210mm + T-Con 17x Tele extender for wildlife

[Tom D.]

I shoot with a Sony NEX-5R and finally picked up the 55-210 mm zoom lens. It's sharp enough, but not quite as much reach as I'd like for wildlife photography. There really aren't any long AF lenses available for the Sony e-mount yet, although A mount lenses can be adapted. While I will likely pony up for a quality long lens sometime in the future, I wanted something now for wildlife and for capturing my son's sports. I have an older 300mm Canon lens that I have adapted to the NEX-5, but it's difficult to use for action without auto-focus. I had been reading on photography forums that some people had been getting good results with the 55-210 lens and an Olympus T-Con 17x tele extender, so I decided to try it and am pleased with the results. It gives me a 535mm equivalent with the 1.5 crop factor and does have some vignetting up until about 85-90mm, none beyond that. It won't match up with a fast high end lens for image quality, but I'm pleased with it. Here are some of the images I took in my first week playing with it. The moon shot was on a tripod, the other two were handheld: Hawk at the top of 80' tree from approx. 200' away from the base This is from the first batch of moon shots I've ever taken: From my son's football game (#64 making the tackle).

[Franco Darioli]

Hi Tom, Thank you for posting. Those converters are often either a waste of money or only work well with a particular lens. Interesting that you get good results with your Sony lens and I see that you are not the only one. I happen to have a Sony tele with a 55mm thread…

[Tom D.]

Yes Franco, there are many cheap tele-extenders on eBay and Amazon. They generally produce very poor image quality, if they can even be used at all as some are reported to produce severe vignetting throughout the range. What I am hearing is that to get any real use at all out of one, it has to be one of Tele-extenders from Sony, Nikon or Olympus. Any tele-extender at all is not the best way to increase focal length, but right now I can't yet purchase the lens that I want. Of my current lenses, the 55-210 is the only lens that it will work on as it vignettes all through the range on the shorter lenses. I came upon it as I was looking through the Sony forums over at dpreview and there was a guy who had essentially the Sony version of this one, the VCL-HD1758 1.7x at home in his gear, along with the appropriate step up ring, so he tried it on his 55-210 lens and found that it worked surprisingly well. The Olympus T-Con 17X was the one that people started looking to as an alternative as Sony no longer makes the VCL-HD1758, the Olympus seems to be of similar quality, and it's more reasonably priced than either the Sony (which has been selling for as much as $250 used on eBay) or the Nikon. They were posting some pretty impressive shots with it. It was made to extend the focal length on Olympus compact cameras. It looks strange attached to such a small camera body and like I said, it won't take the place of a high quality fast telephoto lens, but it's capable of some good shots for those who can't yet afford or justify an expensive lens.

[Ian]

Tom, One of my largest complaints with Sony is a lack of E mount tele lenses beyond 210mm. I'm in the same boat and am not willing to adapt Canon lenses to my camera at this time as the smart adapters paired with the A6000 are reported to be kludgy at best. I don't have immediate access to my 55-210 but I believe it is a 49mm thread. From looking at Olympus' description, they describe the attachment as bayonet so am I correct in assuming that I would mount this in lieu of the lens hood and no step up/down adapter would be necessary?

[Ian]

I found one of the discussions at DP Review. http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3563817 Sounds like there may be a few variations of this tele extender (X and C) with different attachment options. One DP Review member motioned that he used an adapter with his copy. Again, I'd love to hear how you mounted this on the lens.

[Franco Darioli]

Again, I'd love to hear how you mounted this on the lens. I believe the 1.7 olympus converter has a 55mm thread therefore it will screw directly into a lens that takes 55mm filters.

[Ian]

"First up, the Olympus website details that the TCON-17X connects using a bayonet fitting. It doesn't, it's a screw thread and to attach it to your XZ-1 you'll also need the Converter Adapter CLA-12, as a teleside converter." http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/112717-olympus-tcon-17x-adapter-tested This answers the bayonet attachment question.

[Tom D.]

It takes a 49-55mm step up ring to attach it to the 55-210. To attach it to the Canon 300mm that I have, I ordered a 58-55mm step down. I doubt I'll use it much with the Canon lens, but I want to try it just out of curiosity. I agree, the lack of lenses beyond 210mm for the e-mount is frustrating. You can get a Sony adapter such as the LA-EA2 for about $300 that will allow you to mount A-Mount lenses onto E-mount cameras and get autofocus. The problem is that e-mount image stabilization is currently in the lens on almost all the e-mount cameras, so unless you get an A-Mount lens that has image stabilization (Sigma has it in some of their A-mount lenses), you'd have to do without it.

[Ian]

Good to know about the step up ring. That's an easy enough solution. Speaking in 35mm equivalent, 300mm is just not enough reach for wildlife photography. 535mm is much better. We're planning our third (or is it fourth?) trip to Banff next summer. Even at 300mm equivalent, there were potentially great shots of bear and moose that required aggressive cropping. The A6000's sensor is up to the challenge but I'd rather have the glass to fill the frame more. Thanks again for posting this. I've been weighing a number of options, this is by far the most economical and for backpacking, compact.

[Richard May]

Any kind of adaptation will both reduce quality and aperture. So it's always a trade. How about mirror lenses? Not the best quality either but may be more convenient. Rokinon has a 500mm f6.3 Sony Alpha I'm sure could be adapted to e mount. Listed as 1.6Lb; 4.7 x 0.15 x 3.9 inches. $165 on Amazon, I say it's worth a shot. http://amzn.com/B004JHY5OW E2A: There's also the 300mm f6.3 e-mount version too: http://amzn.com/B00DRC9LJE

[Ian]

I like manual focus lenses and the Roki 12mm e mount will likely be my next lens, but for a telephoto lens, I prefer something with autofocus, especially for sports and birds. The alpha mount adapter is a viable option, and there are people who swear by the old Minolta beer can. Sadly the adapter itself costs more than the OP's solution. Also no good for video due to noise. I realize tele converters reduce light by a full stop or two, but from the little I've read on this option, I'm not finding a claim that this reduces light at all. Certainly can't beat the price.

[Franco Darioli]

A front converter typically does not reduce the light intake (that Oly version does not) however the rear converter, the one mounted between the body and the lens, does. A 1.4x converter loses half of the light (1 stop) , a 2x converter will lose 2 stops.

[Tom D.]

Franco is right, unlike Teleconverters, Tele-extenders do not reduce light intake so you don't lose any F-Stops by using it. But any time you add additional glass, you tend to lose image quality, if even a small amount. Like I said, It's not as good as a fast, quality telephoto lens, but can still produce some very good shots. I looked at mirror lenses too, but image quality isn't great according to reviewers, they are kind of slow at F8, and it doesn't have autofocus, which is pretty important for wildlife that doesn't stand still and the main reason I went to the Sony Lens with tele-extender over the Canon 300mm manual focus lens. I also use it for my son's football, where it is difficult to get consistent quality shots with manual focus. When hiking and looking for wildlife, I keep the camera in burst mode with a fast shutter speed and set to autofocus. So far, I've been keeping the 55-210 by itself on the camera and the tele-extender in a belt pouch. My understanding of the adapter from A-Mount to E-mount is that there is no loss of image quality, as it is basically just a mirror with the electronics for autofocus. But you brought up the other problem that I have with Sony. They keep all of their accessories as proprietary as possible, then charge an arm and a leg for every one of them. The adapter itself costs more than what my camera body goes for today.

[Ian]

Tele glass isn't cheap either. A modest Canon 400mm f5.6 is still going to run me almost 10x what this solution does. Like most things in life, including UL backpacking, there are times when an imperfect solution is good enough. I suspect that is the case here and Olympus will earn some of my money for this extender.

[Tom D.]

I agree, and while it may be imperfect, I am very happy with it. The final push for me to buy it occurred when I saw it for $95 on Amazon. In looking around, it was generally going for $150 and up, usually closer to $175, even on eBay. I ended up paying an extra $17 for expedited shipping so that I would have it it time for my son's game.

[Tom D.]

Just another note, I just picked up an older Canon FD mount 50mm f/1.4 lens on eBay and the Tele-extender works perfectly with it on the NEX-5r, no vignetting. I wasn't intending to use them together, I just wanted a fast 50mm for low light stuff, but it gives me an 85mm f/1.4 should I need it. I also ordered an older 135mm f/2.8 manual focus lens, I'm curious to try them together. This is a test with the 50mm and the T-Con 17X:

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