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Re: [OM] Olympus B300 (was: Teleconverters)

Subject: Re: [OM] Olympus B300 (was: Teleconverters)
From: Gary Schloss <schloss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 10:29:00 -0800
Tomoko Yamamoto wrote:

>I have been testing an Olympus B300 teleconverter designed for the
>IS-3.  The B300 is a 1.7x teleconverter with a mount diameter of 55mm.
>It mounts on the front of the lens rather than in between the lens and
>the camera body.
>[snip]
>The big advantage of the B300 over regular TC's is very little light
>loss with this teleconverter.  Consequently, it is possible to use
>faster shutter speeds, thus avoiding the camera/lens shake problem.


One of the most intriguing possibilities with the B300 is the option
to mount it on the very sharp Zuiko 55mm F1.2 lens -- to plug a huge
hole in the Zuiko line-up: the lack of an ultra-fast portrait lens.

The above combo produces (approx.) a 90mm F1.2 lens, and if it does
not vignette TOO MUCH, this would be a workable and relatively
inexpensive solution to a void many Zuiks have been nagging about.

A similar approach with the B28 wide-angle teleconverter would
probably be less promising, as the B28's 0.8X magnification factor
will get us merely a 45mm F1.2 lens (approx.) -- not wide enough!
(Has anyone ever tried any of the above combos?  Pls report.)

Of course, like always in life or photography :-), one never gets
something for nothing.  And so, the use of front mounted TC's
instead of those that come between the camera and the lens, does not
preserve the lens' minimum focusing distance, i.e. the total minimum
focusing distance of the entire rig increases considerably (IMHO,
more than by a factor of 1.7X, but I haven't really measured it).

Moreover, with the Olympus B300/B28 attachments it appears to be
impossible to use filters: there are no threads on their fronts,
and inserting the filters between the lens and these front-mounted
TC's may have undesirable effects (I haven't tried it myself).

Lest the lucky owners of the updated, MC Zuiko 50mm F1.2 lenses
become disenchanted and start dumping them (hint, hint: pls throw
them in _my_ direction :-)), let me advise you that Olympus also
makes the following two front-mounted adapters in 49mm (!) thread:
the A200 -- a 1.5X telephoto TC, and the A28 -- a 0.8X wide-angle.
With the 50mm F1.2 lens, one could get a 75mm F1.2 and 40mm F1.2,
respectively.

Of course, even the "lowly" 50mm F1.4 would qualify for such an
experiment.  Heck, this one plus the A200 might be the perfect
substitute for the super rare, and super expensive Carl Zeiss
Jena 75mm F1.5 Biotar... wow!!!  (hey, I'm kidding!  Pls, pls, do
not report me to the Stasi :-) :-) )

Cheers,


/Gary Schloss.
Studio City, CA
schloss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx



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