teleconverter

[chandra_shekar3]

Hi

 

I have Nikon D80 digital SLR camera and lens what I have is old Nikkor AF 75-300mm- F4.5-5.6. I am looking for a

suitable tele converter compatible with this. Say 1.4TC, You can suggest Nikon and also other make teleconverters.

 

Regards,

Chandrashekar

[Matthew Brennan]

Hi Chandra, have you tried this site before? http://www.nikonlinks.com/unklbil/teleconverters.htm#afz

[Dieter Schaefer]

I used to own that lens and found it was soft around 300mm - definitely not a lens I would put even a 1.4x behind. Besides, the maximum aperture will be only f8 at the longest setting - your AF will likely not work.

None of the current Nikon AF converters will work, they require AF-S lenses. If manual focus is OK with you, Nikon TC-14A would fit the bill. From third party look for Kenko.

[Two23]

A common question here. The answer is you are throwing your money away buying a teleconverter for that lens.

 

 

Kent in SD

[anis]

Kent is right. TC for such a slow lens is of not much use :( . You are better off buying an used

80-200 f/2.8 ( around 500$ for the push-pull zoom model) first.

 

Anis

[Michael R Freeman]

> "You are better off buying an used 80-200 f/2.8"

 

Chandra wants more "reach", not less. ;-)

 

Actually he would be better off buying a Nikon AF-S 300mm f/4D and a TC-14E, a combination that performs really well together. But that's a $1500 solution to a problem that might not be worth that much to fix. It's easy to spend other photographers money for them. :-)

 

But yes, I agree with the others that a teleconverter is not well suited for this lens, and probably a waste of money. The performance of this lens is well known to be a bit weak wide open at the 300mm end, and that is where you would be using it with a teleconverter, which will only make it worse.

 

If you insist on using a teleconverter with this lens, then the best quality option open to you would be the Kenko Pro 300 1.4X or identical Tamron SP AF 1.4X teleconverters (I own this TC, but have not used it on this lens). But autofocus will not work very well in all but the brightest of conditions (the effective maximum aperture will be f/8), your viewfinder image will be dim, and the image quality will be further degraded. You will also need a very steady tripod and head to use what will become a 105~420mm zoom. Forget about handholding it or using it on a tripod that vibrates in a breeze.

 

You might do just as well (or better) by simply cropping the image file of a 300mm image, but it's your money to spend. The Kenko 1.4X Teleplus Pro 300 DG retails for about $200 in the USA.