Nikon 1.7TC and the 300 F4 lens

FiestaRed

FiestaRed

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Just had my 1.7TC arrive this morning from back order.

Can I check with anyone who uses it with the 300mm F4 Nikon lens, does the AF speed slow down?

Most Nikon documents say the 1.7TC will not AF with the 300mm F4 but it does work but rather slower, is this your experience?
 
Yes it will be slower than a bare lens as you are now at f6.7, for best results just use the single central focus point.

Also an advantage to use the rear focus button, and disengaging AF from the shutter release button. This allows you to get focus on a subject, release the rear button and not have the camera try and focus on something else when you press the shutter button.

It is strange to start with but once you get used to it you will not go back to using the shutter button for AF.
 
There's a lot of weird stuff written about Nikon TC's for some strange reason, for example, from the horse's mouth:

http://www.nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Nikon/Product/Camera-Lenses/2151/AF-S-Teleconverter-TC-17E-II.html

According to that, it doesn't work... but it does (btw that same link says the AF-S NIKKOR 400mm f/2.8D IF-ED doesn't have any problems, but that does have some strange quirks)

I use that combo a lot (my 300 f4 is the current version - AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/4D IF-ED) for motorsport and trust me, if it wasn't capable of AF it would be no good and if it was too slow it would also be a problem for me.

The D300/D700/D3 will AF up to f8.

Have a look at my last posting in the motorsport section on here, British Superbike @ Brands Hatch... it doesn't come more demanding than that.

Any of the cross AF sensors are fine to use, so the centre 9, but with dynamic area focus turned on, it will use the surrounding points too.

Obviously with any TC you need to be careful to maximise IQ... my tip is to use manual with auto ISO. Then you can control shutter speed (critical for motorsport) and keep the aperture stopped down to cope with the TC (about f8 or f9 is fine) whilst the ISO bounces around as it meters.
 
Assuming you are talking about the f/4 AF-S it'll focus fine with the 1.7x and 2.0x. Nikon are very conservative in their rating with what will and won't work.

AF is slower, yes.
 
I wonder if they are conservative because the functionality depends on the camera body itself (ie minimum aperture for AF point functionality) - you'll notice they don't mention on which body they are talking about.

Perhaps the 1.7 + 300 f4 doesn't work on a D40?
 
desantnik said:
I wonder if they are conservative because the functionality depends on the camera body itself (ie minimum aperture for AF point functionality) - you'll notice they don't mention on which body they are talking about.

Perhaps the 1.7 + 300 f4 doesn't work on a D40?
Click to expand...

I think that the focus engines (computer controls) are improving all the time, those tables were probably produced many years ago.
 
Thanks for the help guys.
 
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