When Teleconverters Assist vs Damage

Teleconverters cut up photographers into two camps: individuals who swear by them and individuals who say they wreck picture high quality, gradual autofocus, and belong in a drawer. Both camps are proper, and which one you land in comes down totally to the way you shoot.

Over the final 12 months, Jan Wegener shot greater than 400,000 hen pictures, roughly 45% of them with a teleconverter connected, and he makes use of that have to type out when the device earns its place and when a much bigger lens is the smarter purchase. A teleconverter isn’t free. You lose at the least a cease of sunshine, a little bit of sharpness, and a few autofocus velocity and accuracy. On a quick prime like an f/2.8 400mm or an f/4 600mm, these prices keep manageable. On a lens that is already gradual on the lengthy finish, like a 200-600mm at f/6.3 dropping to f/9 with a 1.4x extender, the sunshine loss can steal the shutter velocity wildlife calls for and starve the autofocus system.

Wegener makes some extent that will get skipped in most gear discuss: the second you desire a teleconverter essentially the most is commonly the second it helps the least. A tiny hen sitting far-off appears like a attain drawback, and technically the extender does put extra pixels on the topic. It does not shrink the space. You’re nonetheless preventing warmth haze, atmospheric distortion, and the lack of distinction that comes with distance, and the teleconverter magnifies all of it proper together with the hen. Where the device truly shines is while you’re already pretty shut, say a small hen round 18 m out, the place a 1.4x on a 600mm turns a topic that is too small into an in depth body with far much less air between the glass and the goal.

The recommendation kinds cleanly into three beginning factors. If you are making an attempt to stretch a lens like a 70-200mm into one thing it was by no means meant to be, that is an indication the longer native lens is the true reply, as a result of a 70-200mm with a 2x is a 200mm lens tolerating an extender, not a 400mm lens. If you personal a mid-range zoom you’re keen on and solely want for extra attain possibly 10 or 20% of the time, an extender covers that hole with out spending 1000’s. And when you already personal a top-tier prime, including teleconverters opens real new potentialities, to the purpose the place Wegener runs a 2x on his RF 600mm usually and prefers it over cropping as a result of it places extra actual element on the sensor.

Here’s a method to place all of this in opposition to how wildlife kits are literally being constructed proper now. Manufacturers have began releasing longer native zooms that eat into the precise hole teleconverters used to fill, lenses just like the Sony 400-800mm and the Nikon 180-600mm. That shift is price folding into your personal math. If you personal a 200-600mm and end up glued to a 1.4x, the trustworthy learn is that your on a regular basis focal size now lives previous 600mm, and a local lengthy zoom will beat that combo on mild, autofocus, and sharpness. Wegener’s personal base-lens precept backs this up: a 600mm prime with a 1.4x will outperform an f/2.8 400mm with a 2x despite the fact that each land close to 800mm, as a result of the 600mm setup asks much less of its optics to get there. The takeaway you possibly can apply wherever is straightforward. Build your package across the focal size you utilize most, attain it with out an extender, and let teleconverters deal with the exceptions fairly than manufacture your every day shot.

Two guidelines shut the entire thing out. If your lens is f/4 or sooner broad open, it might usually ship good outcomes with both extender; slower than f/4, keep on with the 1.4x. And when you’re reaching for a teleconverter greater than 60% of the time, a much bigger lens might be the higher funding, assuming your system provides a wise subsequent step. Once you are on one thing like an f/4 600mm, that subsequent step regularly does not exist in a type you possibly can carry, which is why Wegener treats extenders on that lens as the right device fairly than a fallback.

Watch the total breakdown within the video above to see the precise subject rule Wegener makes use of to resolve, shot by shot, whether or not to mount the teleconverter or pull it off and crop.