D7100 in crop mode + 300mm + 2 x teleconverter = bad shots?

[wonderer]

I may be wrong ( usually am according to the mrs ) but with the new D7100s crop mode coupled with a good long lens and either a 1.4 or 2 x teleconverter has the potential to see very far indeed ( my math is not good so if anyone wants to work out the range please do )

Honestly though what do you think of the resulting quality of images taken at the extreme ends of the focal range on a god tripod? Would hand holding be out of the question at this kind of magnification?

It may be too good to be true but it seems like a real nice way of getting focal lengths that were previously way out of my budget.

 

[rob-nikon]

I may be wrong ( usually am according to the mrs ) but with the new D7100s crop mode coupled with a good long lens and either a 1.4 or 2 x teleconverter has the potential to see very far indeed ( my math is not good so if anyone wants to work out the range please do )

Honestly though what do you think of the resulting quality of images taken at the extreme ends of the focal range on a god tripod? Would hand holding be out of the question at this kind of magnification?

It may be too good to be true but it seems like a real nice way of getting focal lengths that were previously way out of my budget.

The crop mode changes the crop factor of dx from 1.5 to 1.95, so a 300mm would have be450mm equivalent now, in crop mode it would now be about 585mm equivalent. It really depends on whether you are talking about the f2.8 or f4 lens, with a 2x tc it would now be either a 600mm f5.6 or f8 lens. This would be 900mm equivalent or 1185mm equivalent in crop mode. A 1.4 tc would be 420mm equivalent and 820mm in crop mode.

A 1.4 tc would probably be better as teleconverters image degrading increases as their strength increases. How well do the teleconverters work now? Would it be that much different to using them with a d7000 now as MP would be about the same just on a smaller part of the sensor.

At these equivalent focal lengths i would say a tripod would be a good idea, I always work on 1/equivalent focal length as a shutter speed when hand holding. Most of the time I use a tripod but still try to keep it over 1/500 because wildlife never really stops moving. At equivalent focal length that's going to be about 1/1000 at f8 for the 300mm f4 and 2x tc, so its going to need high ISO or good light.

 

[flashp]

I may be wrong ( usually am according to the mrs ) but with the new D7100s crop mode coupled with a good long lens and either a 1.4 or 2 x teleconverter has the potential to see very far indeed ( my math is not good so if anyone wants to work out the range please do )

Honestly though what do you think of the resulting quality of images taken at the extreme ends of the focal range on a god tripod? Would hand holding be out of the question at this kind of magnification?

It may be too good to be true but it seems like a real nice way of getting focal lengths that were previously way out of my budget.

I agree. I really hope the first reviews pick up on this and test this feature out. If it's a winner they'll have an ace camera in the market place.

 

[HoppyUK]

I agree. I really hope the first reviews pick up on this and test this feature out. If it's a winner they'll have an ace camera in the market place.

It's no different to cropping the image in post processing, at least as far as image quality is concerned.

Basically it works, but you need an extremely sharp lens to resolve sufficient detail on what then becomes a very small sensor area, regardless of how many pixels it has. Even a top grade lens, after you've put a TC behind it and then cropped the image further, is going to struggle. No free lunch.

 

[Xjacktar]

As HoppyUK sez:

It's no different to cropping the image in post processing, at least as far as image quality is concerned.

By my math, a (Nik) DX sensor with a 300mm and a 1.4 TC becomes 630mm equivalent. My usual BIF setup. Doesn't matter what 'crop mode' you use on the camera, you aren't going to get better than that. Also, with 24 Mpix, you are going to need very steady hands / tripod.

Can't really see the point of this crop mode.