Nikon 300 f/4 & 1.7 tele

<p>I have used this lens with the 1.4 but was wondering about the 1.7. Nikon says it won't auto-focus, but I have seen others use this combo successfully. Your thoughts? Thanks. </p>

<p>With the TC-17E II, the 300mm/f4 AF-S drops below f5.6 in its maximum aperture. AF becomes iffy unless you are under bright sunlight with subjects with plenty of contrast. If you are using one of the newer DSLRs that can AF with an f8 lens, such as the D4, D800/D800E, D600, and D7100, you may get better AF with the few selected AF points.</p>

<p>In any case, the 300mm/f4 AF-S becomes a slow and very long lens with the 1.7x TC. It is difficult to get great results with that combination. The 1.7x and 2x TCs work better with faster f2.8 lenses (or f2 such as the 200mm/f2 AF-S VR).</p>

<p>I use the 300 & 1.7 combo and have been satisfied with AF performance. Mostly with a D700, and lately with a D800. This has been outdoors shooting, haven't tried it for indoor stuff.</p>

<p>I personally don't have this combination, but there's a photographer who uses it extensively. Go to<br>

http://www.naturephotographers.net/rf.html<br>

Select Avian from the list of galleries, and then look for a photo posted by Luke Ormand. Under the photo will be a link to a gallery of all his photos.</p>

<p>I don't know this person, but I've seen a lot of his work thru naturephotographers.net and am very impressed with what he achieves with the 300/4+1.7x. Just about 100% of his shots with this combination are hand-held, too, something I find remarkable.</p>

<p>Perhaps his results can answer your question.</p>

 

<p>I've used the combo extensively and found the autofocus and image quality to be satisfactory. Not as good as with the 1.4X but still plenty good enough to get quality images. </p>

<p>Nikon says it won't auto-focus ...</p>

<p>... to cover their bases. As per Shun's post, there will be <strong>some</strong> circumstances with <strong>some</strong> bodies that autofocus will be iffy, slow, unreliable or perhaps fail completely if the subject is low contrast and dimly lit. On the other hand with an effective aperture of f/6.7, in bright light and good contrast I would expect autofocus to work, albeit not as well as with the TC-14E (effective f/5.6).</p>

<p>I bought the 300mm f/4 with the TC17, at the time I had a D80. On that camera, the AF was mostly missing. Later I went to a D300, and in good light, AF was acceptably usable for me, slow though. Not for action shots, but OK in more static conditions.<br>

However, not sure whether it's my specific samples, but the combination 300 f/4 with TC17 is not very sharp at longer distances (>20~30m), in conditions where the 300 f/4 without TC is perfectly fine (sharp as can be, basically). So, I got the TC14 later for this reason, and found that combination to be better in all ways. The difference between 420mm and 500mm in the end is not that big a deal - it's a miniscule difference in "crop".</p>

<p>So, if you already have the TC14, I'd stick with that. Crop a little when needed.</p>

<p>Actually the 300 AF-S focuses just fine with the TC-20EIII teleconverter on the D800... this wasn't the case with D700 (where it could only work in bright light) but with the D800 all tele+tc combinations gained a stop in autofocusing ability... so there shouldn't be a problem in case a new FX DSLR is used... </p>

Before his death in 2011, Ronnie Gaubert, a superb nature photographer, used the Nikon 300 f/4 and all three Nikon teleconverters,

including the TC20 EII. In 2007 he used a Nikon D200 with this lens and all the teleconverters. Please see this link to some of his

images:

 

http://www.pbase.com/ronnie_14187/the_nature_of_louisiana_2007

 

I had many communications with Ronnie about the lens and have used it with a Nikon D300 and the TC14EII, TC17EII, and now the

TC20EIII. I have generally been quite satisfied in all cases. I can attest that the Nikon manual incorrectly states that autofocusing with

the D300 requires the maximum aperture to be below f/8.