Cheapest teleconverter ever - the Owen 2X Auto Telemax!

[TheStranger]

After my 180mm/2.8 AI-S ED came back from the shop after a month of waiting...I went on my way home, Monday night.

Discovered an appliance and camera shop on Fulton Avenue that I had never been to, and asked if they had any old Nikon manual focus lenses. They didn't, but they DID have this:

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Yes, the price tag says $25. Well, not the discounted price tag on the other side - TEN BUCKS! There's a two-stop loss for a 2X converter (as predicted) but it creates some huge range increases, particularly for my 180mm AI-S ED (which becomes a 360mm/5.6). I'm very interested in trying this out at Petaluma Speedway on Saturday to see if I can get tighter shots from the stands...I might even use it with the massive 47-year old 85-250mm zoom and see what happens (it would turn the 250/4.5 at the long end into a 500/9 which, stopwise, is not too far off from a mirror lens of that focal length).

Some test results:

with the Series E 100mm/2.8 attached:

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with the AI-S 180/2.8:

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[darkone]

Did you do any PP to those? They look pretty good if not.

 

[TheStranger]

Did you do any PP to those? They look pretty good if not.

None at all. But for the 15 shots I was happy with of the duck pond at McKinley Park, there were about 20 that weren't just right - though that was more because handheld with the TC on a long lens is not easy, even using shutter speeds past 1/400! Maybe next time I should bring my monopod, which will be on the camera for sure when I use the TC+telephoto combo at Petaluma Speedway on Saturday.

(The massive, ancient 85-250mm Nikkor zoom actually is easier to hand-hold from experience, due to its heavier weight being a great stabilizer. Probably not as easy as any modern VR lens though...)

The lighting situation at the park was strange, it was shadowy in some spots, bright in others, and a 2X TC'd lens just doesn't perform well at ISO 200 in dark areas (forcing me to drive it up to 400 or even 800 surprisingly early). I kept hoping the ducks with interesting facial color patterns would swim into the light, but it never worked out the way I wanted to. :tongue:

 

[TheStranger]

Even with a monopod, I found that it was very, very hard to get consistent shots with the teleconverter attached to the 85-250mm lens, particularly since I was using it at the long end (which became 500mm f/9 with the TC attached), but I did get a few acceptable captures:

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I was much happier with the results attaching the 180mm f/2.8 AI-S ED on there:
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