Teleconverters

[MadasaFruitbat]

I am thinking of getting a teleconverter for a couple of reasons: 1. To give a bit more magnification on the macro side of things and 2. To give me a lighter weight piece of kit to take on holiday to increase the focal length of my 18 -200mm lens rather than take really heavy sigma 50 - 500.

I'm looking at getting the Nikon x2 converter, not cheap at £450 ish but seems to have good write ups.

One thing is confusing me (which is not difficult), the specs for the nikon on Warehouse Express seem to indicate that you can only use a certain amount of nikon lenses with it ?

is that right as for the macro stuff I would be using a tamron 90mm, the 18 -200 in a nikon so that wouldn't be an issue.

Can anyone help ? please.

[greenwing]

Originally Posted by MadasaFruitbat

I am thinking of getting a teleconverter for a couple of reasons: 1. To give a bit more magnification on the macro side of things and 2. To give me a lighter weight piece of kit to take on holiday to increase the focal length of my 18 -200mm lens rather than take really heavy sigma 50 - 500.

I'm looking at getting the Nikon x2 converter, not cheap at £450 ish but seems to have good write ups.

One thing is confusing me (which is not difficult), the specs for the nikon on Warehouse Express seem to indicate that you can only use a certain amount of nikon lenses with it ?

is that right as for the macro stuff I would be using a tamron 90mm, the 18 -200 in a nikon so that wouldn't be an issue.

Can anyone help ? please.

The Nikon TC-20E fits only certain Nikon lenses, and the 18-200 is not one of them. There's a list on the Warehouse Express webpage (click Further Details). It's actually a longer list than I expected.

I wouldn't recommend trying a 2x TC with the 18-200 at all, at the 200mm end you'd have a 400mm f/11 lens, you won't have AF and won't have a lot of light to work with for MF and may need an unacceptably high ISO.

I'd check before adding a TC to the Tamron 90mm macro, too, as there may be some interference between the front of the TC and the rear of the lens. I've mounted my Sigma 105mm macro on my Kenko 1.4x TC, but the two don't seem happy together and I haven't had the courage to put them onto a camera. Extension tubes or a close-up filter may be better for this purpose.

Hope this helps
Chris

[OldBoy]

Greenwing is correct, you can use that converter with 18-200mm.

As a general rule most Nikon only work with F4 or less and will only work on Nikon lenses. Not sure about the Tamron Di90 but I have used both 1.4 and 2x Nikon converters on my Nikon 105mm F2.8 VR Macro, with great results.

I also used the Sigma 1.4 converter on my Sigma 50-500mm F4-6.3 but manual focus only with a D3.

[Markulous]

I too wouldn't recommend a 2x TC - lose too much light and quality

I use the Kenko pro300 1.4x (had the Canon 1.4x but no better quality and it suffers from only being able to be used with 'L' lenses) - use it successfully with Sigma 105mm macro, Sigma 500mm f/4.5, Canon 300mm, Canon 70-200mm - all autofocus on my Canon 7D (even AFs with 2 x 1.4x stacked but only use rarely)

[MadasaFruitbat]

Thanks guys, answers were much as I expected, looks like the wife will have to dump some of her shoes so I can take my 50 - 500 :-)