Nikon 300 f/2.8 VR + 2X TC

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi guys,
How is the sharpness and AF speed of Nikon 300 f/2.8VR + 2X TC for flight shots (body is D700D3), some samples will be helpful. I have tried 200-400 with 1.4X TC in the past and it was pretty good given it was a zoom but I haven't heard good things about 2X TC.


Thanks.

[Desmond Chan]

I know a couple of guys who shoot with 300f2.8 + 2TC on occasions. From what I've seen, the results are better than I expected. Thing is, they only shoot jpeg though.

[arash_hazeghi]

I know a couple of guys who shoot with 300f2.8 + 2TC on occasions. From what I've seen, the results are better than I expected. Thing is, they only shoot jpeg though.

Thanks Desmond, have you used this combo yourself?

[arash_hazeghi]

Information about 1.7X TC helps as well :)

[Desmond Chan]

Thanks Desmond, have you used this combo yourself?

No, I don't. I don't have 2TC as my impression is the resulting IQ is not good enough most of the time. So, like I said, I was surprised by what I saw. Those guys I mentioned use D300. D3, D700 should do better.

IMO, 1.7TC is fine with 300f2.8. Used that combo before on D300...back then :

http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ad.php?t=28300

http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ad.php?t=27390

Found one large large crop BIF shot (same hawk as in other shots) with D300. Here it was swooping down to catch that american wigeon (or whatever was left) in one of the above photos.

[Chad Griggs]

Just thought I'd throw this out there. Turns out there is a new Nikon 300mm f/2.8 VR II AND a new TC-20E III

http://www.nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Ni...-ED-VR-II.html

http://www.nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Ni...C-20E-III.html

[arash_hazeghi]

Just thought I'd throw this out there. Turns out there is a new Nikon 300mm f/2.8 VR II AND a new TC-20E III

http://www.nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Ni...-ED-VR-II.html

http://www.nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Ni...C-20E-III.html

Wow, Llooks like this just came out!

[arash_hazeghi]

No, I don't. I don't have 2TC as my impression is the resulting IQ is not good enough most of the time. So, like I said, I was surprised by what I saw. Those guys I mentioned use D300. D3, D700 should do better.

IMO, 1.7TC is fine with 300f2.8. Used that combo before on D300...back then :

http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ad.php?t=28300

http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ad.php?t=27390

Found one large large crop BIF shot (same hawk as in other shots) with D300. Here it was swooping down to catch that american wigeon (or whatever was left) in one of the above photos.

Thanks Desmond looks like it is sharp and nice do you happen to have a 100% crop?

[Jim Fenton]

I have a TC20EIII coming my way to give it a try on my 500VR.

Should be interesting as I've been told directly that it offers a much higher IQ than previous versions.

[EdNguyen]

Nikon has just announced the release of a new 300mm f/2.8 VR II lens with a 4-stop Vibration Reduction system, along with a new 2x teleconverter (a first with an aspherical lens element). Here's the link that I read: www.dpreview.com.

[Desmond Chan]

a 100% crop?

100% cropped from raw file straight from camera.

D300 300f2.8 +1.7TC hand-held. Manual exposure mode, ISO1600 f7.1 1/3200s.

[Desmond Chan]

Here's straight from camera raw file full frame of that shot.

Huge, huge crop as I said.

Happy that the D300 was still able to hold the focus on the hawk given the background. This is the second frame of the series.

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks Desmond, this looks pretty good for a flight shot from with such heavy converter, looks like with lower noise of D700 this would be a total keeper. So are you still using the 300 with 1.7 or you moved to something else?

The new 300 sounds exciting but the price tag ($5800) is a big bummer :(

[Desmond Chan]

So are you still using the 300 with 1.7 or you moved to something else?

Mostly 200-400f4 VR. I haven't tried the 300 on the D700 yet. Perhaps I should :)

The new 300 sounds exciting but the price tag ($5800) is a big bummer :(

Listed at about $1K more than the old one. Don't think I'm buying.

[Juan Aragonés]

The 300VR 2,8 is, by far, the only good companion to the 2XTC-II

I have been using the 2XTC with the 300VR for a couple of years and I was really happy with the results of the combo when used under adequate circumstances (very good light, high shutter speed/solid rock support, short distances between lens and subject and clean atmosphere). The fantastic autofocus speed of the 300VR reduces a lot when you put the 2XTC on and it is not easy to get sharp images of bird in flight but it is possible with large, slow flight, birds. With stationary subjects, good light.. etc, the combo is a very, very solid performer (but forget about fast AF speed).

I have obtained even pretty good (very surprising for me) results with the 500VR lens… well, at least, it works very good with some samples of the 500VR lens. I have tested four different 500VR lenses with my 2XTC and results were very disappointed with three of them (including my own 500VR) but with the fourth lens, belonging to my friend Pedro Trejo, the results were really outstanding, at the same quality level of the ones obtained with the 300VR (see details here http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ad.php?t=13389) I think that the variation in performance of this TC with the 500VR relies on variations between sharpness in lenses. By the way, one of the 500VR lenses that I tested (a new one) produced so bad quality images that was returned to Nikon Spain (that is matter for a new thread that I will wrote one of this days…).

My 500VR is really sharp, both the bare lens or matched with the 1,4XTC, but the results with the 2XTC are disappointing. In fact a 100% resample (in Photoshop) of an image of the bare lens is, by far, more sharp than the one produced with the 2X. Sharpness in my 500Vr is one of the reasons why I am selling my 2XTC (it worked really fine with the 300VR but not on the 500VR), the second reason is that the AF focus speed reduces a lot and I prefer to get a sharp image and crop in PS instead of getting a good magnification of an unsharp bird. The third reason is that, at the end of the day, I realized that the even with the 300VR I used the 2XTC in very few situations. By the way, if anyone is interested in an used 2XTC do not forget that I am selling it.

Here enclosed are several examples of the performance of my 300VR with the 2XTC

http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ad.php?t=36969
http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ad.php?t=23129
http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ad.php?t=18453
http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ad.php?t=16532
http://lazumaya2.blogspot.com/
http://lazumaya.blogspot.com/search?...&max-results=7

[Juan Aragonés]

I have a TC20EIII coming my way to give it a try on my 500VR.

Should be interesting as I've been told directly that it offers a much higher IQ than previous versions.

Hey Jim, I look forward to hear your opinion of the performance of the new aspherical TC in the 500VR. Please, keep us informed :)

I have obtained different results with my 2X-TCII and four different 500VR lenses, one of the lenses,
(see details here http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ad.php?t=13389) produced fantastic results with the 2XTC but the other three....:(:(

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks a lot Juan for detailed and objective comparison with high quality crops, looks like there is no escape from a 500 for high quality flight shots.

[Desmond Chan]

Although it was cloudy today, I thought it would be a good day to test the combo and so I went shoot some BIF with the 300f2.8 + 1.7TC on the D700. With the 1.7TC on, the acquisition of focus does seem to suffer (could also have to do with operator's errors). Perhaps it could do better on a brighter, sunny day.

D700 + 300f2.8 +1.7TC hand-held. Manual exposure mode. ISO 3200 f5.6 1/500s. Taken at 03:357pm. Small crop and processed.

[Desmond Chan]

Here's the 100% crop from straight out of camera raw file.

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks a lot Desmond for providing samples, it is sure a capable combo, tough conditions and you managed to pull a good shot :)