Nikon TC-20E III AF-S Tele Converter for Camera

Product Information

It's just as sharp with the 2x teleconverter. You can see more fine details, even though the heat shimmer is magnified twice as much as the first image without the teleconverter.

Adding either teleconverter to your lens will increase the level of chromatic aberration that you experience with most lenses. However, as usual, the exact performance depends on the lens + TC combination. You may often see softer images with this converter if you look too closely, but these are usually because of higher ISOs or blur from longer shutter speeds from the loss of light or enlargement of atmospheric disturbances like haze and heat shimmer, not from any optical fault of the converter itself. The distinction of II in the name of Nikon teleconverters means that the newer versions use lighter metals in their construction. There is no difference betwen the the original versions and the newer ones in terms of functionality or optical performance. Similar to AF performance, lens sharpness, contrast and color rendition will depend on the lens the teleconverter is coupled with. When I used the teleconverter on the Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 Sport, contrast decreased a little, similar to what you would see with the TC-20E III. Sharpness was certainly impacted, especially at the widest aperture of f/5.6. Stopping down to f/8 improves things a bit, as illustrated in MTF charts below.Nikon stopped offering 5-year lens warranties in 2021 in an effort to save themselves money at our expense. The score in the “features-department” is 2[-]/5[0]/6[+]. The biggest disadvantage when using teleconverters is the reduction in focal ratio by 1 stop for the TC-1.4x and 2 stops for the TC-2.0x. But that is the laws of optics at work – and not the fault of Nikon. The other [-] is the inability to use the new TCs in combination with the FTZ-adapter. Not sure how good the image quality would have been. But Nikon deliberately precluded this combination so we will never know. You may also not like the relatively high price compared to the street price of Nikon’s F-mount TCs. But if the optics are good the teleconverters are worth their money. For a more relevant real-world test, I also wanted to look at the Nikon Z 70-200mm f/2.8 at 200mm – since you’ll usually be zoomed in as far as possible when using a TC. First, here’s the bare lens:

Filter-thread: no need to buy new ones. The same filters still can be used at the front of the lens. Which in case of the Nikon Z 70-200mm f2.8 VR S are 77mm diameter. [+]This teleconverter will not work with the FTZ or FTZII and will not work with any F-mount lenses or cameras.

The teleconverters do not add any appreciable vignetting to your lenses. In fact, they often improve it. Here’s an example from my tests of the Nikon Z 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 VR S: Lens profile: Each Z-Nikkor comes with a lens profile for lateral color aberrations, vignette control, diffraction compensation and distortion control. The profiles still work when a TC is attached. [+] What’s the difference between “perform well” and “reasonable experience”? Perform well means that I have some expectation that these combos create image quality that is arguably better than say, the third-party telephoto zoom lenses you can buy. Reasonable experience means that, if I absolutely need the focal length, a good sample of the lens and TC produces image quality that can be used in editorial production.The one deal breaker IMO for wildlife shooters is the lag on startup. When the camera goes to sleep mode it takes what seems about two seconds to start up after hitting the shutter. If you only shoot landscape or architecture this won’t matter, but for wildlife two seconds can be an eternity. For example, I missed most of a coyote walking across a wash while waiting for the camera to wake up. Neither of the two Sony bodies I used had this issue. This lens has no Optical Image Stabilization (OIS, IS or VR (Vibration Reduction)), but does work with any in-camera stabilization your camera or optical stabilization your lens may have. TC-20E increases focal length by 2x and lowers maximum aperture by two stops. The original version was marked AF-I, a second version (II) AF-S, and then it was redesigned optically to create the current TC-20EIII. makes no AF teleconverters, with the exception of the TC-20E and TC-14E that only work with exotic AF-I and

If you're splitting pixels, the TC-17E gives sharper results at the largest apertures. If you need 2x, the TC-20E is your converter. The lenses with f/11 for both “Acceptable” and “Optimal” sharpness produce very unreliable results. NIKON D3S + 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 370mm, ISO 280, 1/1250, f/8.0 Lens Construction and Handling If you look carefully at the full resolution files, you'll see all sorts of weird distortions of the subject, as if you're looking through water to the bottom of a pool. This is exactly the same effect. It's called heat shimmer. Air refracts light differently based on its density, and air's density varies with its temperature. In the real world air is always at different temperatures in different places, and as the air moves around it creates waves the same way.

Sharpness

A pretty impressive difference! And if you’re wondering whether you can achieve the same results by simply cropping: Yes, you can. To achieve the same angle of view of the TC-2.0x you simply need to crop the image without TC by a factor of two. But then you’re losing 75% of pixels and end up with an 11MP photo instead of the original 45MP. Which might well be enough for the intended print or viewing size: a modern 4k Monitor only has 8MP and printing an 11MP photo at a very fine pixel-density of 240 dpi still yields a print of 17×11 in. or 44 x 29cm. After two decades with Canon (film, then 5Dii,iii,iv), I switched to Nikon D850. I now own two along with a variation of the so-called lens trinity: Tamron 15-30 f2.8 G2, Nikon 24-70 f2.8E, Nikon 70-200 f2.8E, plus 1.4xiii teleconverter.