teleconverters for Nikon

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patton paul - 17 Aug 2003 04:03 GMT

I have a Nikon N90s camera and do lots of photos of insects and other
small animals, lately mostly butterflies and dragonflies. I have a Nikon
AF 70-300mm zoom lens and a Nikon 28-105 mm zoom. I mostly use the
70-300mm lens for close ups, in combination with Kenko 36, 20, or 12 mm
extension tubes, or Nikon 5T or 6T closeup lenses. I'm thinking of adding
a teleconverter to my collection of accessories, since this would allow me
to be at a greater distance from the butterfly, but still have it fill the
frame. I have two decisions to make. First, I need to decide whether to
get a 1.4x or 2x teleconverter, and I need to decide what brand to buy.
Unfortunately, Nikon doesn't seem to make an autofocus teleconverter that
is compatible with my camera. I'm seriously considering Tamron
teleconverters, which are available at a local photography shop with the
1.4x for $139.00 and the 2x for $179.00. Does anyone have an opinion on
the quality of Tamron lenses, or have any suggestions about what other
brands I should consider? With the 1.4x converter I would lose one stop
worth of light, and with the 2x converter two stops. Loss of light may be
an important consideration for closeup photography, because I usually use f16
or greater to maximize depth of field. If I use film with ISO greater
than 200 to compensate for loss of light, will I have problems with
graininess in enlargements to 8x10 or larger (I use slide film and have a
Polaroid SprintScan 4000 slide scanner. With my Epson 1270 printer I can
print digital enlargements up to 13x17, and so would be concerned about
preserving image quality up to this size, although I more frequently print
8x10s). Comments on this issue of 1.4x vs. 2x and the consequences of
light loss would be highly welcome, especially from people who have tried butterfly
photography with similar lens combinations. Thanks.

__________________________________________________________________
Dr. Paul Patton
Research Scientist
Beckman Institute Rm 3027 405 N. Mathews St.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Urbana, Illinois 61801
work phone: (217)-265-0795 fax: (217)-244-5180
home phone: (217)-328-4064
homepage: http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~ppatton/index.html

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the
source of all true art and science."
-Albert Einstein
__________________________________________________________________

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shakes - 17 Aug 2003 13:31 GMT

Paul,

I have the Tamron 2x, that I have used with an N80 and a Nikon 100-300mm - a
setup that isn't too much different than yours.

In my experience, the converter is OK but not great. I feel like I loose a
little sharpness and obviously you loose two stops. I have used it in
situations where I just can't get close enough without it, and the subject
is slow moving enough to be able to use relatively long exposures (water
birds, nesting birds, etc.). The converter adds a couple of inches to the
lens, which makes hand-held shots pretty difficult unless you are using very
fast film, which doesn't sound like something you want to do.

Maybe the photo store will let you try it and take it back if you don't like
it?

Hope this helps.

Scott

> I have a Nikon N90s camera and do lots of photos of insects and other
> small animals, lately mostly butterflies and dragonflies. I have a Nikon
[quoted text clipped - 36 lines]
> -Albert Einstein
> __________________________________________________________________

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Michael Scarpitti - 17 Aug 2003 19:17 GMT

> I have a Nikon N90s camera and do lots of photos of insects and other
> small animals, lately mostly butterflies and dragonflies.

Get a longer macro. Using converters on zooms is a waste of film.

> I have a Nikon
> AF 70-300mm zoom lens and a Nikon 28-105 mm zoom. I mostly use the
[quoted text clipped - 35 lines]
> -Albert Einstein
> __________________________________________________________________

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Francis A. Miniter - 18 Aug 2003 00:39 GMT

The original poster was talking about distance situations, so a macro
lens would not solve the problem.

Francis A. Miniter

>
>
[quoted text clipped - 45 lines]
>>-Albert Einstein
>>__________________________________________________________________

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John W. Robbins - 21 Aug 2003 01:43 GMT

For about half a year now, I've been using a Tamron 1.4X SP AF
teleconverter on both a D100 and F100. I most often use the converter
with both a Sigma 105mm macro and with a Nikon 80-400VR zoom. In almost
all my photography, I have things tripod mounted, so with the VR lens,
I usually have VR turned off. I've gotten some pretty mixed-up results
when I've had VR turned on with the teleconverter attached too. I
believe that there may be some mis-match in the CPU contacts between
the converter and the VR lens.

With these lenses, I've noted a tad amount of softening, just as
another poster mentioned. But what I've discovered is that if you keep
your main lenses operating in their optimal apertures (usually between
f/8 and f/16), you can get some pretty solid and sharp results, even
when enlarging. I've since learned that you can't use the converter
with wide open apertures as it will further magnify any limitations of
the main lens.

If you have a dealer that will allow you to test out the Tamron
converter, that would, of course, be your best bet.

As a sample, the link below leads to a shot of a little spider that I
took with the Sigma 105 macro + Tamron 1.4x converter, tripod mounted
on a D100.

http://members.fortunecity.com/macpurity/Insects/pages/Spider.htm

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