Teleconverter - cheap alternatives?

superpippo

superpippo

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Alan
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I would like to try a longish lens for birds etc but cannot justify the cost of an expensive lens yet, just in case I find it not used enough.

I have a Nikkor 70-300 , 4.5-5.6 G VR and wonder whether a cheap alternative would be a teleconverter. However the TC 17 is over £300 and the TC 20 is over £400 - so not really cheap.

What experiences do people have with teleconverters and are there any realistic decent cheaper alternatives to the Nikon ones? I would not mind used equipment if it gave me some experience.
 
I've only used Canon gear but I'd expect the teleconverter works the same with Nikon. The TC17 costs you 1.5 stops of light making a f2.8 into a f4.8 and it ONLY works with the AF-I and AF-S lenses. The TC20 costs you 2 stops making a F2.8 an f5.6 and only works with the same lenses.
I'm not sure if Nikon's are the same as Canon and need f5.6 to AF but with your lens it would be manual only.
I have a Kenko Pro300 DGX 1.4x TC and I've just had a look on the compatability list and it says your lens would keep AF with your lens. I've had mine on a Canon 100-400 f4.5-5.6 L and it retains AF with a 550D, 7D and a 5D MkII, so that might be worth a try. Mine was around £120 and worth every penny with my set of lenses.
 
+1 on the Kenko Pro300 (caveat: again, Canon boy here...)

Although I don't remember paying as much as £120 - but it was 1993...
 
superpippo said:
I would like to try a longish lens for birds etc but cannot justify the cost of an expensive lens yet, just in case I find it not used enough.

I have a Nikkor 70-300 , 4.5-5.6 G VR and wonder whether a cheap alternative would be a teleconverter. However the TC 17 is over £300 and the TC 20 is over £400 - so not really cheap.

What experiences do people have with teleconverters and are there any realistic decent cheaper alternatives to the Nikon ones? I would not mind used equipment if it gave me some experience.
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your best bet would be a Kenko pro 300 1.4x, forget anything with higher magnification as you will lose AF and IQ will be terrible
 
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I have used my Kenko 1.4x converter with this lens and it works - including the VR!! However and it is a big however you need really decent light for it to work well. In anything less than a decent bright sunny day the AF hunts like crazy.

This was taken at Minsmere on a bright sunny day.



Deer on the Water by Don't like to be Bored, on Flickr

HTH

Nick
 
superpippo said:
I would like to try a longish lens for birds etc but cannot justify the cost of an expensive lens yet, just in case I find it not used enough.

I have a Nikkor 70-300 , 4.5-5.6 G VR and wonder whether a cheap alternative would be a teleconverter. However the TC 17 is over £300 and the TC 20 is over £400 - so not really cheap.

What experiences do people have with teleconverters and are there any realistic decent cheaper alternatives to the Nikon ones? I would not mind used equipment if it gave me some experience.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't even both, especially with a cheap TC and as for Tractor Boy statement, yes it might work, but the lens hunting can serious damage the focus motor because TC were primarily designed for fast prime lenses.

There are no cheap options for long zooms, but you could probably pick up a sigma 120-400mm f4.5-5.6 OS for around the £300-400 mark.
 
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