teleconverter for nikon 70-300 mm G non vr lens

[tiggerguy]

I am looking into buying a teleconverter for my nikon d90 with the 70-300mm G non vr lens. I have read numerous articles and am still confused. My question is, "Will a teleconverter work with this combination?" and "Will the autofocus still work?" I apologize if this has been asked before, but I couldn't find a thread that answered my questions. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

 

[KmH]

What did your Internet search turn up?

Nikon does not make a TC that will work on that lens.

Any TC is going to alter the effective working aperture.

A 1.4 TC will give a 1 stop loss in aperture, so at 300 mm the widest available effective aperture becomes f/8.

You would also loose a stop in shutter speed unless you compensate by upping your ISO.

The other downside is any and all inherent optical imperfections will also be magnified by using a TC.

All-in-all, a lot to lose and little to gain by spending on a TC for that lens.

 

[tiggerguy]

Thank you. I understand that it is not a perfect solution, but I am on a really tight budget and want to get better photos of the birds and wildlife that I mainly take pictures of. I was looking at the Nikon's but they are expensive and the AF doesn't work with that lens. The Kenko says it will work with the AF, so that is my main question. If I have to, I can manual focus.

 

[dhilberg]

Third party teleconverters are your only option. The Kenko Teleplus Pro 300 line of teleconverters will allow that lens to AF. But like KmH said, with the 1.4 TC your maximum aperture at 300mm will be reduced to f/8, making that combination all but unusable except in broad daylight. The camera will struggle with autofocus at that small of an aperture. It needs light for its autofocus function, and the less you give it the more it struggles.

For best AF performance, I wouldn't put a TC on any lens with a maximum aperture of less than f/4.

You might consider the Sigma 150-500 for your wildlife photography.

 

[Overread]

I have to agree that putting ateleconverter on that lens is not really going tobe the ideal solution for your problem. Firstly image quality will take a noticable hit - most 70-300mm lenses are already starting to go a bit soft at the 300mm end and adding a teleconverter will only increase this softness. So you might get the shot but its not going to be of very high quality.

Secondly there is the AF issue again - from what I know Nikon cameras continue to autofocus (provided electrical contacts remain good) no matter what the maximum aperture of a lens setup is; but after f5.6 your results will start to take a dive and by f8 on anything but a top of the range Nikon camera body you will find it almost unusable for AF. Manual focus will also be tricky since you will have a darker viewfinder image to work with and manual focus on DSLRs is trickier than it was in the time of film cameras since DSLRs lack the manual focusing aids.

I would persoanlly say that if you can't get longer glass you have to get closer to the subject or bring it closer to you. Not easy things I will fully admit, but they are things you can work on. Firstly consider the use of hides and feeding stations as well as learning fieldcraft skills for stalking and tracking. These skills will help to bring you close to the wildlife in question and are skills that will be important no matter what gear you get.

Further study the concepts of compostion and broaden your views on it - often with wildlife many photographers love to fill the frame with the animal - to have it dominating as big a portion as we can get away with (I know I certainly do) but there is a whole world of compositions outside of this and learning to see and use them can let you get shots from further off that will still be keepers

 

[KmH]

You might consider the Sigma 150-500 for your wildlife photography.

Here's the Sigma APO 150-500 mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM mounted on a Nikon D90 and some images made with the lens at 500mm f/6.3.

 

[tiggerguy]

Those are some great pics. Thank you for sharing them. After thinking it over for a while, I am just going to save my money and get the longer lens. Thank you for all you imput, I appreciate it.