Oly 45mm + C-180 teleconverter

[tkbslc]

I don't know if anyone saw my test of the TCON-14 on the 45mm and 60mm macro, but in case anyone is interested: https://www.mu-43.com/threads/74767/

Short version:
Pros: No light loss, dirt cheap, light, clip on.
Cons: bad corners at large apertures. Better on 60mm f2.8 than 45mm

 

[kingduct]

I don't know if anyone saw my test of the TCON-14 on the 45mm and 60mm macro, but in case anyone is interested: https://www.mu-43.com/threads/74767/

Short version:
Pros: No light loss, dirt cheap, light, clip on.
Cons: bad corners at large apertures. Better on 60mm f2.8 than 45mm

I just read the thread and looked over your pictures. Alas, it didn't look that great to me (which speaks to the quality of your tests). I don't know much about these things, but I was actually wondering whether the fact that the elements on the TCON-14 were larger than the lenses you tested on lead to a degradation in quality (despite allowing more light), since not all of the light would make it through the second lens.

Then again, maybe I just need to be more realistic about these teleconverters.

 

[wjiang]

Some more interesting things I've found with the 45mm + C-180:
-Effective aperture of ~f/2.5 means when stopping down, there is no real change in aperture until ~f/2.5.
-You need to use exposure compensation when stopping down, otherwise the camera will consistently overexpose, based on the incorrect wide open metering. It thinks it's f/1.8 , but it's not - with the converter, f/1.8 - f/2.5 or so are all effectively ~f/2.5. Live view exposure preview will be wrong...
-Because the aperture is reduced by the circular exit pupil, the bokeh is perfectly circular stopping down to f/2.5 or even f/2.8.

Still not sure whether it's best to use the combination wide open or stopped down to f/2.5. Both have the same effective aperture but have different metering behaviour, not sure about the optical quality though.