100-400mm plus 2x Teleconverter = Overkill?

A few years ago, I took a 200mm f/4 Ai-S Nikkor prime lens (cheap, like $100 used) and tried it with the Nikon TC-201, an older manual focusing, 7-element converter which was actually designed FOR that lens and other Nikkors of 200mm and shorter lengths, and com pared it with the much newer 80-400 VR Nikkor, the first generation one. A $1600 lens. Results? ABout the same at 400mm...basically almost indistinguishable. So, basically, a 20-year old prime and 20-year old converter equalled what was THEN, at that time, Nikon's ONLY sub-$4,000 400mm lens offering.

Nikon's 300mm f/4 AF-S lens and their TC14-e or e-II makes a good, but not perfect 420mm f/5.6.

The one lens I think has a lot of possibility is a 135mm f/2 with a 2x converter...I'e used that combo off and on since the 1980's...some of them are not that bad!

I think also that APS-C cameras might get more benefit than FF cameras when a converter is used, since the crummy corners are simply not imaged by the sensor, and only the best-performing central area is actually recorded. Still...2x converters...not so good as the 1.4x models....UNLESS the lens and converter were designed for one another. Old, outdated case in point, the NIkon TC-301, a massively long 2x converter (it's like 3.75 inches long!!!) for the old 400mm f/3.5 ED-IF super-tele....makes a pretty decent 800mm f/7.1 or 7.7 (never can recall). At the time, that converter was basically optimized for THAT one, specific lens.
 
I think all of this has firmed up my decision to get the new tamron...if it ever comes out.
 
Coastal.conn (Kris) has done some pretty amazing bird shots with that new Tamron. I saw one of the early pre-release web video reviews done by Matt Ganger, shot indoors at an image expo someplace in the Southern Hemisphere....wow! The stabilizer system at 600mm at 1/15 second was amazingly good. So it's only f/5 to f/6.3...that's what makes it carryable and hand-holdable and not require its own sherpa. My impression is it is selling out in all markets world-wide and that they cannot make enough to supply the demand. I think it has a beautiful OOF background rendering too. Seems like one hell of a good new zoom design to me.
 
Coastal.conn (Kris) has done some pretty amazing bird shots with that new Tamron. I saw one of the early pre-release web video reviews done by Matt Ganger, shot indoors at an image expo someplace in the Southern Hemisphere....wow! The stabilizer system at 600mm at 1/15 second was amazingly good. So it's only f/5 to f/6.3...that's what makes it carryable and hand-holdable and not require its own sherpa. My impression is it is selling out in all markets world-wide and that they cannot make enough to supply the demand. I think it has a beautiful OOF background rendering too. Seems like one hell of a good new zoom design to me.

And really that is what I need. I don't need a $10k lens, I just need something with that extra reach.
 

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