1.4 or 2 X teleconverter

L

Lawrence

Senior Member
Need advice on which to get for my gear (see signature for what I have)

I seem to remember (remembering is quite a feat these days!) reading somewhere that the 2X loses too many stops so something less may be the option.

And do I have to by Nikon to fit my nikon camera/lens combo.

Dumb huh?
 
4

480sparky

Senior Member
Depends on the lens you're gonna put it behind. 2x TCs lose 2 full stops, 1.4x lose 1.

Good, fast, top-end glass isn't affected by a 2x much. An f/2.8 lens becomes an f/5.6, fast enough for most DSLRs to AF. But on, say, a 4.5-5.6 kit lens, even a 1.4x behind it may stop AF on some bodies.

FWIW, your lenses will NOT work with Nikkor TCs. Not no way, not no how. You need a Kenko, Tamron, Siggy, Vivitar, etc.
 
L

Lawrence

Senior Member
480sparky said:
Depends on the lens you're gonna put it behind. 2x TCs lose 2 full stops, 1.4x lose 1.

Good, fast, top-end glass isn't affected by a 2x much. An f/2.8 lens becomes an f/5.6, fast enough for most DSLRs to AF. But on, say, a 4.5-5.6 kit lens, even a 1.4x behind it may stop AF on some bodies.

FWIW, your lenses will NOT work with Nikkor TCs. Not no way, not no how. You need a Kenko, Tamron, Siggy, Vivitar, etc.
Click to expand...

I was intending to use if on my 70-300mm and probably at the top end so my 5.6 will slow down big time.
I just found a Kenko on auction and have put it on my watch list
Kenko Pro 300 is what I found?????
 
W

weebee

Senior Member
I've been reading up on the Tc's as well. I'm going to get a Kenko 1.4 this summer. Good reviews. And it'll bump my zoom a bit. I'm going to use it on my 55-300 nikon lenses
 
J

Jonathan

Senior Member
I recently bought a 2x Kenko TC and I use it with my Nikon 18-300. The moon shot I took a month or so ago was done using that combo and I am VERY pleased with it (took me to 600mm). I had a Nikkor which I had to return for the reason 480sparky says.
 
L

Lawrence

Senior Member
Jonathan said:
I recently bought a 2x Kenko TC and I use it with my Nikon 18-300. The moon shot I took a month or so ago was done using that combo and I am VERY pleased with it (took me to 600mm). I had a Nikkor which I had to return for the reason 480sparky says.
Click to expand...

Jonathan as a matter of interest did it reduce the light greatly?
 
J

Jonathan

Senior Member
I don't know, but then I am realising that I am more of an instinctive snapper who is trying to add the scientific side to his hobby. I fiddled with the ISO setting because I had to rather than because I was compensating for the TC. Here's the shot (the settings are in the moon thread):

DSC_3453.jpg
 
Last edited:
L

Lawrence

Senior Member
That's a great moonshot. I took one last night which I was pretty happy with using my 70-300. Have posted it in the Moonshot thread.
Just thinking that a moon shot may not be the best way to test the aperture for TC because with a tripod you can simply mess around with the shutter speed to compensate for light - thats what I did last night and my shutter was slow at 1/20th I think. I also took a few at 1/30 and 1/45.
Thanks for the input. Been a big help.
 
J

Jonathan

Senior Member
Okay, whilst my son was tearing the house apart this afternoon I sat out on the terrace with the 2xTC, 18-300 and monopod and took some shots. These are examples from my Flickr page:

Out of focus, I know, but fun

DSC_5341.jpg


DSC_5323.jpg


DSC_5314.jpg


DSC_5293.jpg


DSC_5249.jpg


DSC_5232.jpg


DSC_5228.jpg


These are all on auto settings with manual focus (that's a thing the TC will demand). A little bit of auto clean up in Aperture (one click settings). That's it. A lot of backlighting as we are south facing in the garden so anything to the right is going to be backlit by the evening sun, for which I did NOT compensate.
 
G

Geoffc

Senior Member
Personally I wouldn't put a TC on that 70-300 lens. We tried the kenko on ours a year or two back and never tried it again as it turned a decent lens into something below our expectations.

I use a 2x nikon TC on my 70-200 2.8 bit that's a different thing altogether.

Save the money towards a Sigma 150-500 instead.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
L

Lawrence

Senior Member
Thanks for these @Jonathan - they are pretty neat photos and I am convinced. I must just remember that these were with the 2X TC on your D7100 camera whereas I am looking at a 1.4 x on the D5100
I can't go too far wrong.
 
L

Lawrence

Senior Member
Geoffc said:
Personally I wouldn't put a TC on that 70-300 lens. We tried the kenko on ours a year or two back and never tried it again as it turned a decent lens into something below our expectations.

I use a 2x nikon TC on my 70-200 2.8 bit that's a different thing altogether.

Save the money towards a Sigma 150-500 instead.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
Click to expand...

Oops - that put a spanner in the works!!

There's a big difference in price too so it will require quite some saving. :D

I could also use th 1.4 TC on my 35mm prime which would almost make it a 50mm - not sure if that is a viable idea though.
 
J

Jonathan

Senior Member
Lawrence said:
Oops - that put a spanner in the works!!

There's a big difference in price too so it will require quite some saving. :D

I could also use th 1.4 TC on my 35mm prime which would almost make it a 50mm - not sure if that is a viable idea though.
Click to expand...

Then RENT!
 
G

Geoffc

Senior Member
Lawrence said:
Oops - that put a spanner in the works!!

There's a big difference in price too so it will require quite some saving. :D

I could also use th 1.4 TC on my 35mm prime which would almost make it a 50mm - not sure if that is a viable idea though.
Click to expand...

In my opinion you put a TC on a macro lens or a half decent telephoto that is fast and sharp to begin with, as it will only reduce quality. It may work using the kenko on the 35mm but it would potentially spoil all that is good about it. I haven't tried it so I could be wrong. As the 50mm D or G is quite cheap I think that's a better option.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
J

Jonathan

Senior Member
Well folks, I have put a 2x Kenko TC on an 18-300 Nikon lens on a D7100 and posted the results for you all to see. Why not critique those rather than opine in the abstract? Happy to take snaps on request so we can all assess in real time as this seems to be quite a hot topic at the moment.
 
D

Don Kondra

Senior Member
Jonathan said:
Well folks, I have put a 2x Kenko TC on an 18-300 Nikon lens on a D7100 and posted the results for you all to see. Why not critique those rather than opine in the abstract? Happy to take snaps on request so we can all assess in real time as this seems to be quite a hot topic at the moment.
Click to expand...

Geez Jonathan,

With all due respect all I can critique is your technique and point out the 18-300 mm is a DX lens, the 70-300 mm is FX.

I applaud your willingness to help out but showing out of focus shots with bad metering and poor posing isn't helping your case.

Birders in general are looking for reach while maintaining a certain level of detail in the bird.

None of your images meet this criteria and having to use manual focus to boot, well....

I found this article interesting > Image Degradation with Nikon Teleconverters

To summarize, test lens was a 70-200 mm f/2.8 on a D800E.


  1. Nikon TC-14E II – 5% Sharpness Loss
  2. Nikon TC-17E II – 17% Sharpness Loss
  3. Nikon TC-20E III – 26% Sharpness Loss

So, Lawrence.

The 70-300 mm isn't even on Nikon's Teleconverter Compatibility chart.

http://www.nikonusa.com/en_INC/IMG/...eleconverter-Compatibility/EN_Comp_chart.html

With the 2x I believe you will be @ F/7.1 so auto focus may be available in good light on the D5100.

Beg, borrow or rent the 1.4x and/or a 1.7x and see what you see :)

Cheers, Don
 
Top