the back of the lens so you have to lock the 50-500 in the 100-500 range when you use it. If you forget and zoom back to shorter than 100 mm, there is a sickening crunch as the rear element of the lens hits the front element of the converter. With the lens locked at 100+, it will extend and contract if your carry it around and you cannot lock it in one position while the teleconverter is on.

The Tamron and Kenko teleconverters do not extend into the lens so you do not have to worry about the lens elements colliding. You can also lock the lens in the 50 mm position when moving it around. The other reason I like the Tamron teleconverter is that it can be used on lenses that will not accept a teleconverter that projects into the back of the lens. For example, I get good results if I use a Tamron teleconverter on my Sigma 105 mm macro lens, but the Sigma teleconverter will not even mount on that lens.

I used to own the Bigma and the results were always disappointing with a Teleconverter. I tried it with the Sigma 1.4 and also with a Tamron that I owned at the time> The Bigma is not a bad lens for the money but it just doesn't have enough quality to be used successfully with a TC. Try to get closer to the eagles or save your money for a better lens.

I have the Bigma and 80-400 OS. Started out buying a Canon 1.4x Mk II extender. It does not fit on either lens. Picked up a Sigma 1.4x TC. It works fine. Sigma's site state that with the 1.4x TC neither lens will AF. I find that the Bigma will not AF with the 1.4x TC, but the 80-400 OS will when it is on my EOS-3. On the 30D only MF is availalble.

I don't have a problem with IQ on either combo. The 80-400 OS will handhold at full zoom with the TC. I use the Bigma with tripod, MLU and a remote release. Not having a sidekick or wimberly, I can't tell you whether or not you will be able to achieve good results without handholding the combo. Handholding the Bigma on the 1.4x TC will require high iso and as high a shutter speed as you can get with wide open aperture (f/8 ). If you have the light, anything is possible.

Ken