Your opinion on teleconverters?

Hi all. I've been trying to decide on how to effectively extend my focal length in order to get better shots of farther off aircraft. I was wondering what you guys thought about teleconverters. I know there are some pros and cons about them, but what do you guys recommend/ use?

Thanks!

On what lens are you planning to use a convertor?

I would be using it on my Nikon DX 55-200 lens.

In that case don't. I am afraid quality drop-off will be very severe. Plus you will lose your ability to auto-focus if you are not on the top of the line body's. I would only use a convector on lenses like the 70-200 f/2.8 and up.

Okay. Thank you. So what lens would you recommend me to upgrade to? I want to be able to get that farther reach without compromising quality. But at a reasonable price.

Teleconverter makes auto focus next to impossible on moving airplanes, even when it is functional. I tried on a 70-200 2.8 IS and on the 300 F4 IS, both Canon L. There is some loss on the corners, but not so bad. Focus is the main issue, it misses 90% of the time.

I've put a 2x convertor on my 400mm F2.8 prime - fine for stationary objects, but not good enough for moving images. Cropping is a better idea if your images are a large enough size...

I use the Nikon 300mm F4 AFS with TC14E-II and it works very well on the D7100. Here is an example... (edited)

This post has been edited by BjarneEA on 8th May 2013 - 20:52

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