2x teleconverter lens

[pippin]

Hi i have a nikon D80 with 2 lenses, a 200m and 300m nikon nikkor. (lowish budget lenses. as ive just started out on photography) I was thinking of buying a 2 X teleconverter lens to boost them up as im trying to get close pics of my son at footy.Are they any good and what do you recommend . Iv seen a few on ebay coming from USA but not sure about them.

[ianpinion]

Hi Pippin and welcome to the forums.

A teleconverter lens is a great way if you're on a budget of boosting the focal length of your lenses, but it does come with a penalty. That is, the widest aperture you will be able to get using the teleconverter in conjunction with one of your other lenses will be two stops less. So if you the maximum aperture you could get was f/5.6 @ 200mm focal length without the teleconverter, the maximum aperture you would get with it would be f7.1. This would mean you would need to have the shutter open longer to correctly expose the image. Therefore, you could only use it when the light was strong and you would probably need to support the camera and lens on a tripod to stop any camera shake. It may also mean that the autofocus may not work either, because not enough light can pass through the lens quick enough for the system to operate with, but you may need to check this out for your particular camera and lenses.

[ap4a]

2 stops down from f/5.6 is f/11 rather than f/7.1, which is 2/3 of a stop difference

[ianpinion]

Originally Posted by ap4a

2 stops down from f/5.6 is f/11 rather than f/7.1, which is 2/3 of a stop difference

Of course it is! I must've been more tired than I thought!

[OldBoy]

Originally Posted by pippin

Hi i have a nikon D80 with 2 lenses, a 200m and 300m nikon nikkor. (lowish budget lenses. as ive just started out on photography) I was thinking of buying a 2 X teleconverter lens to boost them up as im trying to get close pics of my son at footy.Are they any good and what do you recommend . Iv seen a few on ebay coming from USA but not sure about them.

You don't say what F number those lenses are but my guess is they may be 18-200mm F3.5-5.6 and 70-300mm F4.5-5.6, in which case a 2x Nikon converter won't work with them. For a 2x converter you need at least F4 or less, so I use the 2x converter on my 300mm F4 or my 70-200mm F2.8 and get autofocus. Should point out that the 300mm F4 will only work with autofocus on a semi-pro camera like the D200 ot D300 cameras as well as the pro range. Having said that, I've also used a Sigma 1.4 converter on my Bigma 50-500mm F4-6.3 on my D3 but manual focus only. As you want to photograph your son playing football then any converter used will need a bright sunny day due to the faster shutter speed needed.