larry_montgomery

<p>I purchased a 500mm AF-S version I (non-VR) lens. It was a little rough mounting it on the body, and the first time I mounted it to a TC14E II, I couldn't remove it. A camera store guy managed to get it off, but the mount is damaged. There is an authorized repair shop in town, but I had an experience where I thought they ran up the charges on a body. In addition, they want to charge $28 just to find out if the part is available! On the Nikon site, it appears that this version is no longer supported, while version II is. My first question: where might I find the mount, or at least find out if it is available? Second: Is this something I could do myself, with moderate mechanical skills and no specialized tools? I could pick up a JIS (?) screwdriver. It looks like the electrical contact strip would come off with the mount, but hopefully there is enough slack in the wires to work it through the mount. I assume the new mount would align just like the old one. Any information and advice would be appreciated.</p>

<p>I think it's moot for the OP, but I believe that an adaptor to mount a Nikon lens on a Canon would include lens elements to allow infinity focus, unless it was intended only for macro work. The extra glass would probably degrade image quality somewhat.</p>

<p>One more vote for lens before new body, although the buffer and AF on the D500 would be nice. I would suggest considering one of the 150-600mm lenses. The extra 100mm would be useful and the lower weight may be beneficial. In addition, saving about $500 (at least on the Tamron) might put you that much closer to getting the D500. Better yet, it would buy you a nice macro lens, unless your 50 or 85 is a macro. I get as much pleasure from shooting butterflies, bugs, and flowers as I do with birds.</p> <p>Here is one recent discussion:<br />http://www.photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00dhpI</p>

<p>I have been very happy with the Tamron 150-600mm on a D7100. I have gotten sharp shots at 1/40th at 600mm, despite the shaky hands that have come with age. With small flitty birds, subject motion was more of a hindrance. That was under a rain forest canopy on a cloudy day; I later decided I should have increased the ISO limit in Auto ISO. The lens and camera are light enough to carry for hours, although the tripod foot isn't as comfortable a carrying handle as on the 150-500mm Sigma. If I was buying today, I think I'd be perplexed to decide between Nikon quality on the 200-500mm and the extra reach of the Tamron (mostly on the long end, of course). </p>

<p>The 2X converter effectively makes the 55mm f2.8 lens into a 110mm f5.6 lens. I believe you get the same working distance as you would using the lens alone, i.e. greater than with the lens and extension tube. One issue is that you are placing some extra (non-Nikkor) glass in the light path. You can expect some degradation of the image from that. The question is: Is the image better using the 2X TC or using the lens alone and cropping to get the same image size. I haven't tested this myself, but I have been reading about using TCs with telephoto lenses. The consensus seems to be that certain TCs, such as the TC-14E, don't degrade the image too much, while others such as the TC-17E do. Opinions seem to be split with the TC-20E, and there are different versions in that series. I am taking it as a given that you will get a sharper image with the ext. tube than the TC, assuming you can get enough light on the subject.</p> <p>I have found that filling the frame and getting the highest close-up ratio isn't always the best solution when photographing insects with the very sharp Tamron 90mm f2.8 AF lens. By shooting at ca 1:2 vs 1:1, I got more depth of field, with plenty of detail in the cropped image. Of course, that also gives more distance to the subject, which is already longer than with a 50 or 55mm macro lens.</p> <p>One other issue: I believe a non-AI lens or ext. tube, such as the M2 or PK-3, would damage the AI tab on most of the cameras we're using. Soon after the switch, some cameras came with a tab that folded up for use with a non-AI lens.</p>