600 VR ED & TCs

HI,

I just acquired a Nikon 600 VR ED (previous model to the brand new one) and am in the throws of getting used to it, its bulk and refining my technique.

I wonder if you can speed up my learning curve with some teleconverter advice?

I currently have a 1.4 II and a 2.0 III. 

I am thinking of upgrading the 1.4II to a III, but am also considering the 1.7 as an alternative. My other equipment is an 800e, tripod is a Gitzo and head an FSB-8 (both from my video pursuits and more than capable at this weight). Target species are canopy birds and canopy mammals and I do need reach for that but on grey days I need to be aiming lower in the canopy so speed is also an issue.

What would be your advise? Stick with the 1.4 II, upgrade the 1.4 III or invest in the 1.7?

Get the 1.4 III. It is a bit better than the II and is worlds better than the 1.7.

If you are using the D800/800E/810 you can crop the sensor with DX crop with the camera. Depending on light you will have 20 to 22mb files to work with. I have a Nikon 600mmF:4 VRII AFS lens and do not use tele extenders. If I need to have more reach I use the cameras crop under Image Area that is in the shooting menu. If you are going to use this with a D600 your DX file will be about 19MB. In all instances I am using 14 bit on all cameras.

Larry Shuman wrote:If you are using the D800/800E/810 you can crop the sensor with DX crop with the camera.

There is no advantage at all to using the DX crop function other than you will get one more frame per second. I personally prefer to have the flexibility to crop afterwards than in camera. I never use the DX crop function, but will occasionally use the 1.2x crop factor to gain that extra frame per second. Mind you, that probably only applies to the D800 (which is what I have).

There is also an advantage to using a TC over using in camera crop, which is blurring the BG. Using the TC will blur the BG more, whereas using in camera crop instead of a TC will not.

Tim Zurowski wrote:

Larry Shuman wrote:If you are using the D800/800E/810 you can crop the sensor with DX crop with the camera.

There is no advantage at all to using the DX crop function other than you will get one more frame per second. I personally prefer to have the flexibility to crop afterwards than in camera. I never use the DX crop function, but will occasionally use the 1.2x crop factor to gain that extra frame per second. Mind you, that probably only applies to the D800 (which is what I have).

There is also an advantage to using a TC over using in camera crop, which is blurring the BG. Using the TC will blur the BG more, whereas using in camera crop instead of a TC will not.

There are two distinct advantages in certain situations:
1. higher frame rate as you mentioned
2. less storage space required

There are times when that could be handy.

Yeah, I forgot the file size thing, but that is really not much of an issue for me. Anyway, that's not the real point here. The real point is that going to DX crop in camera is not the same as using a converter.

Another significant benefit of DX mode is if you are shooting video. Since the scan time is much much less in DX mode than FX mode, you get much less rolling shutter.

Thanks EJ, I have gone ahead and upgraded the 1.4 to mark III as kindly suggested.

FWIW, I upgraded to the III from the II. Using it with the 500 f/4 VR there has been no improvement whatsoever for me. I also have a friend who has the 600 f/4 VR who also upgraded to the III from the II. He also has not seen any improvement at all. He feels his is so much worse than just using the lens alone, that he never uses the TC at all. We both use the D800. I truly hope you find the improvement you are hoping for, but I wouldn't hold your breath on that.

Thanks Tim, I will let you know how I fare soon.

After a couple of months with the lens, Tim's words did ring true. I found the image keepers significantly reduced with 1.4 TC and now prefer to use the lens without the TC. My issues were primarily of attaining accurate autofocus with the TC on distant subjects - on closer subjects it was not an issue.

What camera body are you using with the combination?

800e

I might have said that before about the TC, but now with the new 500 f/4E, FL lens the 1.4E III is awesome! Not sure that means whether the new combo's are matched better or not.

Whitehead and Tim, are you guys fine tuning the autofocus with the TC attached? Neither of you seemed to mention doing so, if I haven't misread.

Joe

When I tried the older 500 with the new TC using a D7100, I couldn't get the combo to work even after fine tuning. With the D810's, the combination is great and I'm having no problems with the images. I don't use software to fine tune. I look at images and adjust until I like the balance for the focus zone on the tilted ruler.

SantaFeJoe wrote:Whitehead and Tim, are you guys fine tuning the autofocus with the TC attached? Neither of you seemed to mention doing so, if I haven't misread.

Joe

Hi, no I have not fine tuned for the TC.

Hi

I do not have the 600 f4 but when you said you did not fine tune the autofocus with the TC, I had to chime in.

From my limited experience with long Nikkors I have owned in the past, I would not pass judgment on the TC-attached (combination) without first carefully fine tuning the DSLR's autofocus with that TC on. 

With a very careful tuning, you may see the improvement you seek. 

Robert

Unfortunately, in today's world of Nikon cameras and lenses, you can make absolutely zero judgement on a camera/lens combo's capability to produce high quality images from a resolution/sharpness standpoint without performing AF fine tune first.  Nikon gear, without it, is simply all over the place.  Unlike Canon, where if you buy a series II lens and a5D3, 1Dx, or 5DS(R), you stand a very good chance of getting a combo that requires little to no tuning, in the Nikon world you stand almost no chance of getting a camera/lens combo that does not require it.  In many cases it requires a huge adjustment, sometimes beyond the user available adjustment range (about 40% of the time in the case of the 500VR, 1.4x and any Nikon body)

whitehead wrote:

SantaFeJoe wrote:Whitehead and Tim, are you guys fine tuning the autofocus with the TC attached? Neither of you seemed to mention doing so, if I haven't misread.

Joe

Hi, no I have not fine tuned for the TC.

It's not fair to slam the performance of a piece of equipment that has not been properly tuned. Many who are considering the purchase of such a TC might feel that it is a piece of junk when, in reality, it is not generally the fault of the equipment. AF fine tuning is pretty much a necessity nowadays, as E.J. said.

Joe