TG-5: Anyone has experience with Telephoto Converter TCON-T01: Olympus Compact Camera Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review (2024)

Hi,

I am using the TG-5, not only for the beach and other wet or dirty situations but also simply as always-with-me camera in my pocket. Sometimes I wish I had more telephoto reach.

I have looked for accessories for this camera and found the 1.7x teleconverter TCON-T01 for this camera.

Anyone has experience with it? Especially how is the image quality (sharpness center/edges/corners, CAs, decentering, ...)? Does it loose a lot of light? Is the camera's stabilizer still efficient with it? How is the handling?

Are there any special tips for using it?

Are there sample images?

Are there also reviews for the converter?

I appreciate any help.

Till

5

I can give you some limited feedback, FWIW. Limited because my only use thus far has been a short field test. I got one about a year ago for my TG-4, and the only use has been to take a few scenic shots following a snowfall here. I don't consider a photograph complete until I have refined it in PSE, so that has to be dialed into any assessment I may make.

That said, here are my impressions:

1. The lens appears to be very well made, on a par with the rest of the camera, so I think the ruggedness will also be on a par with the camera specs.

2. The image quality is consistent with the integral camera lens, based on what I see on my monitor. My experience with small sensor cameras has been that if I have good light, do everything right with the camera, and post-process carefully in PSE, I can produce very high quality prints up to 11X14". I have not printed any images taken with this lens, so that last point has yet to be proven. (I don't know how to add photos here, so I can't attach a sample image.)

3. The integral camera lens has to be at its maximum telephoto setting with the converter or there will be vignetting. In the reviews I have read some people have complained about this because your only two options (in 35mm terms) are 100mm (normal lens at max telephoto setting) or 170mm (tele converter attached). One needs to know this going in, which I did.

4. 170mm with the converter attached (approx 35mm equivalent, w/o getting into a 149 post thread about equivalence) on a small, light camera is a bit of a challenge to hold steady. I use a Hoodman loupe to get the camera at eye level where it is more stable. One of my test images, on a clear sunny day with lots of snow and bright light, was 1/500 at f5 ISO 100. These are settings the camera determined, but had it been me making the decisions in my old film days, I would have agreed, so the camera and lens seem to get along well.

5. YMMV, but the converter attached takes the TG camera out of the pocket category in my opinion. I carry the camera itself in a Pelican Micro Case, so having the converter attached is not possible. Since it is quick on/off, I just put it on when needed.

Overall I am well satisfied with this lens, given the conditional assessment in #2 above. I bought it from Olympus on sale for $110, which I think is good value. I have no interest in the fish eye conversion because after a couple of images the effect seems like just a gimmick, but there are certainly circ*mstances where the additional telephoto reach is useful. My primary interest is scenic photography, so I am usually dealing with good light. Part of my scenic photography interest is photographing railroads, and I particularly like somewhat distant train shots using a telephoto for the compression effect. Sometimes this takes some walking/scrambling/climbing through rough terrain and vegetation, and that is where a small rugged camera really shines. I think the additional focal length capability will be very useful. Any time the TG-4 goes out, the tele converter goes too. I would definitely buy it again.

I haven't tried this one, but I used to have a Minolta A1 and then the Konica-Minolta A2 and used a Minolta teleconverter and the results were usually quite good.

I'm not sure if this is the same model, but many m4/3 users use a similar/same Olympus one with their lenses and the reports are usually quite good.

One advantage of these converters is that there's no light loss, but they can be physically quite large compared to the camera.

Thank you very much for this reply. Do you have some images which you could post? Posting images is easy. Simply click the second icon from the right in the editor ("Insert Image") and in the sub menu choose "Image from your Computer". Then your browser opens a file dialog and you choose the image to post. It will get uploaded and inserted into the editor at the cursor position.

Till

If you look up "Olympus TCON-T01" on Amazon you will see the converter I am talking about. It is especially made for the Tough TG-X series, and as rugged as the camera (also dives 15 m deep). The threads of the lens/filter adapter are 40.5 mm, so the converter is around 4 cm in diameter and around 4 cm long. It is made for the tiny sensor of the TG-X cameras and it also sacrifies to cover the whole range of the TG-X internal lens, only working at its long end.

The Olympus converter used on m43 lenses is the TCON17 AFAIR, which is bigger (52 mm or 55 mm filter threads, designed for bridge cameras). The TCON-T01 is most probably too tiny for m43.

Till

Whatever.

1

Till Kamppeter wrote:

Thank you very much for this reply. Do you have some images which you could post? Posting images is easy. Simply click the second icon from the right in the editor ("Insert Image") and in the sub menu choose "Image from your Computer". Then your browser opens a file dialog and you choose the image to post. It will get uploaded and inserted into the editor at the cursor position.

Till

I can give it a shot, so let's see if this flies. Here is an image. This shows vignetting at the corners as the lens was not extended all the way (pilot error on my part). According to EXIF I was at 11.01mm (approx = to 61mm in 35mm parlance). I think something may be lost in the attachment process because the version of this that I put on my monitor screen directly from my file is sharper and without artifacts. One other base setting I use in the camera is -1/3 EV, but even at that the mountains in the distance were too faint so I had to do some work there. But, this was mid-day on a very bright, clear day, so there was a significant brightness difference between the sunlit snow and the shadow areas. CYA note: I am posting this based on a request, and only for the purpose of adding to the discussion in this thread. Even cropped, to get rid of the vignetting, it will never see the printer.

Do you have sample images of your few actual uses of the converter? Can you post them?

Till

2

Here are a few photos using the TCON01 from today. Event is Tuba Christmas in Albuquerque Old Town.

Overall I would say the image quality is good.

all the way zoomed out with the TCON01

zoomed in with the TCON01

TCON01 installed. Zoomed all the way in.

Notice shading the corners. That is because the TCON01 is installed but the zoom control is only part way zoomed in

1

Here is how the TCON-101 works as a telephoto. The montain is 7168'. I am at approx 2500', 6.5 miles away.

Thank you very much for the pictures. Seems to be all sharp, but a lot of purple fringing at edges of high contrast.

Till

Thank you very much for the picture. On the tree at the upper right one clearly sees the work of the noise filter.

Till

I know this is a VERY old thread, but I just picked up a TG-6 and wanted to know if you did get the lens, and if so, are you happy with it? Do you think its work the $$ for the extra distance?

Thanks,

Mark

KayakMark34 wrote:

I know this is a VERY old thread, but I just picked up a TG-6 and wanted to know if you did get the lens, and if so, are you happy with it? Do you think its work the $$ for the extra distance?

Thanks,

Mark

I reviewed this a while back: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4426662

It can be nice in select situations. In practice I find it a bit frustrating to constantly switch between the accessory on and off. So if I'm shooting varied scenes or out on a kayak...I don't bother using it.

If you're shooting in a more relaxed situation and know you will be targetting distant objects (like birds, landscape, etc..), it can be helpful.