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View Full Version : Nikon 300mm f4 with 1.7 E11 teleconverter wide open



mongo
18-07-2013, 10:41pm
In case you had not noticed, Mongo has been testing and calibrating the 300mm f4 over the last couple of moths or so. From the various posts, you will see that Mongo has tried this lens with just about everything ! ---- except the Nikon 17E11 (because he does not own one). However, Sar has been kind enough to lend him one and now, Mongo can post his findings.

This combination give a very light 500mm f6.7 equivalent.

First, let Mongo say that he had read a lot of nonsense on the net generally as to how unhappy some have been with the 300 f4 in combination with the 1.7 converter. A few have said its OK..........Mongo thinks its bloody amazing !!! See for yourself.

These 2 images are 50 % crops of the originals (shot at slightly different distances). Converted from RAW to Jpeg, ever so slightly processed (as it simply was not necessary with these) and resized for posting.

This one was taken at f11 (that is, about 1.5 stops down from wide open with the converter)
101980

This was taken at f6.7 (that is, wide open with the converter)
101979

Mongo sees no measurable difference between them. So, if you are not looking for DOF and would prefer extra shutter speed with no loss of sharpness, you may as well shoot wide open again with this combination.

So far, all teleconverter combinations have been as good wide open as stopped down. The only exception is the 16A converter which required 1 to 2 stops. However, in fairness, when Mongo did that test, he was not fine focus tuning the AF. He has been doing so since then . So, it may be that even the 16A will give excellent results with no stopping down or with less stopping down than previously thought if fine focus tuning is carried out. The above examples were shot with fine focus tuning of +6. Either way, the results are impressive.

nardes
19-07-2013, 6:00am
Very nice Mongo – the results seem to defy the laws of optics!

Cheers

Dennis

old dog
19-07-2013, 9:38am
very well thought out meal preparation Mongo. You have a great set of kitchen utensils....:D

mongo
19-07-2013, 9:46am
very well thought out meal preparation Mongo. You have a great set of kitchen utensils....:D


Mongo likes the way he has taught you to think OD........... :ps: :D

WhoDo
19-07-2013, 11:03am
Wow! I've been procrastinating about focus tuning my 300 f/4 with the 1.4X TC and you've just totally removed any excuses I may have. That wide open shot is absolutely crammed with detail ... I love it! Thank you, mongo, for sharing. :cool:

mongo
19-07-2013, 4:54pm
Wow! I've been procrastinating about focus tuning my 300 f/4 with the 1.4X TC and you've just totally removed any excuses I may have. That wide open shot is absolutely crammed with detail ... I love it! Thank you, mongo, for sharing. :cool:

You are very welcome Waz (and anybody else this has been helpful to). Glad it was of use to you.
You will find that the lens is frighteningly sharp. However, you will not be getting the best out of that tremendous sharpness if you are unlucky enough to have a little bit of back or front focus. However, that can be easily overcome by making any focus adjustments that may be needed. Please keep in mind that you may NOT have any focus problem and that your equipment may be spot on already without any fine focus adjusting. So you need to first ascertain if you even have any fine focus adjust issues before you do anything.

cupic
20-07-2013, 7:12pm
Mongo: you have rock steady hands and it shows, 300 mm rock

cheers

salnel
20-07-2013, 11:07pm
This is very interesting , Mongo. I have the 300 and use the 1.4 tc with it all the time and I find that when I am steady, the sharpness is brilliant. I had been reading about other tc but wasn't too sure. I have recently bought the d600 which I believe works with the other tc's as well but I wasn't too sure about the results. These photos are wonderful and certainly show the detail is spot on. How did you find the auto focus or are these manually focused? Thanks for the info

mongo
21-07-2013, 2:14pm
This is very interesting , Mongo. I have the 300 and use the 1.4 tc with it all the time and I find that when I am steady, the sharpness is brilliant. I had been reading about other tc but wasn't too sure. I have recently bought the d600 which I believe works with the other tc's as well but I wasn't too sure about the results. These photos are wonderful and certainly show the detail is spot on. How did you find the auto focus or are these manually focused? Thanks for the info

the AF is very good and still quite quick. Nothing stood out about this tc when using it . So, the AF is very similar to the 1.4 or Mongo would have noticed it. It may be a 1/10th of a second slower ??? This is of no real consequence. If you can attach the 1.7 and use it as if it were close enough to the 1.4 in use, then, there is nothing to worry about. Would recommend it subject to proper fine focus adjustment if needed.

salnel
21-07-2013, 7:46pm
Thanks for that, Mongo ..something to bear in mind for the future :)

Tommo1965
11-08-2013, 8:03am
great post Mongo..very useful to me as I have the 1.7 and the 300f4 is on my wish list

mongo
12-08-2013, 9:33am
great post Mongo..very useful to me as I have the 1.7 and the 300f4 is on my wish list

glad it may be useful Steve