What are the pros and cons of converter lenses?

by Tim
(Boston, MA)

I found a package online for a Nikon D90 that says it comes with 4 lenses. The first lens is a standard zoom Nikon lens and the second is a telephoto zoom lens. However the other two lenses that it advertises with this package are converter lenses - one being a wide angle converter lens and the other being a 2x telephoto converter lens. It says that these sit over your lens system to change the zoom range of your existing lens.

I have never seen these before. Do these still produce a quality image or is this somewhat of a cheap alternative to purchasing a better lens?

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What are the pros and cons of converter lenses?

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Aug 13, 2009

Have not heard of this
by: Digital SLR Guide

While I have heard of converters for COMPACT digital camera lenses, I have never heard of ones for digital SLR lenses.

Typically converter lenses are used to get more range out of the fixed lens included on a compact camera, but aren't necessary with an SLR lens since the entire lens can be switched out.

While I would be dubious about the optical quality of these types of converter lenses, if you could provide the actual model numbers, this might help me to find out more information about them.

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