{"id":850,"date":"2013-11-23T22:03:15","date_gmt":"2013-11-23T21:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.speich.net\/articles\/?p=850"},"modified":"2015-12-23T16:24:36","modified_gmt":"2015-12-23T15:24:36","slug":"comparison-of-nikon-300mm-and-600mm-with-teleconverter-tc-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.speich.net\/articles\/en\/2013\/11\/23\/comparison-of-nikon-300mm-and-600mm-with-teleconverter-tc-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Comparison of Nikon 300mm and 600mm with Teleconverter TC-14"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve always been skeptical when it came to teleconverters. The few times I used one I wasn’t really happy with the results, until now.<\/p>\n

\"Buzzard<\/a>
Buzzard (Buteo buteo<\/em>) flying away from a carcass (Nikon D800, 600mm\/f4, 1\/1600s at f5, ISO 2000). Downsampled from 4254×2836 pixels.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Together with some colleagues, I spent four days in northern Germany in the Feldberger Seenlandschaft<\/a> to photograph White-tailed Eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla<\/i>). Half of the day we were on a boat for fishing action, the other half waiting in a hide near a carcass. The weather was gray and foggy, so high ISO settings around 1600 – 5000 were required to obtain exposure times above 1250. Unfortunately, the eagles didn’t play along and we didn’t see any at the hide and only once had fishing action (which I missed…).<\/p>\n

But at least I got some nice shots of Hooded Crows (Corvus corone cornix<\/i>), Magpies (Pica pica<\/em>) and Buzzards (Buteo buteo<\/em>).<\/p>\n

All photos below are shot from a hide at the same location and same distance, but on different days.<\/p>\n

Teleconverter TC-14 II + 300mm\/2.8<\/h2>\n

The photo below is taken with the Nikon D800, the Nikkor 300mm\/f2.8 VR II combined with the teleconverter TC-14 II ending in an focal length of 420mm.<\/p>\n

\"Buzzard<\/a>
This photo of a buzzard (Buteo buteo<\/em>) eating a raccoon (Procyon locor<\/em>) is taken with the 300mm\/2.8 VR II + teleconverter TC-14 II. The picture is downsampled from the full size photo of 7360 x 4912 pixels. Nikon D800, 420mm\/f4, 1\/800s at f4.5, ISO 1600<\/strong>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Buzzard<\/a>
Same photo as above, but downsampled from a crop of 4040 x 2699 pixels.\u00a0 Isn’t it nice to be able to crop, when you’re not close enough?! Nikon D800, 420mm\/f4, 1\/800s at f4.5, ISO 1600.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Comparison<\/a>
To the right is the same photo as above, but at 100% (pixel level). To the right a similar shot taken two days later with the 600mm\/f4 at the same location, but downsampled to about the same size. The photo from the 600mm (see below) is quite a bit sharper than the 300mm x 1.4 combo, but nevertheless the teleconverter delivers a very good performance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"60Buzzard<\/a>
Buzzard (Buteo buteo<\/em>) pulling out organs from a raccoon.\u00a0 Nikon D800, 600mm\/f4, 1\/1250s at f4.5, ISO 2000<\/strong>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Teleconverter TC-14 II + 600mm\/4<\/h2>\n

The photo below is taken with the Nikon D800, the Nikkor 600mm\/f4 VR combined with the teleconverter TC-14 II ending in an focal length of 850mm.<\/p>\n

\"Buzzard\"<\/a>
Buzzard (Buteo buteo<\/em>) pulling out organs from a raccoon taken with the 600mm\/f4 + TC-14 II. This photo is downsampled from the original full resolution of 7360 x 4912 pixels. Nikon D800, 850mm\/f5.6, 1\/1250s at f5.6, ISO 3200<\/strong>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Buzzard<\/a>
Same photo as above but downsampled from 4591 x 3064 pixels. Nikon D800, 850mm\/f5.6, 1\/1250s at f5.6, ISO 3200<\/strong>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Comparison<\/a>
Comparison of the combo 600mm + TC14 versus 600mm alone. The 850mm is less sharp than the 600mm even with the advantage of downsampling. But the 600mm + teleconverter still provides great pictures especially taking into account that this is with ISO 3200 and ISO 2000.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Teleconverter TC-14 + 300mm hand-held from a boat<\/h2>\n

Both photos below are taken from a boat without using a tripod.<\/p>\n

\"Lake<\/a>
Landscape. Nikon D800, 420mm\/f4, 1\/2000s at f4.5<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"foggy-landscape-100\"<\/a>
This is a 100% crop of above photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Birch<\/a>
I love using telephoto lenses for forests. The photos lose all depth and look painted, especially in foggy weather, which adds low-contrast. Nikon D800, 420mm\/f4, 1\/2000s at f5.6, ISO 1600<\/strong>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Birch<\/a>
This is a 100% crop of the above photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve always been skeptical when it came to teleconverters. The few times I used one I wasn’t really happy with the results, until now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,22,43,44,62,72],"class_list":["post-850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography","tag-birds","tag-d800","tag-hand-held","tag-high-iso","tag-nikon","tag-photography-2","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speich.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speich.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speich.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speich.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speich.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.speich.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1213,"href":"https:\/\/www.speich.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850\/revisions\/1213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speich.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speich.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speich.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}