extender or teleconverter

That is what the topic was about,a telconverter..some say don't use it,some say do,what is the 30d 40d and so on,i'm just a beginner..

30D and 40D are the Canon EOS 30D and Canon EOS 40D cameras.

Keflack wrote in post #6829470
Ok,what lens do you suggest in like the 200 dollar range or a good brand to buy.

It depends on what you like to photograph.

To be honest for $200, there isn't anything out there that would qualify as great, but if you shop around you might find something thats OK for that money.

There are a few classic "great values" out there. The most famous is the EF 50mm f/1.8, which is nicknamed the "nifty fifty". It can be found for less than $100 new. Its a bargain-priced lens but it delivers REALLY good image quality for the money.

Seeing as you don't have an aversion to manual focus lenses, I suggest you start looking at eBay for M42 lenses. Get yourself a M42-EOS Adaptor.
and start looking for Helios lenses, and Carl Zeiss Jena lenses. You can find a GREAT lens for less than $200 with INCREDIBLE image quality.

-Alan

Keflack wrote in post #6828994
Hi thanks,
my lense is not a mirror lense and yes the ap is f/8..the problem is,i use a sturdy tripod with my 500mm and also my 75-300mm but no matter what,i can't get that sharp fine detail,so a guy i know in sweden made a offer to sell me his and i have seen some of his photos and they are fantastic,so if i'm using the same equiptment,why are mine not that good??my 500mm lense is much longer than the picture above though..do you think it is a setting messed up in my camera itself?

you should ask him to sell you his technique of manual focusing on wildlife, instead of another lens

Keflack wrote in post #6829470
Ok,what lens do you suggest in like the 200 dollar range or a good brand to buy.

i'd sell everything, and get the 55-250IS...also what are you shooting as you need to find a way to get closer

i've got a 500mm mirror lens, that i only use to try and photograph/document a few nesting peregrine falcons in the area...they're really far away, and my camera is always set on a tripod, and focused using the 10X live view...it actually yields some good shots

OP,

You are looking for a super telephoto lens for a budget lens price, in order to "get closer to your subjects".

Have you considered just getting closer to your subjects?

Take for example Nial Benvie, a well known wildlife photographer. He relates in one of his books how he shot with nothing longer than a 300mm lens and 1.4X teleconverter for the first ten years of his career (all on film). You have more "reach" than that now, with a 300mm on a 1.6X crop sensor camera! Benvie relied on stalking skills to get close enough to get the shots he needed.

With lenses, you pretty much get what you pay for.

There are some good mirror lenses out there, in the 250 to 600mm range. There are also some poor quality ones. Most of the longer (500mm and 600mm) ones are f8s. One of my favorites over the years was a Tamron SP 500mm f8. But, all mirror lenses give a somewhat strange out of focus highlight "donut". And, mirror lenses in general do not work at all well with teleconverters.

Teleconverters "cost you" light entering the camera. A 1.5X or 1.4X teleconverter "costs" one stop, so adding one of these to an f8 lens makes it an "effective" f11 lens... pretty dim to even see in the viewfinder. A 2X teleconverter costs two stops of light, making that same f8 lens an effective f16 and really dim to try to focus! Not to mention that the XS has a penta-mirror viewing system that's not as bright as the true pentaprisms in more expensive models, and like any crop sensor camera the image area is pretty small, and like most modern AF cameras, lacks any manual focus assist features.

There are also f8 non-mirror lenses - manual focus cheapies - which I think you wrote was what you are actually looking at buying. All these that I know of are basically junk. Add a cheap teleconverter and it'll be junk X1.7, I'm afraid. (In 30 years doing photography, I have never heard of that particular teleconverter, so I don't know if it's good quality or not). I would be very, very suspicious of any seller who sang the praises of that sort of a combo.

And, manually focusing will be nearly impossible with your camera and these dim lenses.

Your best bet would be to save up for a Canon 400/5.6, perhaps used. It is pretty much a tripod only lens, though, especially with 1.6X cameras.

Image Stabilized lenses are another thing you really should consider, if you want to work without a tripod or monopod much of the time.

Do yourself a favor and get some recent books by some of the top wildlife photographers.

he wants to pay $200. EF 400mm f/5.6 is about 8-12 times that, and an IS long tele is about 30-40 times $200.

I agree with your points about his lens combo being too dim. Because its cheaply made crap for newbies who don't know better than to buy it - because they read 500mm and feel they need it. Fact is, the OP got hosed, and now, is gonna get hosed again.

Don't waste money on a teleconverter for your lens. Its pointless.

-Alan