The expensive Nikon Z teleconverter 1.4x at $546

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jimfromno

jimfromno

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I'm now shooting a Z9 after shooting a D850 with a 500 mm PF lens and a 1.4x teleconverter when I needed it, which wasn't often. I plan on purchasing a 180-600mm and was suprised when I went to the B&H website and found they were still on back order. I was going to buy one back in August when they were first announced to ship but then they didn't. I wanted to shoot the Cleveland Air Show in early August and I missed that date so I put off buying it. There was another event that I wanted to shoot and missed because of Nikon's tardienes. I forget now what it was. I'm retired and planned on withdrawing funds from my retirement 457b (like a 401K) in January for tax purposes.

Like I said I went to the B&H site and found the lenes were still on back order. The salesman told me they were backlogged 2000 thousand some lenses. Anyway, I was looking at the teleconverter and was curios of folks opinion of it. Is it worth the bucks? Makes the 600 a 800. But then so does shooting in DX mode and that doesn't cost you anything.

I appreciate the comments.
 
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IMO it's comparable to using a TC on f-mount lenses. No magic bullets. Hard to answer "whether it's worth it". We all value things differently. I bought one but rarely use it. As you indicated most times I just opt for pressing a button and switching to DX mode. The only lens I do occasionally use it on is the 400 4.5. But I wasn't one to use a TC on the 500PF either so maybe that's a frame of reference.
 
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Jim, I have a comparable lens and 1.4X extender.

I have zero regrets relating to purchasing a 1.4X extender; however, there have been moments when I've regretted having it fitted. The latter happens when shooting wildlife at, let's say, 400–500mm. I am then lumbered with a lens with a small aperture and a large depth of field… most certainly not what I had in mind when I bought the lens!

… David
 
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Welcome to BCG

Success in wildlife photography depends on many factors. Tight framing of the subject is often critical.... I've always found a TC essential to clinch framing, but the resulting images turn out poorly if one pushes the envelope set by laws of physics... And as said above, there are penalties of slower lens speed, DOF etc with a Teleconverter: also aggressive cropping an image taken with a TC.

So the wrong end of subject distance, atmospherics, and inferior Lens+TC pairings typically turn out disappointing.

Most zooms + TC =Inferior Pairing, F-mount particularly. I've not tested the 180-600 Z but a friend is impressed with his copy on Z8 with the ZTC14.

IME, the 500 PF, 300 PF, E FL exotic primes (400 f2.8E, 800 f5.6E especially ) all pair very well with the TC14 III, as does the 70-200 f2.8E FL
The new ZTC14 is excellent, within the limits of pragmatic use. It's also useful on 100-400 S for closeups and closer subjects. I often use my ZTC14 with the 800 PF

For wider context/field reviews, I suggest burrowing into Brad Hill's blog pages, as he also has long relied on the Nikkor TC's

Nikon 800 5.6 vs. 6.3

Hi all, Brought this up in another thread, but curious if anyone has any thoughts on the two 800s in terms of comparing them. I own the 800 5.6 and also the 500 5.6. I moved over to the Z system over the winter, so traded in/sold the D500, D850 and D6. My intent is to use the longer teles for...
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Also check out Used market for ZTC14 from reputable dealers who usually give 6 months warranty on a Used purchase. I bought 3 of my TCs this way. These optics are often near New, and traded in by grasshoppers switching camera systems or disappointed with a TC (for wrong reasons, disappointing results on wrong side physics etc)

More teleconverter discussion:

Teleconverters, are they worth it?

I’ve been shooting for a long time and while doing wildlife I’ve always use my 200-500mm Nikon as well as a 70-300mm. I’ve shot full frame for the last 8-9 years and whenever I’ve needed extra reach I’ve just switched to DX crop within the camera. I realize pixels are lost but for the most part...
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DX Mode Versus Teleconverter?

Good day. My question is, what are the differences between using a 1.5 teleconverter vs. dx mode? A 500mm lens = 750mm in both incidences. Is there a good reason as to why people buy one, rather than use the DX camera mode? I would do the experiment to find out the result(s) but I do not own...
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Converters with z9

I’m also curious about Thom’s comment not to sell the 500pf for a 400+TC. Compared to the F-mount 500mm f/5.6E PF, the 400mm f/4.5 VR S with a 1.4x teleconverter (560mm, so not perfectly comparable) seems to do slightly worse in the center, slightly better in the corners. For most telephoto...
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Z Nikkor Teleconverters: Review

https://photographylife.com/reviews/nikon-z-1-4x-2-0x-teleconverters
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If you do decide to buy new, try ordering direct from Nikon. I was in the market for an f-mount tc for my 500mm two years ago and no one had them in stock. I checked the Nikon site and they said they were on backorder. I ordered anyway and received it within 3 weeks.
 
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David Berry said:
Jim, I have a comparable lens and 1.4X extender.

I have zero regrets relating to purchasing a 1.4X extender; however, there have been moments when I've regretted having it fitted. The latter happens when shooting wildlife at, let's say, 400–500mm. I am then lumbered with a lens with a small aperture and a large depth of field… most certainly not what I had in mind when I bought the lens!

… David
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David, Thanks for your reply. Just so I'm clear your shooting the 180-600mm with the Z 1.4 TC on front. I mostly shoot wildlife so I'm interested in your concerns. I wonder if there is a way to get around the deep depth of field. Probably not as it's due to the smaller aperture. But this seems like it would be a very common problem. I know Steve Perry shoots with a TC a lot I wonder how he gets around this issue. Probably just chose a site without much background behind the subject. Move to you find the best location that gives you that. I like the TC because it fills the frame potentially cutting down noise. However, I don't want to trade one problem for a second one. Hey let me ask you, you wrote that you had it fitted. What does that mean, "fitted" ?
 
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jimfromno said:
I wonder if there is a way to get around the deep depth of field. Probably not as it's due to the smaller aperture. But this seems like it would be a very common problem.
Click to expand...
FWIW, when you add a TC to a lens and shoot at the same distance to the subject the DoF actually reduces slightly. Yes, the aperture drops (e.g. a 1 stop drop in wide open aperture with a 1.4x TC) but the effective focal length also increases. The net effect is shallower DoF when you stay in the same place and shoot the same subject distance with a TC attached.

If you play around with a DoF calculator like this you can see how a TC impacts DoF without changing the dialed in aperture (the effective aperture will change as you add the TC) or distance to your subject. https://www.photopills.com/calculators/dof

For instance if you shoot a 600mm lens at f/6.3 with the subject at 50 meters the DoF is 2.62 meters. If you add a 1.4x TC but don't change the dialed in aperture (but the camera will show a 1 stop slower aperture at f/9 once the TC is added) with the same subject distance of 50m the DoF drops to 1.86 meters.

The other way to look at this is you're going from a 600mm lens with a f/6.3 wide open aperture to roughly an effective 840mm lens with a f/9 wide open aperture. The latter has a shallower DoF for the same subject distance.
 
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It may just be a pet peeve for me, but the engineer in me has to say that going from a full-frame sensor utilization to a cropped-frame sensor utilization does not change the focal length of any lens, at all. All it does is to throw away a lot of the data (light) collected by the lens by restricting the areas upon the sensor where the light is recorded to the camera circuitry, and on to the memory card. It does this by restricting the field/angle-of-view used in creating the file.

The key to teleconverter performance, in many cases, is the performance of the lens it is paired with. If the paired lens has flaws, (and face it, they all do) the teleconverter will amplify them before they arrive on the sensor. If the teleconverter has flaws, those can also contribute to a lesser image quality.

In my minimal experience with the Z TC-1.4, compared to the F-mount TC-14 III, I'll testify that I believe that the Z TC is better. However, that could be due to the lens paired with (70-200 f/2.8 E FL) for the shots isns't as good as the Z version of the 70-200mm Series Z lens on my Z9.
 
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The Z converters have IMO a justified reputation for producing higher image quality on compatible Z lenses than F converters on compatible F lenses - though the Z 1.4x has an about 25% price premium above the F1.4x.
Turning to the intended lens the 180-600 while optically well ahead of anything that came before from Nikon for a zoom, I find it does loose slight image quality between about 500mm and 600mm - and the 800 PF usefully ahead of the 180-600 at 600 with 1.4 with close to the same image magnification.

In theory you should get best optical quality with the 180-600 TC/1.4 TC at about 700mm equivalent.
In reality the right image magnification in camera is the ideal way to go (when possible with wildlife) or aircraft and the zoom advantage is this is more conveniently achieved with a zoom rather than usually slightly higher image quality without zoom flexibility using a prime.

My suggestion is start by first using the 180-600 (the waiting time seems to be shortening) that gives a little more magnification than your 500 PF - and the decide.
 
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Ralph said:
I think sometimes it does. But that’s just my opinion. No facts to back it up. Just the example with the TC I ordered.
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Ralph, I agree with your opinion.

I've read here of instances where people have waited longer for items ordered directly through Nikon, and where they've waited less for items ordered through Nikon. There are too many variables to forecast which source will get any particular item to you the quickest.

The best indicator that you'd get the item sooner from one source than another is if one of them has the item in stock, over the other source not having any at the time.
 
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jimfromno said:
I'm now shooting a Z9 after shooting a D850 with a 500 mm PF lens and a 1.4x teleconverter when I needed it, which wasn't often. I plan on purchasing a 180-600mm and was suprised when I went to the B&H website and found they were still on back order. I was going to buy one back in August when they were first announced to ship but then they didn't. I wanted to shoot the Cleveland Air Show in early August and I missed that date so I put off buying it. There was another event that I wanted to shoot and missed because of Nikon's tardienes. I forget now what it was. I'm retired and planned on withdrawing funds from my retirement 457b (like a 401K) in January for tax purposes.

Like I said I went to the B&H site and found the lenes were still on back order. The salesman told me they were backlogged 2000 thousand some lenses. Anyway, I was looking at the teleconverter and was curios of folks opinion of it. Is it worth the bucks? Makes the 600 a 800. But then so does shooting in DX mode and that doesn't cost you anything.

I appreciate the comments.
Click to expand...
I am a bit confused by your post asking about the Z 1.4 TC and more commenting on the back-orders on the 180-600mm at B&H. If your goal is to get this lens faster, definitely try ordering at other places, like Nikon directly or your local store. Personally, I am not a fan of using a TC on a zoom lens. I have the Z 1.4 TC and was not pleased with my shots with this TC on the 100-400mm lens but use it a lot on my 400mm f/4.5 prime and the 800mm PF like on this shot:
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