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[OM] Soligo vs Kiron 1.5 convertor - WAS: WTB: good quality 1.4 or 1.5 T

Subject: [OM] Soligo vs Kiron 1.5 convertor - WAS: WTB: good quality 1.4 or 1.5 TC
From: Jim Couch <jamesbcouch@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2005 14:00:12 -0800
I have still not had a chance to do any real comprehensive testing, but 
did manage to shoot a handful of shots on the tg end of a roll. Here are 
my initial impresions:

The Soligor is a much more compact than the Kiron, about 1/2 the 
thickness. The Kiron is about the same size as a typical 2x convertor. 
The Soligor is listed as a 1.4x and I beleive the Kiron is a 1.5 I ran 
these tests on a Tokina ATX 80-200 f2.8 zoom. Tests were run with the 
lens f5.6 and zoomed to 135 and 200mm. Mounted on Bogen tripod with a 
Kirk BH-3 head. All shots were done with self timer prefire. Film was 
Kodak Elite Chrome 400 which was what I had in the camera at the time. I 
plan to do a more seriios set of test with a fine grained film.

It appears that using the Soligor costs you a full stop of light. Fit on 
the Soligor is not as precise as the Zuiko's,. I noticed a slight amount 
of play. Compared to shots taken with the 80-200 the shots taken with 
the Soligor seem a bit cooler in color tone. Contrast appears to be 
good. Hard to tell on sharpness because of the film, but I could see no 
real difference in the center and very little on the edges. I expect 
this would be different with a finer grained film.

The Kiron as noted is thicker than the Soligor. It also appears to have 
somewhat better build quality and fits tighter than the Soligor. There 
is not the play I detected with the Soligor. This converter will cost 
you a bit more than a full stop, about 1 & 1/4 or 1/3 stops of light. In 
comparison to the Soligor and the shots taken with the 80-200 the most 
noticible thing is that the Kiron has a much more neutral color cast, 
the shots are warmer than the Soligor, much more in line with the 80-200 
alone. I also noticed no real change in contrast with the Kiron, maybe a 
bit better than the Soligor. Sharpness seems to be on par with the 
Soligor, but I suspect this is more a film limitation.

I will be doing more testing with some finer grained film when I get 
back from Hawaii (I leave Sunday.) I hope to test both with finer grain 
film and paired with the Zuiko 135 f2.8.

BTW, I am taking the Kiron with me, the better fit and color balance 
give it the edge for now. I will also be taking a Tokina 7 element 2x 
converter as well.

Jim

Jim Couch wrote:

>I have just got a Kiron 1.5x TC on *bay. I will comapre it with my 
>Vivitar 1.5x TC, mounted on a 135/2.8.
>  
>

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