teleconverter

[Tony F]

I am a beginning photographer wanting to take wildlife photographs, mostly birds. I have a D40, 18-55 VR, and a 55-200VR. I am already looking for more reach. I was advised to look into a 2X and a 1.4X teleconverter rather than look for new lenses at this time. Will these lenses work with thses converters. What options would you suggest.Thanks in advance.

 

[tirediron]

Sorry, but I think you were given bad advice. Nikon TCs won't work with those lenses (Their TCs only work with their 'pro' lenses) so you'll have to buy third-party, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The big problem is that your 55-200 is f5.6 at max focal length. If you add a 2x TC on to that, you will have a 400mm (600 effective) lens, BUT with a maximum aperture of f11! Your auto focus won't work at that aperture, and on all but the brightest days you'll have to crank the ISO so high that all you will see is noise. Even a 1.4 will give you a max aperture of around f8 which is pretty much the limit for auto-focus (otherwise the lens is too dark). I would suggest that you spend some time on Craig's List or at your local used gear store and look for a fast (f4 or larger) prime. If you don't mind manually focusing some of the older lenses can yield good results for only a few hundred dollars.