300mm f2.8 G with TC-20E-II vs 500mm f4 G with TC-14E-II on D500 Cam (900mm at f5.6 vs 1050mm at f5.6 equivalent)

[stangro]

I did a quick test with small backyard birds today (30 feet away) with my recently purchased (used) 300mm lens thinking it would blow away the 500mm lens combo. The 300mm/2.0x TC combo was considerably less sharp then the 500mm/1.4TC combo. Note that this was a quick and very unscientific test (more testing to follow). I have read the 300mm takes the 2x TC quite well. The used 300mm lens focuses quite well and I am convinced there is nothing wrong with the lens. Anyone have any thoughts on this.

 

[DRwyoming]

FWIW, I've never had great luck with Nikon's 2x teleconverters though as you say it should work as well as it will on something like the 300mm f/2.8 or 400mm f/2.8 lenses. I do understand the latest version TC-2.0 iii is noticeably better than the older model but having tried several generations of Nikon's 2x TCs going back to the manual focus versions I don't have a lot of faith in teleconverters that push things that far.

 

[thelordofthelight]

Hi, Did you confirm if there are front/back focus issues with the combo? I used to own a 500G and have used it with the 1.4TCIII and prior to the 500G i had a 300mm G and TC2.0III. Both the options are very good however i had to carefully AF fine tune the lenses with TCs before getting acceptable results.

 

[thelordofthelight]

Oops, i just re-read your post and realized you use TC2.0 II and this TC was pretty much considered unusable. With the TC2.0III i have had great success with the 300/400 2.8 lenses.

 

[ruley74]

I thought I would have got better results than I did with the 400/2.8G with the TC20 III than I did, I would have called it average, and usable in some cases only... I actually find the results with my 600E better with the same 2x.