Canon TC-DC58B Tele Converter Lens for S5 IS, S3 IS & S2 IS Digital Camera

by Canon

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4.1 x 3.8 x 3.6 inches ; 8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0009NEUOA
• Item model number: TCDC58B
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 10, 2005

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Need more telephoto zoom for your Canon digital camera? Turn to the Canon TC-DC58B teleconverter lens, which converts the focal distance of your body lens by a factor of 1.5x when attached to a Canon S5 IS, S3 IS, and S2 IS digital camera. The teleconverter lens is ideal for shooting distant subjects that you do not want to disturb, such as children, pets, and wildlife.

• Magnification: 1.5x
• Rear mount diameter: 58mm
• Front mount diameter: None
• Construction: 5 elements in 3 groups
• Dimensions: 2.8 inches in diameter and 2.6 inches long
• Weight: 6 ounces

Product Description

Bring those far away subjects in close. The TC-DC58B converts the focal length of the body lens by a factor of approximately 1.5 (35 mm film equivalent at maximum telephoto: approximately 648 mm) when attached. Requires Conversion Lens Adapter LAH-DC20

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

458 of 460 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice, sharp, and clean., July 11, 2005

By 

Jim Krupnik "jkrupnik" (Watchung, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Canon TC-DC58B Tele Converter Lens for S5 IS, S3 IS & S2 IS Digital Camera (Electronics)

I was surprised at the heft of this tele converter when it arrived. It comes in a pullstring pouch that offers reasonable protection in a camera bag, purse, or other similar carying case and will hold the lens while attached to the required adapter. It also comes with a lens cap for each end. The converter has a high quality look and feel throughout, and as with the lens hood included in the inexpensive adapter kit (required), the mounting threads are cut accurately enough that the lettering on the lens and hood all line up perfectly at the top of the assembly. It looks as I would expect from Canon, which is to say, instrument quality.

OK, looks don't make good pictures, so here is the rest of the story. The body is made of tough, lightweight materials (FRP?, polycarbonate?), so what you feel when you take the lens out of the case is the weight of several glass elements. The glass coating is well done, as pictures are nice and contrasty. Flare and distortion are minimal, and on par with a quality SLR offering. The base lens on the S2 is fairly fast, and doesn't suffer from defects at maximum telephoto, so this converter was built to complement that quality, and it does a fine job. As a matter of fact, the converter lens is optimized to supplement only the telephoto portion of the main camera lens range, At less than moderate telephoto settings, you end up with a view of the back end of the converter lens, and not much else.

Used as intended, it gives you the ability to use your 5 mp sensor to take spectacular 650 mm telephoto shots with incredible sharpness, color, and detail. There is no comparison to digital zoom at all. This lens alows you to "reach out and touch someone" while using every pixel your sensor has available, and without adding eyeball noticable distortion at all. On top of that, the image stabilizer in the camera lets you shoot 650 mm telephoto pictures handheld in reasonable lighting conditions. Check out the price of a 600 mm image stabilized lens for an SLR and get back to me after you recover. Sure, having a $5,000 SLR body/lens combo will win the comparison at a lab bench, and might be a stop faster (only on the high end though), but the S2/teleconverter combo lets you take far better and more creative pics than the classic 35 mm with a mirror tele lens can ever offer. Further cropping the photos on your computer later will simply amaze you. For the price, it's a must have item. It also catches the action on the field in movie mode from the nosebleed seats at the stadium.

It is a big lens, and will make your S2 look as though it must be an SLR, but the combination of S2 and teleconverter is light enough (compared to an SLR) to carry all day long in a desert without a problem. It offers the digicam prosumer quality glass reach that used to be reserved for higher end SLR's. For what it adds to your photographic range, it's cheap, too.

One suggestion. The lens adapter/lens hood combo you need to mount any of the three converter lenses Canon offers is dirt cheap. The combo sells for around 26 bucks everywhere. The adapter attaches to the camera with a push button release bayonet mount, is quick to change, and feels very secure. The adapter also takes 58 mm filters of all kinds, and I like to keep a UV filter mounted on my camera for the improvement in contrast it offers, and to protect the camera lens from damage (I dropped my S2 this past weekend, and the Hoya UV filter took the fall. It dented, but didn't break). Anyway, because they are so cheap, I suggest getting one for the S2, and each converter lens you buy. That way, you can switch lenses in an instant, and keep the front of each lens protected with it's own UV filter and/or hood. Oh yes. A good circular polorizer filter really kills glare, and brings out contrast with any lens under many typical shooting conditions. The tele-converter lens does not have front threads to mount filters (most don't), but I made an adapter by mounting a 72 mm UV filter to a 7/16" long cardboard masking tape core with an inside diamerter that slipped snugly over the end of the tele-converter. Prior to gluing the UV filter to the tube section, I painted the tube flat black. Now, the circular polorizer (or any other 72 mm filter attaches to the adapter, looks like it belongs there, and works perfectly.

I think you will enjoy this converter as much as I do. Good shooting.

80 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very nice....., September 4, 2005

By 

Morley Dotes "morleydotes" (Flushing, New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Canon TC-DC58B Tele Converter Lens for S5 IS, S3 IS & S2 IS Digital Camera (Electronics)

Jim K. made a great review.....I just wanted to let you know that I agree. This is great. It is very light weight. The only reason why I gave it 4 stars is that you need to zoom a bit or else you get a burnout effect (a circle where the corners are dark because it is getting the inside of the lens). That is annoying, and forces you to remove the extender when you want to take closer photos. At a distance though, it is great. Pictures come out great. I highly recommend this.....I would have given it 4.5 stars if it were an option.

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars OK, but not around the edges, January 3, 2007

By 

Adam (Southern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Canon TC-DC58B Tele Converter Lens for S5 IS, S3 IS & S2 IS Digital Camera (Electronics)

This extends the zoom lens of the Canon S3IS to about 650mm according to Canon. The image is good in the center but chromatic aberrations are very evident away from the center. I photograph birds in trees or in flight. The effect of the aberrations make the branches or wings have red or blue edges. If I confine my expectations to the center things look good but I have thrown away some otherwise decent photos when the desired image is not well centered. If you're photographing moving objects this is a problem.
I will continue to use it to pull in the long range scenes. Overall I rate this a plus.