TC-20E on 24-120mm/f4 AF-S VR

<p>Can the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-120mm f/4G ED VR Lens be used with the teleconverter?</p>

<p>No, there is insufficient clearance on the rear end of the 24-120mm/f4 AF-S VR to mount any Nikon TC-xxE teleconverter. If you must use a teleconverter, you need to find a 3rd-party alternative, but adding any TC, especially a 2x, to a mediocre zoom will greatly affect its image quality.</p>

<p>And, of course, you'd also lose two stops of light ... making the lens far too slow for the camera's AF system to work (not to mention, the viewfinder would be quite dark).<br /><br />You'd be much better off simply getting a 70-300, which can be had for a pretty modest price.</p>

<p>Thanks. I was trying to lighten the load.</p>

<p>I doubt that it will work mechanically, since the rear element of the 24-120mm f/4 will likely interfere with the teleconverter. This was definitely true with the 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. It is, however, possible, that at 120mm it will mechanically clear. I don't own this lens, and even if I did, I would be reluctant to check on my own teleconverter without measuring first. You'll also have to be careful not to accidentally zoom back towards the wide end.</p>

<p>But even if it does work, you'll be at T/8. AF will likely not function at all, and the viewfinder image will be dim. I do happen to have an Nikkor 800mm f/8 ED lens head and AU-1 focusing unit, and I can confirm that you can manually focus at f/8 on a D700, difficult though it may be. But the difficulty is only made worthwhile by the outstanding image quality of that lens. The same cannot be said for a consumer zoom and a 2X teleconverter.</p>

<p>Even if it mounts, and even if you are able to manually focus, I hate to think of the image quality that will result. The Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 lens is not among my favorites, but it would likely offer much better image quality at ~240mm, while being faster, more flexible and also cheaper than a TC-20E! </p>

<p>I got home and took a closer look at my 24-120mm/f4 AF-S VR.</p>

<p>At 24mm, the rear element is right at the mount area so that clearly there is insufficient clearance for any Nikon TC-nnE teleconverters. However, when you zoom to 120mm, the entire group of elements moves forward so that it is mechanically possible to mount a TC-20e III onto the 24-120mm/f4 AF-S VR, as shown in the attached image.</p>

<p>The problem is that if you do what I am showing, and you accidentally zoom the lens down towards 24mm, it is possible that the rear element will bump into the front element of the TC-20e III, causing damage to both sides. Sorry, I am not going to experiment with my lenses. :-)</p>

<p>In any case, the resulting lens will be a 240mm/f8 on the long end with poor image quality. Therefore, even though it is technically possible (sort of), that is not something you want to try as Matt and Samuel pointed out.</p>

<p>And for whatever reason, my TC-20e version 1 cannot be mounted onto the 24-120mm/f4 AF-S VR. Only the TC-20e III works, and I don't have a TC-20e II.</p>

<p>If the OP wants to save weight, one solution is to switch to a DX-format camera. If he wants to stay with the D700, a good travel lens is the 11x 28-300mm/f3.5-5.6 AF-S VR. That lens is actually not too bad on the 12MP D700, but I wouldn't use it on a high-pixel density body such as the 16MP D7000. However, just like any 11x zoom, it involves a lot of compromises, both optical and mechanical.</p><div></div>

<p>If you can live with manual focus, Ai-s 200/4.0 may be worth looking at.</p>