The short answer is no they're not a scam. However, most TCs will
magnify any shortcomings in the system they are added to. Cheap TCs come
with their own sets of optical problems and failings, but a good one, or
a matched TC will give good enough results, for a price. The problem is
as time goes on you often don't get what you pay for. I played around
with a number of TCs inexpensive and in some cases very expensive during
and after the film era and the only ones that really were worth while
that I used, were the Pentax 1.7 AF adapter, not strictly a TC but it
works as one on lenses up to the * 300mm f4.0 twins, with decent
results. Though neither of those lenses is the most optically stellar
Pentax telephotos. The Vivitar 2x Macro focusing TC worked very well
with shorter focal lengths say between 40mm and 100mm, especially on
film, on digital it was a little less useful and the images sometimes
left a bit to be desired. The Vivitar 70-150mm with it's matched
multiplier gave results that were very close to the lens alone,
unfortunately that lens was subject to an incredible amount of veiling
flair so unless the photo gods were smiling the results were pretty poor
most of the time.
On 7/16/2021 5:00 AM, Alan C wrote:
All teleconverters degrade the image to some extent, 2x more than
1.4x. In film & 6Mp days cropping wasn't really an option so they did
give more reach without the expense of a longer lens. Long ago I had
an M42 Vivitar 2x which made my SuperTak 55/2 a useful 110/4. Given a
high quality TC and a fast host lens, good results are possible.
However with the high Mp sensors now in common use, a cropped image
without the TC may be just as good or even better so what is the
point? Only perhaps cropping options of the TC image which starts with
full Mp?
Alan C
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