Nikon TC-20E III AF-S Tele Converter for Camera

Product Information

The TC-20E provides perfect data and signal interchange with Nikon cameras. This means the f/stop correctly reads two stops different both on the camera and in the EXIF data. VR works swell. Focal length reads double in the EXIF data, too.

The 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF supports the TC-201 and the TC-14A (occasional vignetting) & TC-14B (AF not possible). In my tests, both teleconverters added some pincushion distortion to the Nikon Z 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6, cancelling out the inherent barrel distortion of the lens: So, give teleconverters a chance! If you know their limitations and plan accordingly, they can be a revelation. Just think, by adding one to your bag, you’ve doubled a lot of your lens choices, added only a couple of hundred grams to your kit and spent a fraction of what one extra lens would cost.

Distortion

You may often see softer images with this converter if you look too closely, but these are usually because of higher ISOs or blur from longer shutter speeds from the loss of light or enlargement of atmospheric disturbances like haze and heat shimmer, not from any optical fault of the converter itself. The Nikon Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S is one of the sharpest lenses we’ve ever tested in the lab (even including prime lenses), so it makes a great test case for the two teleconverters. Desert Floor as Seen from Six Miles (10 km) Away, 2:23 PM, Thursday, 10 November 2022. Nikon Z7II, Nikon Z 400mm f/4.5 VR with Z TC 2× teleconverter (making this an 800mm lens) wide open at f/9 hand-held at 1/ 250 at Auto ISO 64 ( LV15.0), Radiant Photo Software to cut through the haze. bigger or full resolution.

If you're not getting ultra-sharp pictures with this, be sure not to shoot at f/11 or smaller where all lenses are softer due to diffraction, always shoot at ISO 100 or below because cameras become softer at ISO 200 and above, avoid shooting across long distances over land which can lead to atmospheric heat shimmer, be sure everything is in perfect focus, set your camera's sharpening as you want it (I set mine to the maximum) and be sure nothing is moving, either camera or subject. If you want to ensure a soft image with any lens, shoot at f/16 or smaller at ISO 1,600 or above at default sharpening in daylight of subjects at differing distances in the same image. Unfortunately, no! Many years ago, you might have been able to buy a generic teleconverter that would work with all lenses sharing that camera mount. However today lens mounts have far greater electro-mechanical complexity. Different aperture controls and AF systems means that teleconverters aren't just specific to camera brands, but that they will only work with specific lenses, too. There’s also the fact that a teleconverter works by magnifying the image it receives from the lens itself before it hits the sensor. This can mean that you lose any vignetting (a circular darkening around the frame’s edge) an old lens might have (good news), but it does mean things like chromatic aberration (also known as odd-looking colours), or distortion, in the lens may be magnified and so more prevalent in your image or movie. As we’ll see, however, this is much less of a problem with the latest lens technology. Teleconverters come in three strength settings. 1.4x is the most common: it gives a useful increase in magnification without a big penalty in usability or image quality. They increase the focal length of the lens it is used with, so a 300mm becomes a 420mm – and a 70-200mm becomes a 98-280mm zoomFirst up, and most obvious, is that the addition of this extra stage into the light path reduces a lens’ maximum aperture. The reason converters are in 1.4x and 2x formats is because you end up with a one stop loss with a 1.4x converter, and two stops for the 2x. Some lenses look great on paper and on test charts, but cannot perform equally well when used in an outdoor environment, especially with fast-moving subjects like birds. The primary reason is autofocus, the performance of which depends on many different factors. Teleconverters generally negatively impact autofocus performance, due to a considerable loss of light and contrast and the 2x TC is the worst in this regard. Adding a teleconverter slows down lenses and the Nikon TC-20E III slows down by two full stops. What this means, is that when the teleconverter is mounted on an f/2.8 lens, it slows down to f/5.6 and as you may know, autofocus performance on small apertures beyond f/5.6 is unreliable even in broad daylight conditions. Nikon clearly points out that autofocus does not work beyond f/5.6, so if you have an f/4.0 lens, forget about autofocus – you will have to resort to manual focus. TC-17E increases focal length by 1.7x and lowers maximum aperture by one-and-a-half stops. There has been only one version of this AF-S converter. Similar to other Nikon teleconverters and its predecessor, the Nikon TC-20E III has a rugged all-metal exterior and a metal mount that is built to last a lifetime. The solid construction, along with a whopping 7 elements make it one heavy teleconverter, weighing a total of 330 grams without a lens attached. As a comparison, the Nikon 50mm f/1.4G lens weighs only 280 grams. The Nikon TC-14E II and TC-17-E II weigh 200 and 250 grams, respectively. While the number of optical elements has not changed between the new and the older 2x teleconverters, two key differences to note are the redesigned layout/lens groupings and replacement of a regular lens element with an aspherical one. The aspherical element was added to improve image quality by increasing sharpness, decreasing coma and other aberrations. Like other teleconverters, the Nikon TC-20E III has fixed lens elements that do not move when focus ring or zoom ring are touched on the lens. This means that the lens is protected very well against dust and moisture. NIKON D3S + 300mm f/2.8 @ 600mm, ISO 200, 1/800, f/7.1 Autofocus Speed and Accuracy

It's just as sharp with the 2x teleconverter. You can see more fine details, even though the heat shimmer is magnified twice as much as the first image without the teleconverter.Once those things were a big deal, but they are much less relevant today, and day-to-day maybe not at all. This is a detailed review of the Sigma 2.0x Teleconverter EX APO DG for the Nikon mount. I had a chance to test out this teleconverter, along with the 1.4x Sigma teleconverter when working with the Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 lens, so I wanted to share some of my findings and compare the teleconverter to its Nikon counterpart, the Nikkor TC-20E III. In this review, I will go over the optical characteristics of the Sigma 2.0x teleconverter and talk about its performance when using both Sigma and Nikon super-telephoto lenses. Here’s an example of the Nikon Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S at 70mm, where it has low levels of chromatic aberration – around 1 pixel at all apertures (shown in blue in the chart below). Chromatic aberration measurements from the 1.4x TC are in red, and the 2.0x TC measurements are in green: It was not easy to obtain the Nikon TC-20E III because of high demand/short supply and after waiting for a few weeks, I decided to just rent it for a couple of weeks instead. My objective was to try the Nikon TC-20E III specifically with the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR II and with the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II to see how it truly performs in an outdoor environment when photographing nature. It is one thing to shoot test charts with a lens sitting on a tripod, and another to get out and do some real shooting. If you're splitting pixels, the TC-17E gives sharper results at the largest apertures. If you need 2x, the TC-20E is your converter.

Filter-thread: no need to buy new ones. The same filters still can be used at the front of the lens. Which in case of the Nikon Z 70-200mm f2.8 VR S are 77mm diameter. [+]

Vignetting

It works only with the more exotic of Nikon's AF-I and AF-S lenses. One cannot mount any other lenses on it unless one grinds