- Produced 1980s? Kino Corp., Japan
- Mount Konica A/R
- Focal length 2x
- Aperture range n/a
- Focal range n/a
- Filter thread n/a
- Elements 7
- Aperture blades n/a
- Weight
- Multicoated
- M – EE switch for manual or AE (EE)
Overview
7-element MC doubler for Konica A/R mount by cult favorite Kino/Kiron, who are primarily known for making the best of the famous Vivitar Series 1 lenses. They made very nice lenses for Konica, Nikon, Canon, and Olympus under the Kiron name after they gained some following with the early Series 1 lenses.
A doubler like this is the kind that people who don’t trust doublers to work well use. However, to me the point of having a 2x converter is so that you don’t have to carrys a big prime lens, and this one is already nearly as big as my Tamron 90mm, so I have to wonder when you might use this. I wouldn’t bother putting it on a 50mm, I’d consider putting it on a 100mm or 200mm with a tripod if I was out shooting candids from farther away than expected.
Think I’ll do a 7-element vs 3-element 2x shootout and see what results.
Usage
Attach the converter to the camera, then the lens to the converter. To remove, do the reverse. It’s more difficult to take the 2x off the lens than to take the lens off the 2x. Besides the loss of two whole f-stops, the other thing to consider is that the handholding rule of thumb is to shoot at 1/focal-length as the slowest shutter speed, eg 1/60 if you’re handholding and shooting a normal 50mm lens. Add a 2x and your focal length becomes 100mm, suddenly you should be shooting at 1/125 or faster to avoid camera shake. Add the 2x to your 200mm and… get your travel tripod out!