[frankm3]

Hey there guys, Hope you all had a nice turkey (or other food of your liking) day! As I prepare to go to Yellowstone in a few weeks, I am trying to sort out my options for some wildlife photography. I am bringing my ol' 35 SLR (a Canon EOS A2). I have a Canon 100-300 for this camera, and as I don't use this camera a whole lot these days, I was looking for options to add some focal length to my G2 in order to attempt some digital wildlife photography on this trip. Any educational info/ recommendations for a converter, etc. to help me figure this out? Thanks, Frank M.

[Tom]

You can add a 2x teleconverter to the G2 but that only gets you to 6x zoom. Your best options are probably a Tiffen MegaPlus 2X or Kenko KNT-20 2X. Lensmate sells them for around $75 and has samples of each (albeit taken with the G3). Add $20-30 for an adapter tube and step up ring if you don't have them. I think lensmate charges WA sales tax too.

[frankm3]

Thanks Tom!!! This is exactly what I needed to know. I think as you were mentioning, it's not really as long as ideal for this type of subject matter, but I'm also thinking it will at least get ya 'in the neighborhood'.....especially at Yellowstone of all places! Yellowstone is probably better than most others for trying to get away with a shorter than standard telephoto lens. When I was there in the summer a couple years ago, there were a number of animals close enough to photograph at a reasonable distance without even leaving the car. I tried to photograph an eagle at about 100 yards or so with the standard lens a few months ago- it was a joke. At full resolution and full digital zoom, it was a tiny speck in the frame, which was an even more pixelated speck when I downloaded it. In general, I have been really pleased with the G2, it's tiny compared to my old SLR, a lot easier to pack, and at full resolution you can get a pretty nice quality 8x10 print, which is about as big as I ever pushed anything when doing 35mm. Thanks again for the help Tom! YOU DA MAN!!!

[frankm3]

Well...... I just ordered the exact setup you mentioned above. At $126 total w/tax + shipping, it seems as though it will be a good starter telephoto setup! The 3 parts you need are - The 49mm Lensmate G2 adapter - allows addition of converter, $21.95 49mm - 52mm step ring, $6.95 Kenko 2X 52mm converter, $77.95 I did also start thinking about the 'super-zoom' camera you posted (and then un-posted?). I decided I would really like to save my pennies for an interchangable lens digital SLR! Thanks again Tom Frank

[Andrew]

Jump for the 10D!

[Newt]

The teleconverter would screw onto the front of one of my 35mm lenses, would that change to telephoto, macro or nothing at all? I think a 35mm tele is just a spacer between the body and lens but with the g3 it fits up front. Just wondering if I could get dual usage from it. Thanks N

[Sore Feet]

If you had the right size lenses, you could use a threaded teleconverter on a 35mm lens, but 35mm converters are usually designed to go between the camera and the 35mm lens using the camera's mount (ex. Canon AF mount). The ones I've seen aren't just spacers, they've got magnification lenses in them, and aren't cheap. I think if you just used a spacer, you'd lose a lot of depth of field pliability. Most of the threaded converters I've seen have rear threads no smaller than about 48mm, the majority are usually 52mm, so if you have any 35mm lenses that have 52mm threads, they would work. Probably be some vigenetting (definitely would be with the converters designed for the g3), but they'd be functional.

[skippinglikeastone]

Sore Feet is right, you will get some vignetting when not zoomed in all the way with your optical zoom. However, there are ways to get more zoom out of your digital. Many tele lens for digi's are rear threaded 52mm, but they also come in 49, 37, 58 and a variety of other sizes. For example, on my canon A60 I have a 37mm threaded adapter for which i attached a 2x digital optics lens. The lens has threads for 49mm filters, and instead of a filter I attached another 2x lens that has 49mm rear threads. This gets me a total optical zoom of 12x, and 30x with digital. If you can't find the right threads for your lens there are step up rings of all sizes that cost about 5 bucks a pop, or less if you buy the whole set. There are 3x and even some 6 and 8x lens for digital camera's (the crystal vue lens ~ around $150). I have been thinking of buying a 3x and using it instead of my second 2x, for a total of 18x optical, and 45 something digital zoom. Of course, the obvious drawback about putting two lens together is the sacrifice in image quality, especially if using cheap lens (like the ones I have). But if you get good, high definition lens it might make up for all that green glass you are putting in front of your camera. Also, I get vignetting unless I am almost all the way zoomed in with my optical. Oh and with all that glass you are getting a little less light into your camera which might make for shorter shutter speeds, but I haven't noticed any big difference yet. Other than that I don't know of other drawbacks to stacking your lens, do you? I bought all my stuff off ebay. Hope that is useful. And yes, it is alot of fun taking full framed pictures of people/stuff from 30 yards away.