 Mark Guiver |
Teleconverter or Extension tube for Motorsport I have an E-500 DSLR with a 40-150 lens, and I want to get closer to my moving subject, motorbike racers, but cannot get beyond the safety fencing. What's my best and most cost-effective option? Teleconverter, extension tube, or even another lens? Thanks!
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
W. |
Hi Mark, Your 'best' option is another lens, image quality-wise. Your 'most cost effective option' is a teleconverter, but it ruins your image quality BIG time. You'd wish you hadn't wasted your money on it, because you'll never use it again after the first, very dissappointing time. An extension tube is for macro photography. It does NOT get you "closer to my moving subject, motorbike racers". So you had best save up until you can afford a real telephoto lens. You will regret it if you don't. Have fun! Addendum: Using a telephoto focal length of over 150mm dictates the use of a decent tripod, because the built-in image stabilization can't hack it by a long shot (pun intended). You'll get bad camera shake if you try to shoot handheld.
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
Mark Guiver |
Many thanks for the swift responses here. The TC seems to cost as much as a new lens anyway. Extension tubes are very cheap, but then thats because they are just empty plastic tubes! OK, so a new lens is the preferred option. But, that then leads to the question of which one? Olympus or Sigma? 18-180 (I could sell the 40-150), 50-200 (seems expensive) or 70-300?!
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
Oliver Anderson |
Mark, to capture motorsports you need a fast lens - hopefully with (IS) image stabilization of some sort. The faster lens has a lower f/stop like 2.8 and is accompanied with a higher price. When you add a teleconverter, you lose a stop or 2 ... 1.4x or 2x, which makes the lens even slower but closer to the action. I shoot AMA and NASCAR with a f/2.8 w/1.4x teleconverter, so the lens becomes an f/4 lens ... Simply put, buy the lens that has the lowest f/stop you can afford and has a good review.
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
Alan N. Marcus |
Hi Mark, Your Olympus E-500 sports a Kodak digital sensor that measures 13mm by 17.3mm. Using math we can calculate the diagonal measure of this 4:3 aspect ratio rectangle as 21.64mm. Known the size of the sensor and its diagonal measure is an important piece of information when it comes to lens selection. A “normal” lens for this camera (one that replicates the human experience is a lens with a focal length about equal to the diagonal measure. That means “normal” for this camera is 20mm. Note this camera is usually sold with a zoom lens that covers the range 14mm ~ 45mm. Note 20mm falls in the center of this zoom range. That being true, setting the zoom to 40mm causes images to appear twice as close i.e. the view is said to be 2x greater or about the equivalent of halving the camera to subject distance. Thus mounting a 80mm will half again giving a magnification that is said to be 4x normal. If you mount a 160mm, that view would be 8x normal. At 8x normal a subject 100 yards away would appear (compared to “normal”) 12.5 yards or 25 feet away. You can’t mount an extension tube and cause the camera lens to function like a telephoto. Extension tubes work at very close camera-to-subject distances. This is due to the fact that when work at extreme close-up distances the lens focal length as engraved on the barrel of our lens becomes invalid, it lengthens. Actually it becomes 2x longer as we approach life-size (unity or 1:1). To achieve focus the lens must be extended outward towards the subject. Since most camera focus mechanisms limit forward travel we must resort to extension tubs as these circumvent the mechanical limit of forward travel allowing the lens to be re-positioned frontward. As to magnification: Most books list 50mm as “normal” and state that a 100mm gives 2x magnification and 100mm yields 4x etc. This is true for the full frame 35mm that sports a diagonal measure that rounds up to 50mm. Your camera sports a 20mm diagonal thus 40mm = 2x – 80mm = 4x – 160mm = 8x – 320mm = 16x. Nobody said it’s easy. Alan Marcus (marginal technical gobbledygook)
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
Oliver Anderson |
I was going to say that before Alan took the words and put them to paper first....this is how far I got. Your Olympus is a camera. Uhhhhhhh Alan take it from here.
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
Samuel Smith |
welcome mark, sigma has a 135-400 f4.5-5.6 for around 800 bucks for the 4/3rds system. I can't imagine what an f2.8 lens,if available,would cost for your camera. I shoot r/c fly-ins at 300mm handheld with great results.yes,results may vary. good luck,sam
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
James Kirk |
Contrary to what W.S. says, I have had very good successes with 1.4x extender. On my Canon EOS 1 (film) with the 1.4x II and a 400 2.8 I got great images at the SCCA championship events a few years ago. Let's see, 1 Canon 400mm f2.8 L $6,800.00 , Canon 1.4x extender $290.00. Hmmm, maybe not so cost effective. I rented. Best thing I ever could have done. Seriously though, long fast lens and a monopod will get you into the action. Seek out spots on the track where you can get closer with good view of vehicles under breaking, entering and the apex of corners. Most action their. But better yet, strike up a relationship with one of the teams, get registered with the team and you can often get a pass to get out where the pros are. That's what we did. Access is everything for motorsports. Good luck.
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
This old forum is now archived. Use improved Forum here
Report this Thread |
|||||||||||||||||
