Nikon Teleconverters

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I just bought my first new SLR in 15 years. I chose the Nikon N80 and opted for a AF 28-80 lens with the battery grip. I was looking into getting a fixed focal legnth 300mm telephoto, and with the prices being what they are, I will have to save my pennies :) But in the meantime I was going to try to cover the middle ground with a teleconverter, maybe the tc - 14E II or the TC - 20E II (although the aperature drawback on this one makes me lean to the 1.4). Has anyone worked with these? There's got to be a drawback, is there difficulty with ghosting or flaring? The pros I'm aware of are the definite savings in price and the compatibility with the AF lenses, but what are the cons? I'm a big fan of the forum and have learned (and relearned) a lot. Thanks in advance guys!

-- Kym Mory (rmory@new.rr.com), February 03, 2002

Answers

Hi Kym,

Neither the TC-14E nor the TC-20E is what you need. Both of these (either the original forms or the new II models) are designed for use only with AF-I lenses (quite rare) and AF-S lenses (quite new).

If you want to use 300mm focal length and have to watch your budget, I feel you would be better served by Nikon's 70-300mm f/4-5.6 ED telezoom lens. This is a mid-price lens, well cheaper than either of the teleconverters you mention. (Not knowing where you live in cyberspace, I looked in the price list from B&H in NYC -- they are selling it for USD 300 less a USD 70 rebate.) In terms of optical quality, such a mid range zoom will be better than the kit lens that came with your camera, and not as good as fixed focal length lenses. (Nikon also makes a cheaper 70-300 without ED glass; since ED glass is there to minimize colour fringing at the long end, this is probably not a good idea for you.)

An aperture of f/5.6 at 300mm is OK in good light but, if 300mm is important to you, you will want the wider apertures and better optical quality of a fixed focal length lens. Nikon's 300mm f/4 costs about USD 600 secondhand, and you don't want to know how much a 300mm f/2.8 costs!

If you're sure that you want a teleconverter, then don't tell anyone I said this, but you're probably best off with something like the Kenko Pro 300 converters in Nikon AF-D fit.

Later

Dr Owl

-- John Owlett (owl@postmaster.co.uk), February 03, 2002.

Dr. Owl, I had been looking at the zoom, but from everything I'd read and my own, albeit old, experience, there were 2 major drawbacks: One is the aperature (long dark lens) as I do mostly nature and wildlife photos. Usually I use iso 200 and below, which would require a much longer exposures. Yes, I know what the 300mm f/2.8 sells for (ouch!) But maybe your compromise would be best. I've never used the teleconverters, and I guess I would be safer to stay away from them until I familiarize myself with the Nikon line. (My old piece was a Ricoh SLR) The f/4 70-300 is much cheaper than the current tele, and if I wanted to I suppose I could always play around with filters. Cheaper in. But I really thought the image quality would suffer. Off to B&H I go. ANYTHING online is cheaper than it is in Wisconsin. Thanks! Kym

-- Kym Mory (rmory@new.rr.com), February 04, 2002.
Hallo again, Kym,

If you want to learn about Nikon teleconverters, I can give you a quick rundown that'll get you started.

Once upon a time, teleconverters were seen as being a way of saving money, and Nikon didn't make them. From other companies there were 2x converters which gave you twice the focal length at the cost of 2 stops and some picture quality; and there were 3x converters which gave you three times the focal length at the cost of 3 stops and a lot of picture quality. The impossibility of making a really good general-purpose 2x converter came from the physical nature of lenses: up to short telephoto, the rear element of a lens is right at the back, so the teleconverter's front element has to be set back to avoid hitting it; and at long telephoto, the rear element of the lens is deep in the barrel, so the teleconverter's front element has to stick right out to avoid vignetting.

Then it became clear that if you tailored the teleconverter to the lens, you would lose little picture quality with a 2x converter, and virtually none with a 1.4x converter. (Nikon has never been able to bring itself to make a 3x converter!) So, if you were looking for a fast 300mm lens, you could buy a 300mm f/2 lens with the matching TC-14C converter. The only snag being the cost of about USD 20,000 for the pair!

For ordinary mortals, Nikon decided to make 4 converters. The set currently on sale (for Nikon's AI-S manual-focus lenses) is

These work perfectly well with AF lenses too ... but the combination is, of course, manual focus. And your N80 won't meter with manual focus lenses, which is why I didn't suggest them for you. Nikon's new converters -- the TC-14E and TC-20E -- are AF-S converters and will fit on only six current lenses: The only one of these that is more than a dream for me is the 300mm f/4. This costs USD 880 new at B&H at the moment so, when samples start appearing on the second-hand market, they may well be within saving distance.

Nikon has not made any converters for ordinary AF lenses, which is why I suggested Kenko Pro 300 converters, which some people on the NikonAF mailing list have rated well. Why has Nikon not done this? I don't know, of course, but I have observed that the trend is towards having 3 zooms in your bag covering 18mm up to 200mm (together with prime lenses for specialized photography) ... in which case you don't need a converter for anything below the AF-S range of telephoto lenses.

So that covers, terribly briefly, Nikon's six current teleconverters. Now for another subject.

You pointed out in your response how dark it can get looking through a 300mm lens at f/5.6. And you're quite right. I too have tried to capture red squirrels in the dusk with the 70-300mm f/4-5.6, and it isn't easy. I've mentioned the secondhand and new options for 300mm f/4, which are about as far as most amateur photographers are able to go.

I now want to suggest a way of getting a 300mm f/2.8 at a third of the USD 3500 that B&H are asking for a new lens. And that's to buy a secondhand manual-focus lens.

As more and more people buy autofocus cameras -- especially now that cameras like the N65 and N80 won't meter with manual-focus lenses -- secondhand prices of manual-focus lenses are dropping. I had a look on the Web yesterday at the secondhand stocklist of KEH in Atlanta. This is a secondhand mail-order dealer with a good reputation on the Nikon mailing lists on yahoogroups. KEH's "excellent" grade is supposed to have unmarked glass, and its "bargain" grade is supposed to have no glass marks that affect pictures (though the cosmetics may not be as good).

KEH has in stock (or had when I looked) two manual focus 300mm f/2.8 lenses -- both with Nikon Integrated Coating on the glass to increase contrast and with Extra-low Dispersion elements to minimize colour fringing -- one "excellent" grade for USD 1479 and one "bargain" for USD 999.

Neither of these will meter with your N80, but they are so much cheaper than new glass that you can throw in a dedicated manual-focus body to go with the lens and hardly notice it. KEH has, for example, an "excellent" Nikomat FT2 for USD 133.

Now even USD 1132 seems like an awful lot of money to me -- and I haven't yet convinced my wife of the need for such a lens -- but to have Nikon build and optical quality for half the price of a new Sigma lens is awfully tempting.

Later,

Dr Owl

-- John Owlett (owl@postmaster.co.uk), February 06, 2002.

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