Question about Teleconverter

[ChrisGio74]

I have a Nikon D3400, and my lenses are Tamron 18-400, Tamron 90mm macro, on soon going to purchase the Tamron 150-600mm G2. I'm looking to get a 1.4 Teleconverter, what would recommend?

 

[Dave442]

I would not bother with the 1.4 TC unless you had a lens that it would work well with it and you could use it on a consistent basis. If you had a 300mm f/4 then it could be worthwhile, but on either of those two Tamron zoom lenses you are at f/6.3 when at the long end and adding the 1.4 TC will lose a stop of light so now you are at f/9 at the long end and that D3400 is not rated to autofocus at that small of aperture.

 

[480sparky]

Egads. 600mm on a DX camera isn't enough?

 

[ChrisGio74]

I plan on shooting wild life.

 

[480sparky]

From where.... the next time zone?

600mm is fairly long. Unless you have a lot of practice using long glass, you could end up disappointed.

 

[Derrel]

The TC 1.4 on the 150-600 and especially on the 18-400..sounds awfully "slow" , as 480sparky mentioned.

The 90mm 2.8 Tamron Macro... is it a newer ultrasonic motor lens? I would assume so, since you have a D3400, and it is now 2019, and Tamron put an in-lens AF motor in the 90 macro more than a decade ago, so possibly the 90 will physically mate with a Nikon 1.4 TC-series model, of which there are several (three?) generations.

 

[Soocom1]

When your looking to shoot various critters, my experience is not the actual focal length, but the glass itself. And you will need speed.

I have played with maxing out large mm lenses with 1x 2x and even 3x teles.
Not wise.
ESPECIALLY with vignetting.

IMO, try to get some glass that has some serious stopping (F 2.x.. or larger) and really BIG front element.

The diff. between my EF 35-350 and my old Sigma 400 is night and day.

 

[ChrisGio74]

There is a couple of Eagles nest. Around where I live. Some of the photographers are adding TC on to there ultra zoom lenses and getting some amazing!!!! Pictures from the ground up to the nest. I was thinking about doing the same. I'm not worried about a TC on my 90mm. I was looking at it on the 150-600. I like your feed back!

 

[Overread]

At the very least you need to search and find which teleconverters can physically fit the lens. Quite a few lenses will have rear elements that are quite flush at the rear of the lens or might even protrude into the camera body and many also move that rear element so that it might get closer or further at different focal lengths.

This is important because most teleconverters have a front element that protrudes into the rear of the lens. This physically restricts what lenses can mount to specific teleconverters. Some teleconverters have a very small or flat front element and thus can mount to many more lenses, but not all. Do search and make sure you know which make and model will fit (if any) your lenses. Otherwise its an expensive repair if you damage the rear glass on a lens (whilst front elements can take a lot of damage and not shop it, the rear element is totally different and any damage there is going to affect your photos.


As for the combo you're into territory where, even the 1.4TC, is going to show deterioration of the image quality. In addition its going to reduce the maximum aperture of the lens by around 1 stop of light. That can be quite important on superzooms which are often at quite small apertures already when at their long end. This can often mean getting a good shutter speed is hard as you're losing light and AF systems also start to really struggle.

Image quality should, in theory, be better than if you'd used no teleconverter and cropped; however at the same time the loss of light resulting in exposure issues and AF performance degradation might tip the balance the other way.






Ps if you enjoy macro then putting a 1.4TC on your 90mm will take its maximum magnification to 1.4:1 which you will notice when taking macro photos. So if the TC you choose is known to fit all your lenses then if it fails for the superzooms it can at least find a home on the 90mm for some closer macro work.
Note that the TC won't affect the minimum focusing distance on the macro, it will go just as close as it does now, the image will just be more magnified. In practice this might let you work a little further away with some larger subjects where you might not need it at its maximum magnification.

 

[Derrel]

At the very least you need to search and find which teleconverters can physically fit the lens. Quite a few lenses will have rear elements that are quite flush at the rear of the lens or might even protrude into the camera body and many also move that rear element so that it might get closer or further at different focal lengths.

This is important because most teleconverters have a front element that protrudes into the rear of the lens. This physically restricts what lenses can mount to specific teleconverters. Some teleconverters have a very small or flat front element and thus can mount to many more lenses, but not all. Do search and make sure you know which make and model will fit (if any) your lenses. Otherwise its an expensive repair if you damage the rear glass on a lens (whilst front elements can take a lot of damage and not shop it, the rear element is totally different and any damage there is going to affect your photos.

" Crash and bash "... NIKON TC 1.4x and 1.7x and 2x converters have a front element that is "almost protruberant"...Kenko has a couple of TC units that fit on a LOT of lenses, even lenses with very far-extending rear elements

 

[Dave442]

For eagles nest shots I have heard of photographers stacking together their 2x and 1.4x TC's on their 600mm lens, so putting a 1.4x on the 150-600mm on a crop body is not outside of what people have done.

 

[RVT1K]

I've got a Nikon 1.7x that I use with my 70-200 f/2.8 and have had excellent results.

I also recently purchased a used Tamron 300mm f/2.8 SP AF LD mated with the Tamron 300FNs 2X SP AF tele-converter. I've only done a little with it but I'm very happy with the results.

 

[ac12]

Compute what your max aperture would be with the TC on (I think about f/9), then set the lens to that aperture and set the camera to preview/stop down,

• Then see if the camera will AF at that aperture.

• If not, see if you can manually focus the lens.

If the wildlife will be in shade, you NEED to test the AF in shade as well as full sun.

If you cannot AF nor manually focus, problem solved, you cannot use that combination.

If you are reaching out that far, you may consider switching from a LONG zoom to a small astronomical telescope that can be used on a tripod, like a Celestron.

 

[greybeard]

The Tamron 150-600 is very picky about tele-converters. I have one and my Kenco 1.4 won't autofocus and my Nikon won't fit. So as far as the 150-600 you are limited to the Tamron converter. Tele-converters work well with high quality primes like a Nikon 300mm f/4 and your 90mm Macro. But with a lens like the Tamron 18-400? Probably not worth the trouble.