the sardonic iconic
Veteran
So I bought one one of those old, solid metal and glass 1.5x tele-conversion lenses on ebay:
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Untitled by the_sardonic_iconic, on Flickr
In terms of looks, what it lacks in discretion, it more than over-compensates in hilarious bad-assery. I wanted a larger one with a 58mm thread in order to eliminate any vignetting/blackout in the resulting image.
This was an exercise mainly in curiosity, knowing that the optical elements in these kinds of "converters" aren't exactly made to work perfectly with a precision instrument like the X100S. However, given my overall shooting style and philosophy of "aesthetic over technical perfection" I thought it may be worth a shot to have a quick and quirky 50mm-equiv perspective on the X100S. I'm also not a believer of shooting test shots and controlled environments, I'm much more interested in how equipment will perform in the environments and situations I intend to use them. The following are samples from a shoot I had yesterday with Sasha @ Wilhelmina:
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My overall thoughts is that this isn't some magical 50mm lens solution for the X100S. It has it's quirks. Namely, only the VERY CENTER of the frame is sharp. I'm no pixel peeper and actually go out of my way to introduce imperfections in my images... but even for me it's a bit too soft outside of the center. With that said, the added blur/shift of the teleconverter lends itself well to my shooting style, so the main challenge is composing interesting images with the focal point in the very center of the image. Also, from my non-scientific tests, you're only losing about 1/3rd of a stop of light with the converter on. Conclusion: It's mostly quirky, and only semi-useful.
The rest of the images from this shoot can be see in my X100/X100S Fashion Portraiture thread.
View attachment 12320
Untitled by the_sardonic_iconic, on Flickr
In terms of looks, what it lacks in discretion, it more than over-compensates in hilarious bad-assery. I wanted a larger one with a 58mm thread in order to eliminate any vignetting/blackout in the resulting image.
This was an exercise mainly in curiosity, knowing that the optical elements in these kinds of "converters" aren't exactly made to work perfectly with a precision instrument like the X100S. However, given my overall shooting style and philosophy of "aesthetic over technical perfection" I thought it may be worth a shot to have a quick and quirky 50mm-equiv perspective on the X100S. I'm also not a believer of shooting test shots and controlled environments, I'm much more interested in how equipment will perform in the environments and situations I intend to use them. The following are samples from a shoot I had yesterday with Sasha @ Wilhelmina:
View attachment 12322
View attachment 12324
View attachment 12326
View attachment 12327
View attachment 12329
View attachment 12331
View attachment 12333
My overall thoughts is that this isn't some magical 50mm lens solution for the X100S. It has it's quirks. Namely, only the VERY CENTER of the frame is sharp. I'm no pixel peeper and actually go out of my way to introduce imperfections in my images... but even for me it's a bit too soft outside of the center. With that said, the added blur/shift of the teleconverter lends itself well to my shooting style, so the main challenge is composing interesting images with the focal point in the very center of the image. Also, from my non-scientific tests, you're only losing about 1/3rd of a stop of light with the converter on. Conclusion: It's mostly quirky, and only semi-useful.
The rest of the images from this shoot can be see in my X100/X100S Fashion Portraiture thread.