nikon teleconverter

albalad

I have just recently upgraded from a compact digital to digital slr (nikon d50) in preparation for an upcoming holiday , where i feel i will need the longest lense possible / practical , but being newish to photography i don't want to rush out and spend £££'s on a big nikon lense ........ really , have you seen the price of some lenses :eek:

So , having read mixed reports regarding teleconverters i would be interested to hear from anyone who has any experience (good or bad)in this field . Or even if you know how i could get a £600 - £700 lense for about £150.:rolleyes:

I'm by no means a great photographer , but would certainly like to learn.



oh and one more thing , is there particular type or model no that you would recommend or avoid ?
thanks

ManAtHome

Teleconverters which also give you autofocus are pretty expensive (think the Nikon and Sigma are both well over £200). You also lose some light due to the extra bits of glass so it'll need to be very sunny to get a decent picture from a long lens.

Why do you think you need a long lens by the way - is it for bird-watching (the feathered ones!). For normal holiday piccies I'd have thought the kit lens (presumably a zoom) would have been good enough - you can always blow up part of the picture with photoshop or similar.

A cheaper alternative would be to use old screw-thread lenses - sorry, dunno if Nikon do an adapter - should be something like M42 or Pentax Screw adapter. With these, you'd have to manually open the aperture full to focus, then click it down bit (around F8 is usually the sharpest - will be marked on the lens), then take the picture. I've only ever done this (with a film SLR) a few times ages ago when I had a couple of cheap long lenses.

Nikon lenses are likely to be the best (at a price!), but I've found Tamron, Tokina, and Sigma to be pretty good, although the cheapest end of their ranges won't stand up to too much rough handling.

Personal view - putting a £100 lens on a £500 SLR is the wrong way round - this was VERY true of film, the eqaution probably changes a bit for digital as you're paying for the CMOS or CCD chip, but it's still the lens what lets the picture in...

JimArnold

all teleconverters will compromise quality - the better ones eg Nikon hopefully less so. You will also lose out on maximum aperture.
Generally most moderate price lens would beat a top quality + teleconvertor

The nice thing about Nikon digital is that you can fit most older Nikon mount lenses to the new cameras - you may lose some of the bells and whistles - inc auto focus. So I'd go and buy a long secondhand lens - remember that you get a magnification boost anyway from the smaller sensor. So I'd look around local camer stores for a 200mm f4 by Tamron or similar if you can't afford a nikkor. Then ask to try it - they should let you fit in on your D50 and take some pics from the doorway which you can look over at your leisure - ah the joys of digital
Anything over 200 mm is very dificult to hand hold anyway

Personally I lust after the new 18-200 nikkor with vibration reduction - £650 !

EvilMonkey

Albalad,

The camera market has always had a good second hand side to it, so ebay or trekking round your local camera stores can turn up some goodies (although you'll be lucky to find the kind of deal you're looking for.)

I'd go whole heartedly with what the other said, unless you're going on safari, a 200 or 300mm lens is plenty. I'm fairly certain you can get if not a nikon G (there slightly cheaper range) then a sigma \ tamron \ tokina zoom for your money.

The quality does suffer, but to be honest not so much that 99% would notice....

My second best lens is a Sigma and Tamron get awards all the time for the quality of their lenses...

E.M.

albalad

thanks all for your very quick and helpful replies so far........

evilmonkey ..... yes , lucky me i'm going on safari (very special anniversary) so i'd figured i would probably need something more than the 55-200mm that i got with the kit , but without going into silly money

manathome........ i'm hoping it will be very sunny , also point taken and understood about putting a £100 lens on my nice new £500 camera.

being new to slr and the type of holiday it is , i would probably rather only have auto-focus lenses with me , as i'd be afraid that i'd be too busy focussing and could miss that shot.


jimarnold........

Generally most moderate price lens would beat a top quality + teleconvertor

this was the feeling i had from the negative reports i'd seen when looking into teleconverters and i think everyone here has just confirmed it for me .

I've had a look on ebay for the sigma 135-400 , but was unaware of the tamron and takina brands so will be having a look out for these in the next couple of days.
As far as hand holding camera and lens , i was planning on buying a cheap tripod too.


thanks again for all your help !

ManAtHome

Hope you have a great time - I'd take the compact as well (and possibly also a film compact.. and possibly a back-up film crew). Good suggestions above about local camera shops (if you can find one) - some Jessops shops have a decent range of s/h kit.

EvilMonkey

The advantage you do have is that low light shouldn't be a huge issue. The really top £ lenses have large aperture more for sports, you can stand one with a relatively high mininmum F if you get my meaning.

Looking around you could get a tamron, Sigma or Nikon G lens for under £120 for a 300mm (effectively a 450mm with the D50's sensor) Any more than that is as you say £600+ even a sigma or other lens.

I think the teleconverter might be the way to go. As stated you'll lose 1-2 stops of light, but as you'll be in africa that shouldn't hit you too hard. But it's still not cheap... a sigma 1.4 converter is around £180 on jessops but would take your existing 200mm up to 450mm (camera takes it to 300mm, teleconverter takes that to 450mm...)

hmmm.. choices choices. take a look through ebay for the lens \ teleconverters you can probably find them for a little less there...

E.M.