Teleconverter or Lens?

[Flighty]

Hi All,

I'm hoping to be able to invest in a new bit of kit for my Nikon D50 soon. I already have a 18-70 and a 55-200 lens but I find that, for wildlife, I still need more magnification.

I'm on a really tight budget of up to about £200-250 and I don't know whether to buy a cheaper lens - ideally I'd want a zoom lens for versatility - or a reasonably good quality teleconverter to stick on my 200mm.

I'd rather get the lens but I worry that it'll just be such low quality that it'll not be worth bothering with.

Has anyone got any suggestions or been in a similar predicament? Or do you know where I'd be able to get a cheaper lens worth getting?

Cheers, Rich

[ron1863]

For your budget the Sigma 70-300mm APO is recommended:

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/prod...px?sku=1008565

[Maccattack1]

The converters are really designed for use with the high end fixed focal length lenses.They can stop slower lenses from focussing at all.
More reach is always a problem , I've always had good service from mainstream dealers when buying second hand , I'm not brave enough for ebay .Always worth saving up for best quality glass you can get.The second hand market however seems to be more expensive now than last year ( an effect of the new lens price rises following poor yen /£ rates). I looked at Grays and ffordes and didnt see much there.There are some 70-300 lenses but wont gain you a lot over what you have already as the quality at 300mm is often restricted. I'm waiting at least a year before looking at longer lenses.I decided to try macro for a while - could do this with excellent second hand nikkors , or could look at tamron 90mm (may not autofocus) but people prefer man focus for macro .
I doubt this has helped you but has staightened my ideas out a bit!
See v good advice above!

Good luck Malcolm

[Cellarman]

The problem with converters is that any faults in the lens to which they are attached are magnified, so if you start off with a poor quality lens, you will get an even poorer quality with the converter attached and that's on top of any faults in the converter.

[NJP87]

The sigma 70-300mm APO gets good reviews and i have seen some excellent shots taken with it.

I have the non APO version and it is not too bad at all considering what i payed for it.

[zan]

Unless your 55-200 is really good quality, I wouldn't bother with the TC because the image quality will be degraded by it. I've been using a 1.4x TC on my 300mm F4 IS Canon lens for about a year and a half (the benefits of the extra length made me very reluctant to remove it), but I took it off the other week to shoot birds around our trawler and the difference was chalk and cheese. I'd genuinely forgotten what a good lens the 300mm is, and all because of using the TC (which wasn't bad, it just didn't took something out of the images in terms of sharpness and colour detail I think).

Unfortunately, I don't know what to suggest as an alternative on your budget. The Bigma gets good reviews, and is probably the best compromise on price \ quality for a long lens, but I don't know how much it is (but I suspect it's way over budget)... I'd try the auction sites though. Good luck with the searching, and I hope you find someone with a good lens bargain

[Geoff F]

I am afraid that there might not be an answer except wait and save for something really good, which is what you will probably end up with and stop gap solutions work out expensive in the long run.

I eventually went for the Sigma 150-500 which has stabilisation and would key in nicely with the 55-200 but it will cost a little over £800.

It all really depends on what you want to photograph. I have the Canon 70-300 which is a handy size for general photography and with an extension tube makes a reasonable macro lens as well. But although this range is good for general use I often found it was still too short for birds, etc.

If you can manage to sneak a bit closer to your subject, you might get away with 300mm but all you can do now is to try to estimate if that would be sufficient. If not, don't bother with a converter; just start saving!

[ron1863]

Originally Posted by zan

Unfortunately, I don't know what to suggest as an alternative on your budget. The Bigma gets good reviews, and is probably the best compromise on price \ quality for a long lens, but I don't know how much it is (but I suspect it's way over budget)... I'd try the auction sites though. Good luck with the searching, and I hope you find someone with a good lens bargain

Unfortunately Zan the Bigma is over £1000 in most shops now

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by ron1863

Unfortunately Zan the Bigma is over £1000 in most shops now

Yes but a wabber picked one up on a certain site last week for £500..

[Geoff F]

I wouldn't expect to pay any more for one that is secondhand with no guarantee. Some people claim to get bargains there but my experience is very negative.