Canon TL-H43 Tele-Converter Lens for the Canon HV Series Camcorders Review

If you are considering this lens, you should know four things about it to avoid disappointment:

1) It's large and heavy enough to change the balance of the camcorder -- it's the same weight as the WD-H43 Canon wide angle teleconverter, about which you read the same comments.

2) It will block the edges of the field when you zoom out. That is, some of the image will be black when you zoom out. Because of this, you will need to remove the teleconverter for near or large subjects.

3) Color fringes at high-contrast edges will be larger, and the TL-H43 reduces color saturation and shifts the color balance. If you see color fringes around objects such as branches and roofs without the teleconverter, they will be larger with it.

4) Use of a serious tripod is almost mandatory with the TL-H43. The HV20's image stabilization is clearly optimized for the standard lens, and the use of this teleconverter results in not just the normal amplification of image movement, but also a stuttering kind of image distortion, possibly related to the interframe compression used by high-definition camcorders. The HV20 needs a very stable platform to yield good results with the teleconverter.

Despite these limitations, I've been reasonably satisfied with the TL-H43 and continue to use it for birds and distant subjects. Quite to my surprise and amazement, I was able to capture Jupiter's four Galilean moons with it -- not bad for eleven ounces of glass. But don't expect the TL-H43 to break the laws of physics and give you perfect images, either, or you will be disappointed.

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