Teleconverter or lens?

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Rossbeef
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Teleconverter or lens?

Post by Rossbeef »

Good afternoon all.

I am very much a camera beginner and really know nothing about photography. I normally just set autofocus and snap away hoping for the best. I am relatively happy with the results.

I am thinking about buying a new lens or a teleconverter for my current lens and camera.

I have a Nikon D5100 and the longest lens I own is a Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR Lens.

Unless I save up a lot of money, I do not think I will be able to purchase a lens above 400mm which is roughly the range I am looking for as I would quite like to get some decent photos of some of the flying display at RIAT.

My knowledge of teleconverters is non existent, I assume they are cheaper than actual lenses but I would need to know what type of teleconverter would be compatable with my D5100 and 55-300mm lens as would not want to buy the wrong one!

Does anyone have any suggestions for a beginner on either a teleconverter or a 400mm+ I have had a look on ebay, there are some pre owned ones on ebay that I would be happy to buy (I have looked carefully to see which ones have damage etc)

Thank you for your help in advance!

Kind regards,

Ross.

cg_341
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Re: Teleconverter or lens?

Post by cg_341 »

Rossbeef wrote:what type of teleconverter would be compatable with my D5100 and 55-300mm lens as would not want to buy the wrong one!

Short answer, none of them. Teleconverters and zoom lenses don't play nicely, especially on lower or mid end bodies and similar range lenses.

I'm sure someone can provide a more technical answer!

Rossbeef
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Re: Teleconverter or lens?

Post by Rossbeef »

cg_341 wrote:
Rossbeef wrote:what type of teleconverter would be compatable with my D5100 and 55-300mm lens as would not want to buy the wrong one!

Short answer, none of them. Teleconverters and zoom lenses don't play nicely, especially on lower or mid end bodies and similar range lenses.

I'm sure someone can provide a more technical answer!


Ok thanks, I should probably be looking at just a lens then. Thanks.

No technical answer is necessary as it will just go straight over my head!

Thanks again!

Ross.

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BDL
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Re: Teleconverter or lens?

Post by BDL »

I’m pretty sure that lens isn’t compatible with a TC anyway.

See if you can get a second hand Sigma 150-500 from a decent supplier.

Rossbeef
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Re: Teleconverter or lens?

Post by Rossbeef »

Thank you BDL, I will check out the lens.

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BMrider
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Re: Teleconverter or lens?

Post by BMrider »

You don't say your budget but there is only one lens in the game if you want image quality, sharpness, built like a tank, forget zooms, get one of these (Check out ebay for used £400 to ~£600ish mate it up with a Nikon 1.4 teleconvertor and you have a 630mm on your body

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/300f4afs.htm


Check out my Flickr below, use above all the time,



.

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Brevet Cable
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Re: Teleconverter or lens?

Post by Brevet Cable »

Not so much that it's not compatible with teleconverters, it's just that it's not compatable with the TCs Nikon make/made ( don't know if that's still the case or not ) just like some Canon lenses won't work with Canon's ownTCs but will work with third-party ones.

The potential problems with using a TC are...
1. Due to light loss, depending on whether you go for a 1.4x or a 2x TC, an f/5.6 will end up as at least f/8.....which means that the autofocus is highly unlikely to work, and if it does, it'll probably be sluggish and liable to 'hunt' in many light conditions.
2. Depending on the TC & how good the original lens is, you could end up with poor quality images.

But then, you can pick up a new Kenko 1.4x TC for under £100, whereas a second-hand 400mm/500mm lens will probably cost upwards of £400
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BMrider
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Re: Teleconverter or lens?

Post by BMrider »

Just to be clear, a "Genuine Nikon" 1.4x Teleconverter (Don't recommend a 1.7 or a 2x) mated to a F4 300mm Nikon A-FS prime lens does not suffer the problems stated in the previous posters comments, avoid 3rd party teleconverters like Kenko on Nikon prime lenses, stick to Nikon, Defiantly do not use on zooms, no good at all for aviation work!

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Brevet Cable
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Re: Teleconverter or lens?

Post by Brevet Cable »

Damn, that's where some of us have been going wrong, using third-party TCs on zoom lenses....... :whistle:
Oh, hang on, Canon & Sigma do TCs which they sell as 'kits' with their zoom lenses.
No doubt people shouldn't use catadioptric lenses for aviation photography either ?

And definitely shouldn't stack two teleconverters ( a 2x & a 3x ) onto a Russian 1000mm f/10 catadioptric lens.... :biggrin:
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AlexC
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Re: Teleconverter or lens?

Post by AlexC »

My 'Genuine Nikon' 1.4x Teleconverter works perfectly well with my Nikkor 80-200/2.8, at least the results are regularly accepted by A.net, so they can't be that bad.
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BMrider
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Re: Teleconverter or lens?

Post by BMrider »

AlexC wrote:My 'Genuine Nikon' 1.4x Teleconverter works perfectly well with my Nikkor 80-200/2.8, at least the results are regularly accepted by A.net, so they can't be that bad.


When suggesting the op avoids teleconverter's on zooms, I was referring to slower aperture consumer zooms, not your pro 80-200 F2.8, sorry I didn't make my post clearer.

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AlexC
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Re: Teleconverter or lens?

Post by AlexC »

OK, fair enough. :up:
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Brevet Cable
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Re: Teleconverter or lens?

Post by Brevet Cable »

Image

:biggrin:
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Kelpydog 9
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Re: Teleconverter or lens?

Post by Kelpydog 9 »

If , like me , youre on a tight budget , look at a 500mm Tamron mirror lens which there are good examples of for about £100 on ebay They are not camera specific lenses but require an adapter ring to join lens to camera. The 500 i bought came with an olympus one which i binned then i got a cheap version of the Nikon fitting which works fine on my D3200. The downside of a mirror lens is the fixed aperture - f8 on the Tamron 500 and you have to shoot in manual ....but when you get the hang of that you'll never autofocus again !! - oh , and its not a zoomer .

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