Horseman 2x Teleconverter .... Why wont't it work?

[Ted Harris]

I have long been intrigued by this beast. I know it has mixed reviews but I wanted to try one. Finally got my hands on one to play with and I am totally baffled. I cannot get it to focus, no matter what I do! I will call Steve Inglema at Schneider on Monday when he returns to the office if no one else can help but for now here is where I am:



First I mounted the teleconverter on the back of a 150 Apo Symmar per its instructions (and there does not seem to be any way to do this wrong). Then I mounted the lensboard on my Horseman FA. Could not get it to focus at infinity at maximum bellows draw or anywhere else along the way. Then I read in the photo.net archives that this is not really a teleconverter but rather a long lens converter that requires 290 mm of draw. That would explain my problem since the Horseman FA has a maximum of 272 mm of draw with the back fully extended. However, that sounds awfully odd as Horseman makes the converter to work with their field cameras! The Horseman catalogue sheds no further light.



That wasn’t the end of it. I already had my 300 mm Fuji A mounted on my Horseman 450 in the studio so I just swapped lenses assuming with some fine focusing I would zero right in. Wrong, again I could not get the lens focused. I thought maybe I had a defective optic and I happened to have two of em so I swapped for the other one … same results.



I am sure there is something simple and obvious that I am missing and will be everlastingly grateful to anyone who has ever used one of these and has an answer.

[Ted Harris]

Problem solved ... simple but counter intuitive at least for me. You leave the 150mm's rear element in place! BTW first eyeball view of the polaroids say that the 2x, while a bit softer than the Fuji 300A, is still quite acceptable and might be very pleasing for portraits.

[lauriegriffiths]

Thanks for this! Just bought one without instructions and couldn't make it focus. Thought I was being stupid. Just to clarify, screw the adaptor in the back after removing the rear element and then screw the element in before attaching the x2 element.

[ic-racer]

Problem solved ... simple but counter intuitive at least for me. You leave the 150mm's rear element in place! BTW first eyeball view of the polaroids say that the 2x, while a bit softer than the Fuji 300A, is still quite acceptable and might be very pleasing for portraits.

Yes, the lens unit will be really long without the rear element. So it focuses with the 150 on the FA?
I have a bunch of Horseman gear, but not that item (yet... ).

[ic-racer]

Yes, the lens unit will be really long without the rear element. So it focuses with the 150 on the FA?
I have a bunch of Horseman gear, but not that item (yet... ).

Actually, I now have a Horseman Teleconverter (attached to the back of a Horseman LF 150) coming in the mail! We will see how it works on the FA.