Nikkor 500VR + nikkor 2X-TC

Hi all, just wanted to share my initial thoughts about this combo. This weekend I tried the new Nikkor 500VR lens of a friend and, after my initial series of “wow”, “nice glass”, “oh my god, I want one like this” and the like...:p, I mounted the lens on my D2X to do some photography of the famous “Bartola” (a very cooperative and tame female woodchat shrike that is the hero of the local photographers). After a few minutes working with the lens I decided to try its performance with TCs. As expected, the 1,4XTC worked really good on the 500VR and them I tested the 2XTC. The Nikkor 2X TC is famous between nikon shooters because it only works fine with the Nikkor 300 f2,8 lenses. This TC seems to work poorly with other lenses like the 500. The light conditions were not perfect because the light was really hard but the light levels were high enough so I used ISO 200.
The AF speed of the 500VR decreased very noticeably when matched with the 2X TC but the combo kept the AF and VR functions working. I took several images wide open, at f8, and a couple of images at f10.
I have to say that I am really impressed with the image quality of the combo, much better than I supposed and with very little image degradation (image degradation seems to be unnoticeable to my eyes!). I have a lot of experience using the 2XTC with the 300 VR and the image quality of both combos looks pretty similar. Oh well, this is a very subjetive opinion but is for sure that the image quality of the 500VR + 2XTC is far good than I supposed. Next step is to test the non-VR 500 performance with the 2XTC and to compare with the new 500VR. I never used the 2XTC with the old 500 because everybody told me that the performance and image quality was really bad. Instead of the fact that I have been using the 300VR for more than two years I am very impressed with the VR performance in the big 500VR lens... 1/400s on a 1500mm equivalent focal lenght! Eight frames and all sharp but one (the bird was in motion)
The attached image is a jpeg conversion from the RAW with the default settings at my camera plus a 100% crop to see the details. BTW, the bird was perched at a distance higher thatn the minimun focusing distance of the combo.

Nikon D2X (at full resolution, 12Mp) AFS Nikkor 500 VR + 2X-TC, ISO 200 f10 1/400s, VR on (Manfrotto tripod and Wimberly Head II)

I am not sure if is allowed to post more than one image in a thread so I apologize if I m going too far:)
Here is a crop of the processed file. Please note that there is some noise on the eye because I made a selective processing of the eye and wanted to see if the image produced by this combo can support an intense processing.

To see the processed and cropped file for web presentation please visit the regional spanish forum here in BPN where I am going to post the image.

selective USM mask, selective noise reduction on the green BG, levels adjustments.

While I have a very limited experience with the 500+2XTC I would love to here your thoughts about this combo ;)

Juan, Alfred has used the 2X in his 600/4 VR and is very happy with the performance. Keep in mind that new ISO possibilities and VR can have impact in shutter speed and hence sharpness. I will be trying with the 300/2.8.

Thanks for posting your results :)

Thanks for posting Juan and sorry for being so late !!!

As Fabs mentioned I have been using the 2X with my 600 VR Excellent results AF is very slow as expected but workable if you pre focus. Using either with D3 will be even better since you can crank up the ISO We don't even bother using noise reduction at 800 and just over !!!

Juan!

Sorry as well for neglecting to read your post but finally I have some time today!

You did extremely well with this combo and ust wanted to thank you for your efforts to present this to our members. I also have the x2 and the 600vr. I have not used it hardly at all since I have been pretty busy lately. Actually I have not used my D3 too much either. I have 2 weeks off in August and another week in September to get out with my gear again. For now I will take days when I can and your post will get me to use the x2 once again.

Thank you!!!!

George thanks for your words. I am glad to hear that my post encourages you to try the 2XTC once again with the 600VR and I hope to see some of your results using that combo:)