I received a Nikon TC-20E III teleconverter a few days ago. I’ve not really been an advocate of 2x teleconverters, but this new design from Nikon contains aspherical elements (Nikon claims it is the first teleconverter with such a design) intended to drastically improve performance.
A 2x teleconverter is only intended for use on fast telephoto lenses. In fact, Nikon’s design prevents mounting any of their teleconverters on non-AFS lenses. Because the teleconverter robs you of light (in the case of the TC-20E III, two full stops), autofocus performance may degrade and viewfinder brightness will diminish. Given that, I only have a couple of lenses in my arsenal that would be a good match for the TC-20E III:
- 70-200mm f/2.8 AFS VRII (becomes a 140-400mm f/5.6 lens)
- 200mm f/2.0 AFS VR (becomes a 400mm f/4.0 lens)
I also have a few lenses that might work ok, depending on my need for fast autofocus:
- 300mm f/4.0 AFS (becomes 600mm f/8.0 lens)
- 200-400mm f/4.0 AFS VR (becomes a 400-800mm f/8.0 lens)
- 600mm f/4.0 AFS VR (becomes a 1200mm f/8.0 lens)
So far, I’ve briefly evaluated sharpness and AF ability with each of these lenses in a non-scientific manner.
Continue reading for my first impressions…