OM System In-Camera 2x Teleconverter

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In this video I share my results and discuss my thoughts on an experiment I carried out find out whether or not shooting JPEGs with a built-in digital teleconverter would be any use for landscape photography. You might be quite surprised at how it turns out when I compare images from a range of lenses at their maximum focal length.
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Edited, mixed and produced with DaVinci Resolve 17.
Music by Epidemic Sound (www.epidemicsou...)

[@jeffdrew625]

A plus! A few years ago a bunch of talented photographers convinced me to shoot RAW, period! The grumpy geezer in me pushed back; JPG & RAW selected; and my world expanded! Oh my! So push the buttons on the camera and in post and have fun. Disclaimer: I’m retired and don’t do commercial work or live in my darkroom anymore! And I’m subscribing to this brilliant channel!

[@DGriffGallery]

Thanks so much Jeff, hope I can keep you entertained! 😊👍

[@Ricardo-SW]

Brilliant exposition of the digital TC. I had been indoctrinated to never use it, it was rubbish. This opens my eyes. I will have to try using the 40-150 with it turned on and see if I now have a "birding 600mm lens"!

[@danielr.sepulvedaranspilot976]

Very interesting , while everybody else tells us MFT users not to rely on the the in camera tele converter here comes your beautiful photos to make me go out and try this technic. Thanks for sharing.

[@DGriffGallery]

It's not too shabby 😊👍

[@audreypeters8921]

I have tried this on the 40-150mm with bird photography and was very impressed. I’d always heard that digital zooms are not worth using, but it certainly is impressive with Olympus when you need it. Thank you for a great experiment.

[@homesickphotographycomau4107]

worth it with 300mmf4 even with 1.4x or 2x, also up the shutter a bit and is info button and change the lens focal number eg 300mm f4 600mm f8 1200mm f8 2000mm f8

[@jasongold6751]

so wonderful to watch without crappy idiotic ads! Tele converters are useful.

[@DGriffGallery]

Cheers Jason 😊👍

[@gregm6894]

For the record, Olympus has offered the DTC Function from the original E-M5 on all OMD models, and now OM models. I have been using and preaching the benefits of the DTC for years, and generally got laughed at -- I don't really care. I use it regularly as I am a Jpeg only shooter anyway and get great results. I use it with my Olympus 100-400mm f/5-f/6.3, so at full zoom I get an FF equivalent FOV of 1600mm @f/6.3 -- that is hard to argue with, given the size and weight of the lens. Those wildlife photographers who are lucky enough to own the Olympus 150-400mm f/4.5 Pro lens, can flip on the built-in TC, with the DTC and get a crazy 2000mm @ f/5.6 equivalent! I have mine programmed to my 'Video' Button.

[@laurelb8372]

Interesting feature. Am considering 50-200 f2.8 Leica for wildlife so that DTC would be useful

[@thomasphillips5850]

Those are pretty impressive results. The fern at 600 is great, nice to know Dave that the converter can be relied on. Great video thanks as always.

[@ScottAllshouse]

I have a hunch Gavin Hardcastle's video two weeks ago prompted many to check their cameras for some type of digital teleconverter. He thought it was exclusive to his Sony. I tested my EM1.3 with the OLY 12-100 F4 Pro during a mountain hike this weekend and got great results on the resulting JPEGs. I compared these with the RAWs. I only carry the OLY 12-100 F4 Pro during my mountain hikes and assigned the digital teleconverter to the FN button on the lens. This will help me get the longer reach on the rare occasions I need it.

[@DGriffGallery]

Gavin who?! 😁👍

[@imagenatura]

I take it you are really liking the ever so small 35-100 f/4-5.6. I've sold that lens 2 times, every time thinking there's something better at that size- there isn't. Last week, I purchased it again. This time, I'm keeping it. I've done something similar with the 14mm f/2.5 and I swore I've never sell it again.

[@DGriffGallery]

I think we've all done that from time to time, sold off a lens thinking there's a better alternative for use case and ended up buying the same thing again later on. I certainly have! 😊👍

[@metalmick99]

I too, was very pleasantly surprised at the quality the digital TC yielded on my OM-1. Even more pleasing is the fact that it gives me a RAW file as well, to further process.

[@RoderickJMacdonald]

I have found that I get still better results using the digital tc with the hi res mode - even using the raw file accompanying the jpeg. Not sure if that makes sense. :-)

[@sue.Hoo123]

Funny isn’t it for years I’ve heard experienced, or professional photographers saying you should only shoot raw and preferably with prime lenses. Influenced by recommendations I bought an Olympus 40-150 f2.8 pro lens, yes it’s sharp, but I found it heavy and didn’t enjoy using it, sold it and bought Panasonic 14-140 instead, much happier with this lens, I still shoot jpg too! Too many photographers insisting you have to be a purist, so thank you for showing what great results can be had with budget lenses and using inbuilt computational tools. 👍

[@DGriffGallery]

Cheers Sue. That 14-140 isn't bad at all 😊👍

[@alangibson3293]

Just dipped my toe into MFT buying a OM-D E-M10 IV for a starter and I am loving this DTC.

[@brucegraner5901]

I've had good luck using the I-Zoom feature with the Leica V-Lux 114 bridge camera (Leica's version of the Lumix FZ1000). This zoom converter allowed the 25-400mm lens to reach the digital equivalent of 800mm's and worked surprisingly well. This is a feature that both OM Systems and Lumix should work to improve since it adds amazing versatility to their telephoto lenses with no weight gain.

[@andresalgadomarques]

Nice! Have to try that myself 👍

[@swwee88]

EM1 Mk 1 EM1 Mk II both got digital teleconverter. It's a hidden gem. Works for me. Most effective with the 40-150 f2.8 pro lens together with MC 2.0. Also works well with the 75-300mm.

[@bolleolympus]

Neither have I , used the converter as Robin Wong the guru of olympus said it was worthless so to speak. Wow, now I will give it a go! ✌✌😊😊👌👌👍👍❤❤

[@bothkindsofmusic2964]

Excellent video. I have used the digital teleconverter with the 150-400mm F4.5 Pro lens. I have set the lens to 400mm with the built in 1.25 TC. Even hand held, the results are amazing!

[@johndavies9585]

Great video, I have an OM1 and didn't know about this feature as still learning about my camera , also i was looking to buy a 1.4 or 2X converter , after seeing this i will definitely be giving it a go soon and hopefully save my self some pounds in gear weight and money . Thank you

[@DGriffGallery]

Definitely worth checking out before opting for a converter 😊👍🏻

[@JeffreyJohnsonC]

Yes. I use the E-M1 MII and it has the digital teleconverter. I only use it occasionally because I also have the 100-400mm, so don't need it much. If I want a little more reach with my 12-100mm, I will use it then sometimes.

[@danram69]

never used mine but i will be doing thanks

[@petermcginty3636]

Thank you, David. I have also used the digital teleconverter with photographing people surfing. I have used it on my OM-5 with a Lumix 100-300mm lens. I agree, perfectly acceptable shots that have made great holiday memories. 😊

[@ianparr1533]

Andy Rouse put out a video a while back enthusing about this feature, so I tried it out on some wildlife using my 40-150mm f/2.8 and E-M1 mk2. I was very pleasantly surprised at how good the results from the DTC were. As an added bonus, the zoomed-in viewfinder image that you get with the DTC enabled is a big help in getting your focus point on an animal's eye. I've now set the lens Fn button to activate the digital TC, so it's just a button push away if I need it. I'm not sure I'd use it for landscapes, but it's there if the need arises.

[@DGriffGallery]

Hi Ian, I've also added it to one of my buttons so I can quickly switch in and out of it. I have a definite use case for my particular sort of landscapes because it allows me to get far better shots of light playing on distant peaks. When you gain some elevation your line of sight can be quite extensive and often my subject material is something way off in the distance 😊👍

[@BrianHorsey]

I had read about it but was sceptical about the image quality. Next thing to get to grips with. Thanks for the prompt.

[@iqueque]

Amazing, I have been shooting with EM5 and EM1/2 for years and have never bothered to try it. Can’t wait to try. Thanks for the nudge.

[@philneath2965]

Thanks for the video. It mirrors my experience with DTC on EM5ii and comparing results side by side on the screen. I have it switched by the front button alongside the lens.

[@lesmontanjees1700]

Thanks so much for this, David! It's always been greyed out on my Lumix g85 (yes, Lumix cameras have it too) so I just ignored it. Having now switched on jpeg I've been able to give it a whirl and the results are amazingly good. I'm a birdo, monitoring shorebirds here on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, and I can use all the tele I can get from my Lumix 100-300mm when looking for photos of leg flags on small waders. Thanks a million!

[@DGriffGallery]

Happy to help! 😊👍

[@rogerhance5883]

Interesting video David. Although I have watched most of your video's, I somehow missed this one. I have recently thought about trying the Digital Tele-Converter after Mike Lanes told me he's used it for some of his bird videos.

[@DGriffGallery]

Hello Roger. Yes I came to the idea of giving it a try after watching a wildlife specialist on safari and in the UK. Can't bring to mind who it was, but it certainly gave me food for thought. 😊👍

[@barbiq7873]

Thanks for this review, David. I have an OM5 and never used the digital teleconverter but will definitely consider it in future as an alternative to the 40-150 pro which is heavy to carry when I’m out and about.

[@ericnepean]

This 2x TC feature first appeared on Panasonic cameras quite a few years ago and Olympus has copied this rather elegant idea. Most people have a poor preconception of this feature based on trying to upsize a JPG, which gives poor results, and then people start to think that perhaps it can be improved by a cleverly tuned interpolation. However if you approach this as a digital systems engineer, you realize that creating a JPG from the raw image data throws out half or more of the image data, all the fine detail that the human eye would not notice. This is what makes jpg images difficult to upscale. However, as the system designer, you are able to control all parts of the image pipeline. For a 2x digital TC, you would logically start by cropping the raw image data, and THEN do the jpg conversion, but throwing out much less of the fine detail. Finally, in the jpg file you don’t get discrete pixels, you get cosine functions that are used for interpolation by the display driver. The number of pixels is simply the interpolation limit. If the detail is present, its relatively simple to lie and say there were actually more pixels (you probably have to fudge some scale factors). This why it works for JPG and not for RAW, all that’s happening is the resolution of the DTC JPG is approaching that of the raw image. Panasonic also has a 4x digital teleconvertor setting on its cameras - the results are not nearly as good.

[@DGriffGallery]

Many thanks for your insight 😊👍

[@lyndsaywheelans]

I will have to try this. Thanks for the tip! After watching your trip to Norway series and seeing all of your beautiful images, I purchased a used lumix 35-100 f4-5.6 for just over $300 CAD. I’ve been so impressed that I can carry a 70-200 in my pocket and get some decent reach and compression in my shots. It doesn’t have quite the feel of the Oly pro. I enjoy watching your channel. Thanks again for the tips and great images.

[@DGriffGallery]

Thanks so much for watching, so glad my stuff is helpful 😊👍

[@rlrphotography-uk]

Another plus for DTC ,best with LSF jpg .Andy Rouse has a video praising the use .Has to be good if two pro Olympus togs say so LOL.

[@stephenfox5133]

Excellent video. I’ll give it a try. I like light gear so this will possibly mean I can leave a lens behind.

[@deborahhammond8576]

I have just found your channel after watching the one about the loss of your father. Sorry for your loss of course but my gain in being a new subscriber. I really enjoy your delivery and as a fairly new Oly user I found the info here very helpful

[@DGriffGallery]

Thanks so much for your kind thoughts Deborah. Also I really hope my channel will keep you entertained and informed in equal measure. Thanks so much for subscribing 😊👍

[@josephlux8961]

Bloody works! Thanks for the advice to explore elements of the OM1 that I've simply brushed away and ignored.

[@DGriffGallery]

Glad it helped! 😊👍

[@gaoldias]

Very interesting. I'd always read that the digital teleconverter was pants so like you, I never bothered to try it. I guess the lesson here is that you should try out different features on your OM/Olympus cameras and decide for yourself.

[@DGriffGallery]

Yes, I'm very glad I gave it a try. Only wish I'd done it years ago! 😊👍

[@normstangl3499]

Yes, the E-M1 Mark II & III both have it. I’ve never tried it either. I wonder how upscaling a raw file in Lr or Ps would look in comparison? I’ll have to test that out. I’ve had that feature set on ignore in my brain, but you’ve given me cause to check it out. Our M43 cameras are little wonders.

[@sbcwinn]

What an interesting video. I will try the built in teleconverter and give it a go! BTW - I subscribed. Thanks for the video.

[@DGriffGallery]

Thanks for the sub! 😊👍

[@WillieJarlNilsen]

Greetings Dave. The jpeg quality with Olympus/OMD has a very good reputation, so I am not surprised with your results. In fact, I have used the digital converter for some time now, particularly when out and not having a tele lens with me. Sometimes also even when I do have the telephoto lens. So far I have been happy with the results. I also recommend to give it a try. Best wishes.

[@DGriffGallery]

Hi Willie, hope you're all well. Good idea, that, and I'll definitely try it out when I can't be bothered to switch out to a longer lens. Let's have a proper catch up soon. I'm away on business in London all week, but will give you shout next weekend if that's convenient? 😊👍

[@Brock_in_the_North]

Another landscape photographer, Henry Turner, has also moved over to an OM System camera. Popularity is rising for the format it seems. One thing I don't get on this subject is that my it's nature, 4/3 sensors are quite zoomed in by full frame standards, woukd you really need more. Also the sensors are not the best by comparison so surly digital zoom would look very "digital" and take the natural look away from the image. I think without seeing it for myself and comparing it to the image quality of what I have now, it would be difficult to have an opinion on it.

[@desgardner7169]

Amazing! all I have on my out of date camera is a digital zoom and its quite poor so I don't use it, if necessary I will pop a 1.7 converter on which is very good, but to be honest I don't use converters very often. Getting back to modern cameras, if it's on there it should be good! your results will save a bit of room in your backpack and it's certainly worth giving it a mention to your students.....thank you I found that most interesting.

[@DGriffGallery]

Cheers, Des 😊👍

[@Peteryzhang]

I'm a birder and I'm using the m.zuiko 100-400mm telephoto lens, but here in my location birds are very skittish , but as I watched all those videos, almost no one recommended the 2x in camera teleconverter, I tried once but didn't stick to it, it seems work fine. I may try it again.

[@DGriffGallery]

Definitely worth another go even if just to confirm it's not for you 😊👍

[@Peteryzhang]

Yes and thanks ! @@DGriffGallery

[@SteveZodiac777]

Very handy facility - wish my Sony had it!

[@cristibaluta]

You have super 35 or smth, not quite 2x though.

[@gordon3988]

Actually I was quite impressed with how well that worked…and maybe the dirty window added something too! Unrelated, but you recorded this on a G7 and Rx100 (x…)? Looked good!

[@DGriffGallery]

Hi, no the RX100 is my just permanent webcam for business meetings and recording the Photography Pubcast. The G7 is all I'm using for office video, as I can pair with a nice wide prime such as the 9mm Leica in this case 😊👍

[@53HB]

Starting using this a couple of weeks ago for birding . My go to set up is OM1 +300f4 +1.4 tc so 420mm x 2 = 840mm effective @ f5.6 using the digital tc makes it 1680 mm effective @ f5.6 . Great if you want to frame fill with small birds . Think I need to grefine my jpg settings in camera but it’s working a treat so far

[@UnluckyNewbie]

What AF mode you use? I found that if i use OM-1 with 300 F4 + MC-14 + C-AF-Tracking my Sync IS is not good at all - if bird is near you (3 to 6-7 meters) and it have a busy background if i half press shutter - IS is working but it's really shaky in close range - My IS setting is set to "Auto Sync IS", my AF Sensitivity set to +2. Do you have same problems with stabilisation in that mode? Of Course i have last firmware for camera and lens.

[@53HB]

@@UnluckyNewbie the mistake your making is using bird I.d + caf+ trk .. turn off the tracking as OMS have stated that bird I.d and trk work against each other . ..

[@UnluckyNewbie]

@@53HB you have same bad stabilization if you enable c-af and tracking ?

[@53HB]

@@UnluckyNewbie look the recommended setting is caf+bird i.d DO NOT USE TRACKING I have no idea why it doesn't work but turn off tracking and it does

[@UnluckyNewbie]

@@53HB thank you I try soon

[@richardfink7666]

Btw. the photos are upscaled to 20MP in the camera!

[@tonysvensson8314]

You´ll get better results if you use Topas gigapixel in the post production. I´ve stopped using teleconverter (optical or digital) after i did a comparison on a static subject besides a test chart ( with the om-1 + 40-150/2,8 on a tripod). Gigapixel was at least as good as the Olympus 1,4 tc but with the benefit of half the shutterspeed!!! When I tried the built in convererter i experiensed it as rubbish compared to a optical tc or Gigapixel.

[@GrumpyOldMan9]

The Tele converter works perfectly, but of course, it doesn't bring the DOF reduction of an actual focal length increase.

[@malcolmwright6948]

The first micro four thirds camera I had was the EM10 mk3. It had the digital teleconverter. So, it's been around for a while. I'm not sure how long Olympus cameras have had it.

[@davestokes3446]

Interesting, but I have to ask: have you tried just taking the RAW image and using the LR enhance function?

[@DGriffGallery]

Yes of course. And, I use that method more frequently because many of my images end up quite cropped. however, I wouldn't make the assumption that everybody has / uses LR or actually want to use LR even if they have it. So I was just giving another option here with this video for those people. 😊👍

[@alex-reay]

That’s great to see. It’s on the E-M5 II, used it a couple of times and thought it’s not too bad at all. Can it be used in conjunction with high res mode on your OM5?

[@DGriffGallery]

Hi, yes it can 😊👍

[@scarcesense6449]

I'm not quite sure what electronic wizardry cameras are doing internally these days but even my crappy old coolpix gained quite a bit of detail with the digital zoom. (I assume a digital teleconverter is just a rebranding of digital zoom?) The only issue was manually stitching my 16 frames of the moon back together rather than just having a single raw image out of camera. It was better, but probably not worth the hassle, and the daily use case for an 8000mm equivalent lens is fairly limited.

[@DGriffGallery]

Yes, you're probably right that the underlying technology is similar, although with a teleconverter there isn't a zoom range. And I think this contributes to the higher quality output since the programming only needs to cater for a specific focal length multiplier. My past experience with digital zoom were that the results were pretty much unusable. 😊👍

[@malcolmmeddings8502]

I have used the digital converter off and on on my Olympus for a while and have always been pleasantly surprised by the results. I assumed that the results would be the same as taking a crop, but if anything they seem a little better if anything. Do you know if the camera just makes the crop on the sensor, or does it up-scale the result in-camera?

[@DGriffGallery]

Hello Malcolm, I can't be absolutely certain, but I'm not sure it would make any difference between the sensor only being deployed on a 2X reduction basis, or the full sensor being deployed and the crop being carried out no the RAW by the processor. That's because the output JPEG is still at the same standard dimensions, therefore there is some electronic pixel interpolation going on in either scenario. 😊👍

[@michaelknibbs]

I too thought that this would be a waste of time, and cropping raw would be better. But the JPEG is a bigger file, and Olympus engineers do some magic that produces a pretty good cropped image - better than interpolating my cropped image of the same file. You make a good point about the feature not losing a stop. I would say that in good light, the extender on a matched lens is better. But I can use this on wider lenses that won’t take an extender. Also, am I wrong in thinking that the lens is less prone to shake than the extended? Maybe not as the magnified section is effectively a longer focal length? Hmm….

[@DGriffGallery]

You might be right about shake, but the legendary Olympus IBIS takes care of that for me. I can easily shoot up to 4 or 5 seconds handheld if I'm not getting too buffeted by wind 😊👍

[@michaelknibbs]

@@DGriffGallery Agreed. I’m staggered by the IBIS. I was inside a Mexican mission, not wanting to take a tripod inside. Shot some photos at 1/2 second and 200 iso. They were better than the higher iso shots at 1/30 and 1/60. I’d never have done this with my FF canon. (And please, folks don’t tell me I would not need to because the FF dynamic range is better - not the point).

[@zahngoodard3713]

There’s one in the omdem10 mark iv

[@davidrutledge1455]

And on the EM10 II

[@DGriffGallery]

I've never owned any of the e-M10 series so thanks for the update 😊👍

[@katharinemovertonphotographer]

I use it when I am Videoing i have it set on a custom button and it brings the image closer

[@cristibaluta]

Isn't it just a crop from the raw, or it actually enlarges the image too? Because it sounds unproductive, you are gonna scale it back down for social media. I also doubt that olympus discovered some magical scaling algorithm that is better than photoshop or smth.

[@DGriffGallery]

Yes it obviously starts life as a crop but is then scaled up in camera. And, of course, not everyone has PS. I sceptical, but proved wrong to be so by the results 😊👍

[@Swaggerlot]

It highlights that people should spend more time to learn how to use their tools for when they might need them

[@DGriffGallery]

😊👍

[@paulmorgan6269]

So David your going up into the hills carrying a dirty window ??? Lol.

[@frstesiste7670]

A dirty window is a great equalizer!

[@paulmorgan6269]

I'm just trying to be light hearted. A bit of fun.@@frstesiste7670

[@DGriffGallery]

Well, it sort of comes to the same thing when I forget to polish my filters! 😂👍

[@MrDunk66]

I set my red video buttons to the digTC on all my bodies. Don’t shoot video.

[@DGriffGallery]

Yes, I've also added it to a button for quick access 😊👍

[@cristibaluta]

That stpd button doesn't act as a video start even if you're in the video mode, i can't understand what olympus was thinking at.

[@frankstark3036]

Next time open the window