thoughts on teleconverters for RB67

[mikeklensch]

Greetings all,

I'm a landscape photographer in Alaska, and there are times when it sure would be nice to have a long lens for my RB67... longer than the 180mm lens that I currently have. I have considered the 360, but it would be nice not to have to carry around another large lens for those infrequent times when I want that extra reach. So I've been thinking about an extender. Speed is not a factor for me since it's all landscape work on a tripod. But how much would the image quality suffer in comparison to a 360 lens?

Any experience or thoughts are appreciated.

Mike

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I had a Komura extender for Bronica, which comes in other mounts, including Mamiya I think, and I didn't really care for it and sold it eventually. I've got lenses as long as 500mm for my S2a, so I just carry a long lens when I need one.

 

[Xmas]

The extender is a lot lighter then a 360, the loss on performance, is not significant if you dont want posters, if you want posters, it is weight lifting time...

Noel

 

[keithwms]

I have the 360. It's okay. But I would pass on it and get the 350 KL apo. I am not dogging the old 360, I use it, but it's definitely not the most impressive in the lineup.

Putting a TC on the 180 is also not what I would recommend, though of course it can be done. I would look out for the 210 KL apo, this is one of the very sharpest lenses in the rb collection, it is the shortest of the apo lenses. Just put it on your wishlist and thank me later! The lens is so good that you will have two good options for longer focal length: you can use a TC and still have credible sharpness... or, you can simply use a 645 back or crop in for effective focal length extension.

I use a Kenko 2x TC on the rb and it's fine. It's not a disaster at all. It's just slow as heck and the lens + TC is really long so it becomes a stability issue if your tripod mount is under the camera. But most of the time it's okay.

I decided recently to use the RB for wide/semiwide stuff and just pick up a 645 AFD for long. Then I got a 200 apo and a 500mm lens for the 645 for peanuts. Next I'll have a TC for the 500....

There is a 500 apo for the rb that now goes for under $2k, that is amazing. But you have to bear in mind that you can't do faster than 1/400 sec with the rb lenses because they are leaf-shuttered, that is a huge limitation for shooting long. So the 645 is, I believe, the wiser option for long and superlong. You need focal length but you also need lens speed and shutter speed and overall stability. Even on a tripod.

 

[mikeklensch]

Thank you all for your feedback. And I have also thought about just using 645 for the long images like Keith mentioned. I have Mamiya 645 systems, and I considered getting the 500mm f/5.6 lens and leaving the RB for wider stuff. I think this might be the best option. Still, I'll have to take a peek at that 210 KL

Thanks again,
Mike