Which Nikon Converter

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Philip
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Hi, I am looking for a teleconverter to use with my D800 and 70-200 VR 2.8 (mkI).

Does a mkIII converter work well with this lens or should I stick with the cheaper mkII?

Which converter will produce the best quality images, I am looking to extend to approx 300mm. 1.4 , 1.7 or 2x...
 
On the 70-200 I'd suggest you look for a 1.4x MKII giving you 280mm @ f/4.

The 1.4x gives you the higher quality images, and only a stop loss. I can't speak personally on quality degradation as I have not used my tc's on a D800 yet but on the D3x it followed the normal guidance.

1.7x loses 1.5 stops and the 2.0x loses 2 stops - so although you would get to 400mm with it your wide open aperture is f5.6 and you'll notice a slowing down of AF - which may be important depending on your subject.

Given you have 36MP you should be able to crop down from the 70-200 and 1.4x and still have a respectable size of image vs the lower quality/larger image.

On primes you'll see less drop off in quality with the 1.7x MKII and 2.0x MKIII.
 
gramps said:
The 2X MkIII is a vast improvement on the MkII if you are looking to double the range.
Click to expand...

Apparently so, although I didn't ever have the 2.0 MKII to compare it with - just the Canon version and everything that took was soft (but I don't think it was the extender ;-) ) !

Very happy with my 2.0 MKIII on 200/300 primes but as I have those my 70-200 only usually has the 1.4x on it. If I need 400mm+ then I'm on primes. It is all comparative though. My stuff shot with that isn't printed larger than 20x16" and so any slight image degradation isn't a killer deal. If it was going 6ft I'd be more concerned (but probably then shooting with a 500/600 because it would paying off to invest in the glass)
 
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meonshore said:
On the 70-200 I'd suggest you look for a 1.4x MKII giving you 280mm @ f/4.

The 1.4x gives you the higher quality images, and only a stop loss. I can't speak personally on quality degradation as I have not used my tc's on a D800 yet but on the D3x it followed the normal guidance.

1.7x loses 1.5 stops and the 2.0x loses 2 stops - so although you would get to 400mm with it your wide open aperture is f5.6 and you'll notice a slowing down of AF - which may be important depending on your subject.

Given you have 36MP you should be able to crop down from the 70-200 and 1.4x and still have a respectable size of image vs the lower quality/larger image.

On primes you'll see less drop off in quality with the 1.7x MKII and 2.0x MKIII.
Click to expand...


Many thanks Mike as I thought a 1.4 is the way to go.
 
What makes the biggest difference by far is the quality of the mother lens. All a TC does is enlarge the centre of the image, and a 2x enlarges more than 1.4x, hence the difference in quality.
 
I bought the 1.7x II on here a while back. I've used it on the 70-200 vr II but noticed a fair amount of drop in image quality, especially if used in cropmode on the D800 for extra reach.

You want to stop down to f/8 using it I think, and this can mean upping the ISO, even in ok light, to get decent shutter speeds.


DSC_5502 by Cagey75, on Flickr
EXIF: Lens: 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8
Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/8.0
ISO Speed: 2500
Focal Length: 340 mm


This was taken using it on the 70-200, giving 340mm, and in crop mode for more reach - though a crop in post would have done as good as that - stopped down to f/8 [it auto stops down to f/4.8, but I would suggest going at least one more]

The heron would have been much sharper I feel, if I'd been able to get closer and not use the TC, but ... that is the idea of using them. To get reach for shots you wouldn't normally be able to. This heron was other side of a wide river.
 
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