EF Core Value Converter Usage: Type vs Instance

Question

I have a simple value converter (ValueConverter<List<string>, string>) for a property. The code is not important, but it turns a semicolon delimited list of strings into a string array. I want to apply it to a List<string> property so that my colon-delimited database-stored column can be turned into an array of strings in .NET. If I apply it like this, it works:

builder.Property(x => x.Pictures)
    .HasColumnName("Pictures")
    .HasColumnType("nvarchar(max)")
    .HasConversion(new SemicolonValuesConverter());

But if I apply it like this, it doesn't:

builder.Property(x => x.Pictures)
    .HasColumnName("Pictures")
    .HasColumnType("nvarchar(max)")
    .HasConversion<SemicolonValuesConverter>();

Class SemicolonValuesConverter is public, has a public parameterless constructor and inherits from ValueConverter<List<string>, string>. As I said, it works just fine if I pass an instance, but not if I pass the type.

The error I get is:

System.InvalidOperationException: The property 'Venue.Pictures' is of type 'List< string >' which is not supported by the current database provider. Either change the property CLR type, or ignore the property using the '[NotMapped]' attribute or by using 'EntityTypeBuilder.Ignore' in 'OnModelCreating'.