best cheapo nikon teleconverter under $100

[matthewo]

well my friend just let me borrow his tamron bbar MC7 2x teleconverter for nikon. im using it with my 70-300mm. and yes it needs bright day light to get a good shot, but thats ok, cause im just looking for a cheapo teleconverter. i have seen a few others like a kalimar 1.7x teleconverter. i would like to use a 1.7x or 2x teleconverter. i know it wont meter and probably wont autofocus. the tamron will try to autofocus but only works sometimes, and usually just gets close and then just trys to get it perfect until you let go and will not take a picture. im ok with using manual focus, cause this is just for very rare need of a super telephoto lens. and the tamron does really seem ok for the price you can buy them for, with sigma and nikons being way out of my price range except for the old nikon tc-200 and tc-201, which im not sure would even mount to my digital slr.

 

[SCraig]

When you put a bad TC behind a good lens you are going to get junk images. They not only cause a loss of light they cause a loss of sharpness and contrast and can turn a decent image into junk. I have a 2x TC and never use it. I would rather heavily crop shots from my 300mm lens than use the 2x TC and not have to crop them, the final images are just better. I also have a 1.4x TC and it is pretty good; not great but pretty good.

That said, both of my TC's are Kenko brand. The 1.4x is the Pro version (Teleplus Pro 300 AF 1.4X DGX) and the 2x is not. I would not recommend using a 2x converter on a 300mm lens, it is not the same as having a 600mm lens by a long shot.

 

[tirediron]

Keep saving your money; the very cheapest TC you should even consider is either the Kenko or top-end Sigma. You may be happy with it initially, but after a few months, or, if you see an image taken with a high-end TC, you'll quickly realize that it's have a VERY detrimental effect on your work. There's a reason that the Nikon 1.7TC costs $425!

 

[matthewo]

well i found that even this cheap 2x tamron will take decent pictures on the 70-300 when you have the setting setup right. remember im not looking for perfect pictures. and spending $50 or so on one im not expecting much but a decent picture that i wouldnt have been able to get without it. i had a day where i wish i would have had it cause i took a ton of far off images that where use less at 300. but may have turned out to have a few usable ones if i had the teleconverter. this is mostly just for fun, not something i need to support me as a business. if i was really into bird or wildlife photography i guess i would have the sigma 150-500. or a pro telephoto, but its just for fun.

 

[SCraig]

OK, here you go. Two photos of a Wood Duck on Radnor Lake taken a day apart. In the first one he is sitting on a limb of a sunken tree and on the second one he is floating in front of the tree so the range was virtually identical. Both are 100% crops of the NEF file. **BOTH ARE BAD** I already know that which is why they are in my "Junk Box" but they do serve a purpose here.

70-300mm @ 300mm hand-held

70-300mm @ 300 with Kenko 2x TC on a tripod

The second should have been sharper since I was shooting with a tripod. If anything it is LESS sharp than the hand-held shot from the day before.

 

[Derrel]

What d-slr do you have??? The TC-200 and TC-201 WILL MOUNT and shoot on the Baby NIkons D40,D40x,D60,D3000,D3100,D5000,D5100, but are not compatible with the D70,D80,D90,D100,or D50. The TC 200 and TC-201 will work with the D200, D300,D300,D300s,D1-series, D2-series,D3 series, and D700.

The TC-200 and TC-201 are actually pretty good quality converters, as long as they are used with a decent lens to begin with. The low-cost 200mm f/4 Ai (or the Ai-s) for example, matches up pretty well with the TC-201, and yields decent image quality; of course, that's a lens it was actually designed to be used with...

 

[matthewo]

So the tc-201 is the better one? And is it af compatable, even though that probably wont work but still nice to try. Also found a 1.7 on ebay by the kalimar that looks ok

 

[djacobox372]

The crop function in photoshop will create better 2x images then a cheap teleconverter

 

[matthewo]

well im not sure what to say, i may just buy this tamron. this was taken on my screen in porch at night, with just the overhead 60 watt bulb on.

d5100, 70-300, with the tamron 2x teleconverter handheld leaning against a wall

1/40 sec, 300mm (or 600mm if you count the 2x teleconverter) manual focus, iso 1000, flash. f-stop wide open at 5.6 on the lens, but whatever the teleconverter changes it to, what 7.6 or is it double...?

i mean you can deffently see that im running high iso in the image, but its not horrid. also in daylight makes it much easier to work with. i do find its very picky, mostly because it wont meter, so you defently have to work harder to get the shot you want. but i still think its possible to get a decent shot, with this cheap one, i may just go with the tamron, for the limited use im going to need it for. remember this is just for fun really.