Extenders for 28-135 IS

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I really like my 28-135IS, but would like to reach out to 300mm. I have been considering the 75-300IS but opinions on the internet are not too positive, and I did not really like the lens when I tried it in the store. So, is there an extender out there which works with the 28-135IS? If so would you recommend this solution, and if not, what would work better for $500?

Thanks,

Ian Fraser

-- Ian Fraser (frasers@erols.com), February 21, 2002

Answers

Canon's teleconverters won't fit it. You'd have to go with a third party TC.

Putting a 2x TC on the 28-135 would get you to 270mm, but it would then be an f/11 lens since the TC would cost you two stops. That probably won't autofocus (maybe it would if you have an EOS 3 or 1V) and the viewfinder will be too dim to see well for manual focus. The optical quality would not be very good either.

The Canon 75-300 zooms are about as good as anyone else's, and the IS is nice for this zoom range. Sigma's APO version is only very slightly better. The other Sigma, Tokina and Tamron lenses aren't any better optically than the Canon. Canon's recently discontinued 100-300 f/5.6L is better, but it feels clunky. The Canon 100-300 USM f/4.5-5.6 feels much better and focuses faster, but the optics are about the same as the 75-300's.

Sigma and Tokina make 100-300 f/4 zooms that are said to be sharper and are well liked, but are priced above your budget I believe. So is Canon's very nice 100-400 USM IS f/5.6L.

Doesn't leave you with many choices. The Canon 100-300L, 100-300 USM or any of the 75-300's. They really are your best choices under 500.

One other option though is to get Canon's 70-200 f/4 with a 1.4x TC. This blows your budget, but it will give you nice images out to 280mm.

-- Jim Strutz (j.strutz@gci.net), February 21, 2002.


I would point out that weak although the 75-300 IS is, it will still perform much better than the 28-135 would with a third-party TC on it.

$500 is very nearly in the territory of the 70-200 F4L USM, which you would love. If you can't afford that, my choice would definately be the 100-300 USM.

-- Isaac Sibson (isibson@hotmail.com), February 22, 2002.


I went through the same thing (looking for a cheap way to make one lens do it all) before I the 100-400 zoom existed. I bought a Tamron 2x converter and took a few pics with it. Amusing, but not really useful. 270mm and f/11 is really quite useless. The viewfinder on the Elan was too dim to see much, which makes it really hard to manual focus, and shutter speeds quick enough to be useful are rarely possible. A really cheap 70-200 (I think that is the cheap one that matches the 28-80) would be a lot more useful.

-- Les Gyug (Les_gyug@telus.net), February 22, 2002.

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