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Author Topic: Nikon Af-S TC-20E II Teleconverter  (Read 11185 times)

Justinr

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Nikon Af-S TC-20E II Teleconverter
« on: December 14, 2013, 03:11:57 pm »

Has anybody used or any views upon this item? Particularly interested in how many stops I would lose.

Cheers. 
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bjanes

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Re: Nikon Af-S TC-20E II Teleconverter
« Reply #1 on: December 14, 2013, 03:53:26 pm »

Has anybody used or any views upon this item? Particularly interested in how many stops I would lose.

Cheers. 

You lose 2 stops. IMHO the 1.4 or 1.7 are better choices for all but the best lenses. The latest version is the TC-20E III, which has better optics with an aspherical element. I haven't used the 20E, but do have the 1.4 which has minimal loss of quality with the 70-200 f/2.8 AFS and the 300 f/4 AFS.

Bill
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Petrus

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Re: Nikon Af-S TC-20E II Teleconverter
« Reply #2 on: December 14, 2013, 04:34:41 pm »

Stay away from 2x extenders. Nikon 1.7x is ok with fast lenses, 1.4x are excellent.
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Justinr

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Re: Nikon Af-S TC-20E II Teleconverter
« Reply #3 on: December 14, 2013, 05:27:25 pm »

Mmmm......

Beginning to think extenders may not be the way forward after all. I've a Xmas wedding coming up and I'm looking for something longer than 85mm that needs to work in poor light. Not sure that the 105mm F2.8 will give that much advantage.
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BernardLanguillier

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Re: Nikon Af-S TC-20E II Teleconverter
« Reply #4 on: December 14, 2013, 07:38:48 pm »

My personnal view is that the x1.7 is the best of the 3, followed by the x1.4 and the x2.

Cheers,
Bernard

Petrus

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Re: Nikon Af-S TC-20E II Teleconverter
« Reply #5 on: December 15, 2013, 02:47:17 am »

Mmmm......

Beginning to think extenders may not be the way forward after all. I've a Xmas wedding coming up and I'm looking for something longer than 85mm that needs to work in poor light. Not sure that the 105mm F2.8 will give that much advantage.

Extenders ONLY work with certain lenses, Nikon lists the possible combinations on their website. Better not buy before checking if it possible to attach the extender to the lens you need to be extended! This is not a image quality issue, but the physical possibility of lens elements grinding against each other if you try to force it. Beware!
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langier

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Re: Nikon Af-S TC-20E II Teleconverter
« Reply #6 on: January 09, 2014, 06:40:40 pm »

The TC extenders DO NOT work on lenses shorter than 300mm and the 70-200 zooms. They won't work on the fixed shorter than the 200 f/2. All the TCs have elements that extend into the back of the lenses they are designed for, thus only work with the telephotos. For shorter lenses, you'll have to get a Sigma, Tamron, Kenko or other 3rd party TC.

If you are shooting a wedding, the workhorse lens is the 70-200 2.8 which you can rent if your 85mm isn't long enough.
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Larry Angier
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Rory

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Re: Nikon Af-S TC-20E II Teleconverter
« Reply #7 on: January 09, 2014, 09:55:01 pm »

The TC extenders DO NOT work on lenses shorter than 300mm and the 70-200 zooms. They won't work on the fixed shorter than the 200 f/2.

Incorrect.  TCs work with the 70-300VR and the 105VR.  Probably more.
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Rory

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Re: Nikon Af-S TC-20E II Teleconverter
« Reply #8 on: January 09, 2014, 09:56:06 pm »

Stay away from 2x extenders. Nikon 1.7x is ok with fast lenses, 1.4x are excellent.

I strongly agree.
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SrMi

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Re: Nikon Af-S TC-20E II Teleconverter
« Reply #9 on: January 11, 2014, 03:51:36 pm »

I have tested my (Nikon) long lenses with the converters. IMO, after pixel peeping, 200-400mm with 1.4x is very acceptable, 2x is not. On 300mm/2.8 there is practically no sharpness difference with or without 2x TC. YMMV as there seems to be some variations in lenses, TCs and brands. Some professional photographers claim to get excellent results on 200-400 and 2x, but I do not.

This confirms the experiences I researched on the Web: f2.8 fixed length lenses do excellently with 2x, no zooms except 200-400 can handle TCs well.

Cheers.
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Larry Heath

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Re: Nikon Af-S TC-20E II Teleconverter
« Reply #10 on: January 11, 2014, 04:46:11 pm »

I have used the TC14E II with the new Nikon 80-400 AFS lens and it works quite well in my opinion with regard to IQ, with little if any degradation.

Later Larry
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Theodoros

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Re: Nikon Af-S TC-20E II Teleconverter
« Reply #11 on: January 11, 2014, 06:44:10 pm »

Has anybody used or any views upon this item? Particularly interested in how many stops I would lose.

Cheers. 
I have used all TCEii (1.4x, 1.7x and 2x) and currently have 1.4x and tce-20iii, I have used them on 105mmVR, 70-200 VRii, 300f4 AF-S and 400 AFS D f2.8, the TC-20Eii was visibly worst than TC-20Eiii on all but the 400 f2.8 where it was superb (all TCs are superb on this). On the 400 it clearly was indistinguishable from the 20iii version… It seems to me that the particular TC has been designed having the longer teles in mind and it's not very good with the shorter focal lengths, the 20iii is excellent with all the primes (especially with the 105) but not as good with the zoom, still usable though if you stop down a bit… The 300 is absolutely superb with the 1.4x attached.
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kers

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Re: Nikon Af-S TC-20E II Teleconverter
« Reply #12 on: January 11, 2014, 07:53:10 pm »

I have the TC2xIII- i had it adjusted so i can put it on every Nikkor ( as long as the lenses do not touch)

I do not have the expensive tele nikkors from 300mm and above..
my findings are it works good with the 2,8  70-200mm VRII ; but only the centre is really sharp.
D8- d11 is optimum. It was presented together with the 300 d2,8 VRII ; so that combo should work better you would think.
i did not find any combination shorter than 86mm that worked well. (The 70-300 i will look into...)
I have a reflex nikkor 500 d8 and this lens showed a little bit more detail with the converter.  ( d16 1000mm)
The 500mm reflex is not suited when sharpness is important; it is for the special look and the pure colours.


« Last Edit: January 11, 2014, 08:02:36 pm by kers »
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Pieter Kers
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langier

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Re: Nikon Af-S TC-20E II Teleconverter
« Reply #13 on: January 13, 2014, 02:35:41 pm »

Just got out my TCs and my 70-300. No workie. The 70-300 isn't keyed properly nor really has enough throat clearance for the front of the TC. I wouldn't even use my TC14e on my 70-300 since the front of the TC is simply too wide and the lens is already slow enough and really doesn't have much resolution to spare as it is, though even on my D800 it is a very adequate lens.

As to compatibility with the 105 micro VR, I don't have any experience.

With a self-modified TC14e and the PC lenses, that's another story. Modify the TC and use at your own risk, but with up to the 12MP cameras, the image quality is fine.

With the old Nikon non-af TCs (TC200/TC201 and TC14a), no problems with the rest of the Nikkors other than a slower lens, no electronic connections, thus no AF, aperture or other data and, of course on other than the best lenses, lower image quality. IMO, more work than they are worth. There's also the old TC16 series from the start of the AF lenses, though there's lots compatibility issues.

Best bet, simply rent the lenses you need rather than trying to Frankenlens your wedding shoot.
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Larry Angier
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Lightsmith

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Re: Nikon Af-S TC-20E II Teleconverter
« Reply #14 on: January 20, 2014, 02:52:00 am »

I bought a 500mm f4 VR lens earlier this month and proceeded to test it with the three Nikon teleconverters using my D800e and D7100 cameras. The 1.7x TC performed the most poorly in terms of AF performance. All three did work well enough with the 500mm f4 lens.

With my 70-200mm lens the TC-20E II was only usable on the D7100. The D800 could not autofocus with the zoom lens using either the 1.7x or the 2x teleconverters.

I was greatly surprised by the excellent image quality from the 500mm f4 VR lens with the TC-20E II teleconverter. It was an added bonus to find I had a very usable 1000mm f8 lens.

I have my theories as to why the DX 7100 outperformed the FX D800 in autofocusing with the teleconverters but regardless I know that I will not hesitate to pull the D7100 out of the bag. What started out as a backup camera make become my go to camera in certain situations.
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PdF

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Re: Nikon Af-S TC-20E II Teleconverter
« Reply #15 on: February 26, 2014, 05:07:12 pm »

Does anybody have experience with TC teleconverters with tilt-shift lenses (PC 85mm) ?
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kers

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Re: Nikon Af-S TC-20E II Teleconverter
« Reply #16 on: February 26, 2014, 06:40:54 pm »

Does anybody have experience with TC teleconverters with tilt-shift lenses (PC 85mm) ?
yes i used the 85pce with the 2x tciii  - no not good. ( would have been nice - yes)
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Pieter Kers
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langier

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Re: Nikon Af-S TC-20E II Teleconverter
« Reply #17 on: February 27, 2014, 10:03:44 am »

I occasionally use my modified tc14e with both my 24mm PCE and 85 mm PC. On my fx 12mp cameras, iq seems fine.
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Larry Angier
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