Sigma APO Teleconverter 2x EX DG for Pentax

Great Kit to have with Sigma lens
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Hi,

I have Sigma 50-500mm lens, with Nikon D90 camera, so this x2 teleconverter used to get 1000mm focal length, and it was more than GOOD. You will need the stand for your camera and you will get real nice and far shots.

To see the result please visite my flickr account on this link:

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The only shortage is the fatc that you can’t use it with Nikon lenses, I don’t have other Sigma than 50-500mm, so I don’t know if it will work with others like Sigma 50mm, or 70-300mm or any other sigma lens.(it should works)

If you will capture birds, wild-life or the sky, I think you will need it.

not compatible with Sigma 18-55 mm lens
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I purchased this teleconverter and found that it did not work in auto mode with the Sigma 18-55mm telepohoto lens.

Have to decide if I have to buy another lens to again auto capability.

Great for the price
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have the Canon 70-200mm F2.8 IS lens (and yes, it’s much better than the Sigma!). My Sigma AF went out less than 2 months use. So I am very pleased to find out that this teleconverter works with My canon. The pictures came out better with this Sigma converter and the Canon lens – than the Sigma lens with the Sigma converter. Picture quality will always suffer slightly because of this teleconverter.

I also tried the Canon Lens on a Canon Converter. Honestly – I could not see a difference. Other than color of the converter.

Good Buy – Cheap enuff to buy the 1.4 converter too.

only works with very select lens’
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
i bought this item to extend my shooting range on my nikon d100 – the longest lens i have is a 300mm. the 2X converter didn’t fit my nikkor 300mm, my tamron 28-80mm or my nikon 105.

nice little add on
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I have had one about two months and like it a lot. My wife just bought one too. It is great in daylight and strong lighting such as in football stadiums in Texas. Understand, though, that when the sun sets or lights are dim, this extender will give you some dark pics no matter what you do to compensate. My wife and I use the 2x on Canon 50D cameras and even ISO of 6400 will look pretty bad due to the noise and softness of the image. Not bad if it’s a hobby– not good if it’s a business.

Kent & Jackie

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tough to use
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
This lens doubles your existing lens but do you have the right lens and are you good at manual focus?

It certainly doubles certain lenses but getting that list seems difficult to do. I bought this product and it works as advertised although I had to look at the other lens I bought to figure out if this lens worked with it!

Not worth the money, buy a better lens instead
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
I spent a day photographing a sailboat race from the shore, and thought this would be an ideal time for the converter. I was using a Sigma 50-500, so with the teleconverter, I thought I was set. When I got home, I found the photos were never sharp or crisp, and just slightly blurry when zoomed in. The next night I used the same setup to take shots of the moon, with the same results. I took off the teleconverter, and I got sharper photos. If you need good crisp accurate shots (and who doesn’t?), the teleconverter does not help. I don’t see a point to ever use this item again. I bought my converter on E-bay for much less, but it’s still not worth the money or the expectations. It’s better to just save your money and get a better quality lens.

Sigma APO Teleconverter 2x EX DG for Canon Digital SLR Cameras
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
Not compatable with Cannon lens only select Sigma lens.

Loss of Quality / Lack of Focus
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I bought this converter to use with my Nikon ED AF Nikkor 80-200mm 1:2.8 D lens on my Nikon D80. It fits the lens, and seems to work, at least for metering and manual focus, but the resulting images aren’t usable– or at least aren’t any more usable than without the converter. My test shoots have been with a sturdy tripod in broad daylight, around f8 and 1/640th (so, plenty of light). I varied the aperture from 11 down to 3.2 (changing the speed accordingly). In taking pictures of a still subject, where I have achieved excellent focus through the viewfinder, the resulting images are very noticeably out of focus.

I played with focusing closer or farther, compared with dead on, and none of these produced an image that was clearly enough in focus to be worthwhile. If I compare the images taken without the teleconverter at 200mm with images taken with the converter (400mm), the result is a similar amount of clarity. In other words, if I crop and the 200mm photos and compare them to ones taken with the teleconverter, I’ve got just about the same clarity. So, the upshot is, don’t get this teleconverter if you are looking to get closer and retain clarity in your images.

Poor focus when used with Sigma 150-500mm Telephoto Zoom Lens
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I bought this teleconverter to use with the Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 AF APO DG OS HSM Telephoto Zoom Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras. My intent was to use it for bird photography with my Nikon D200. However, after thorough testing in good light (Better Beamer, F11, 1/250, ISO 200), I was unable to get clear images (tried both auto and manual focus).

I returned both the telconverter and the Sigma 50-500mm.

Sigma 2X EX DG APO Teleconverter for Nikon AF Cameras
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
After reading the two reviews above, I was somewhat baffled. If you do any research on this product, you will find it clearly is made only for use with Sigma lenses, not Nikon lenses. The instruction manual that comes with the converter even lists which specific Sigma lenses to use. If you want a converter for Nikon lenses, buy the Nikon TC-20E (retails for more than twice the Sigma). Of course the quality of this product is poor when using a Nikon lens! I have a Sigma 70-200 zoom and it works beautifully; it is well worth the price.

Very pleased
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I got this 2x converter to match the Sigma 70/200 2.8 lens. I have shot around 100 pics with this set up and have been very pleased with the results. I have shot wildlife to school track meets.

The only reason I couldn’t give this converter a perfect mark is I can’t use it with my other Nikon lens.

Useful Purchase
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This has proven to be a useful item and a worthwhile investment. It can be used in AF mode (on the lens to which it is attached) but with a longer lens (400+) it is better used in manual focus. I’m glad I purchased it and I use it frequently in taking pictures of birds and wildlife.

Uncool
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
Well folks I gotta tell ya. I’ve got a Nikon D40 and I know I’m not up with the big boys but my D40 serves me very well. It continues to impress me. I’ve got a Tamron 18-270, amSigma 17-70 macro and a Tamron 10-24 wide angle. I cant say enough good things about all of them. I was going to expand my horizons with the Sigma APO 2X teleconverter. Now it says it works with, (and you would think it would,) Nikon mount lenes. Well the only one that fit was the Sigma and it wasn’t able to move the entire zoom distance. I still like Sigma and want to pick up the Sigma 50-500 or the 70-200. I really do hope I just got a bad one off the line.

On a good note, really good construction!

Take care folks.

Sgt Jackson

Useful enhancement, within reason
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
First, to set things straight: this TC is intended for only Canon cameras, and for Sigma lenses that mount on a Canon camera. Anything else, you’re taking your chances. Second, there are optical laws that invariably predict a 2-stop decrease in the amount of light hitting the sensor. And finally, glass, no matter which brand or how many exotic elements in it, has undesirable characteristics and you will always lose some amount of clarity, saturation and perceived quality (how much varies from lens to lens and eye to eye).

Now that those fundamentals are out of the way, the results and recommendations. I took several photos using this TC mounted on my Sigma 70-200/2.8 and my Sigma 150-500/5.6~6.3. I also attempted to mount my Canon 28-70/2.8L on it, but the fit did not work (it scrapes and sticks and will not lock into place), and thus I believe they are incompatible. I did not test it with my Sigma 10-20/4.5~5.6 for obvious reasons.

AF is maintained throughout the entire range of the 70-200/2.8, as advertised in Sigma’s compatibility chart. MF is engaged electronically for the entire range on the 150-500/5.6~6.3, again per the chart. AF through the 70-200 is solid, accurate, and has no degradation of speed. MF through the 150-500 @ 500 is, as one should understand, a touchy process, though it’s aided considerably by the optical stabilization function.

Image quality @ 500mm (really, 1000mm) is not spectacular (though what does one expect, given a maximum aperture of about f/12.9). I didn’t expect wonders but I had hopes of better. Some of this is inevitably due to my challenge in focusing, which is difficult without a split-prism finder. The image quality is still fairly bright and saturated, but somewhat noisy-looking. Exposure was accurate. I need to test on monochromatic surfaces to determine what’s going on with the noise.

Tripod-mounting the camera, lens and TC for the 1000mm (500mm doubled) test shots produced the best results, improving further with MLU enabled and use of an IR remote. Image quality @ 400mm (200mm doubled) is acceptable and this should be the recommended pairing of lens and teleconverter (70-200/2.8 with this TC). This pairing results in a decent-quality 400/5.6 for well below the price of Canon’s prime and zoom lenses in this range. I won’t claim that the image quality is better; just, it’s decent, and you save a lot of money.

Build quality of the TC is fine and nothing is worth further comment other than that it’s a solid, well-built TC with multicoated elements.

I wavered between a 3-star and 4-star rating. I have owned two other TCs, and they were unquestionably 1-star at best. I went with four for this one because of its good performance with the 70-200/2.8, maintaining AF with that lens, and having pleasing build quality (I have no concerns about taking it out and using it frequently). I am however disappointed about the performance with the 150-500/4.5~5.6. I would give it a 3-star for its performance with the 150-500. I think it should at least attempt AF, and if the user has to give up and set it to MF, fine. Here, we don’t even have that luxury, and there’s no explanation on Sigma’s website or the product literature. So, if you are considering this to get yourself a cheap 1000mm lens, be aware of the drawbacks (full-time MF, somewhat noisy images, and challenging focusing in even overcast light). If you’re wanting to extend a 70-200, this is the sweet-spot.

Additional considerations
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Perhaps I should not have been … but I was surprised by the things I had not thought of before buying this lens extender. The first is that it made my autofocus shock reduction camera into basically a manual camera. Perhaps I had not attached the tele-extender properly to my camera, (several times under different conditions). But I could not get the autofocus to work. There’s also another consideration: when you increase the telephoto power, you reduce the area of the objects you are imaging. You are also increasing the speed of the subject in relationship to the frame. When I took a picture of a goose in the back yard, the goose ended up walking partially out of the frame by the end of the extended exposure. When I took a (tripoded) picture of Jupiter, the planet had moved away from the focus point – blurring the image and giving it an extended oval shape. Although I was able to distinguish the moons of Jupiter, four that night, they too were blurred. In both cases the tele-extender worked correctly – as far as I could tell. And in itself it gave clear images. However, I may have been able to gain a better final image by cropping and editing an original from the standard telephoto lens. I haven’t abandoned the tele-extender. I’m experimenting with it to find the appropriate application.

Al.

Affordable and quality
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I’ve used Canon lenses, Tamron and Sigma. All are fine products. For my money I have found that Sigma works well, without the high cost of Canon.

Currently, I’m using my extender with a Mark III and mainly my f2.8 70-200mm Sigma lense. I’m mainly shooting High School Football games with this combo & my Turbo 2×2. It’s working out beautifully! I would highly suggest the Sigma line of lense, esp if you’re on a budget.

Very Nice, and Useful Accessory
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
overall, i like this teleconverter. I use this with the new sigma 70-200mm F2.8 II lens for Rebel XTi. the F-stop became 5.6 with teleconverter, but i get up to 400mm zoom, which makes quite a difference. While it’s true that most of my pictures came out soft, but some pictures came out quite sharp- so it may just be me. there is some slight color distortion, but it’s only more noticeable when you shoot macros.

i glad i got it. and it has allow me to extend my lens from 140-400mm, of which 200-400mm is a critical range for wildlife and sports.

Update: July, 08

Okay, after a couple months of using Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 EX II lens, I found out that the Macro function is almost useless because of its such poor quality (soft focus and CA)- so the F has to be 9 or greater…now when you add this Teleconverter your F number is going to be even higher (i found the sharpest image at F22!!)…..lowest i try to get an usable image is around F15 or more. Now this is macro.

Just make sure you have plenty of light, and that the subject is far away and then this will be a great add-on for you.

UPDATE:

I originally bought this for my Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 Lens- and i really doesnt like its performance at the low F-stop (blurry, ca, and other problems), but i just got the Canon 70-200mm F2.8 IS lens (and yes, it’s much better than the Sigma!), and is pleasantly surprised to find out that this teleconverter works with it! in fact, the pictures came out better than the Sigma lens- so I think the picture quality issue is because of the lens not because of this teleconverter.

overall, you’re still going to get the best picture quality without this teleconverter, but with 2x and Canon, I think this will produce a better picture than any 70-300mm lens out there.