Lumix FZ35 Tele-converter DMW LT55

My last posting was on 19 June. I had spent most of the time experimenting with purchases on eBay and Amazon.

The Lumix FZ35 is a SuperZoom Bridge camera (with design features from the SLRs and the sensor from the standard compact cameras). The small sensor size and the excellent Leica lens gave the standard zoom on the FZ35 as 18X from 27 - 486mm (using the 35mm SLR standard measurement). The photo below was taken from my window at 27mm wide-angle. Although Mt Kinabalu is in the far background, our subject will be Wisma Khidmat (in the red circle).



Setting the resolution to 3 megapixels, and using the extra optical zoom feature can extend the telephoto end to 35.2X (35mm equivalent of 949mm). The photo below was taken at the full zoom of 949mm.



This made the Lumix FZ35 a very comprehensive digital camera (wide angle to full zoom, RAW format, full exposure or shutter priority ...) in a very small package.



Of course, there are limitations due to the tiny sensor size. Panasonic does sell extra accessories like the macro-converter (for close ups) and a tele-converter (for extra telephoto). An adapter ring is required. I decided to buy the tele-converter only, since I had not taken many close-up shots so far. I bought the tele-converter (DMW LT55) online from Amazon UK. It was sent via UPS and took a week to get here. Camera and equipment are duty free and do not attract any sales tax.



I bought the adapter (DMW LA3) on eBay from a guy in Tokyo. It was sent via Japan Post/PosLaju and took 2 weeks to get here. Both items were brand new. The adapter is basically an empty steel tube (required since the zoom lens of the camera extends out). The tele-converter is basically a "magnifying glass", of course with proper optical glass and coatings to preserve the image quality (so best to buy the Panasonic ones).



The tele-converter gave a magnification ration of 1.7X. The photo below is the full zoom plus the tele-converter (at the SLR equivalent of 1613mm).



Of course, the whole set-up, with the adapter and tele-converter attached, was much more unwieldy. It showed again "You can't get something for nothing".



So buying stuff online and getting it here was quite an adventure (for me at least) and showed that global business had truly progressed very far. I estimated that I got these two items for about 70% of the price in KL.