Review 4 of 6
Price Paid:
$100.00
from secondhand (>$200 ne Summary: For a Nikon user this converter fills a gap in the Nikon offer: Nikon''s AF-I converters (besides being very expensive) are only for the long telephotos with built-in motors, and the MF AI-type ones do not provide the AF and electrical linking between AF lenses and AF cameras, which the users of the F(N)80, 65, 60, etc. need for the TTL metering to work. As a 7-element job it offers reasonable image quality, better than simpler designs. However, it seems to be most useful with fast telezooms or fixed-focal-length lenses in the tele range; the results with slow ("dark") telezooms are not very encouraging. Strengths: 1) a relatively inexpensive way of getting an extra lens double the original focal length, with image quality higher than achievable by blowing up and cropping the frame
2) full AF and TTL metering linking for all Nikon users
3) quite good image quality in the centre, corners improve when the lens is stopped down
4) with the Tamron 70-300 LD it compensates the lens''s pincushion distortion and produces effectively rectilinear images
5) Quite fast focusing and good image quality with the AF Nikkor 1.8/50 when stopped down two stops Weaknesses: The 2-stop light loss is bearable with a fast lens, but with a slow telezoom such as the Tamron 70-300 F4-5.6 one gets a 140-600 F8-11 which requires stopping down one or two more stops to obtain better image quality. At 600mm the shutter speed should be at least 1/1000s to avoid blurring. Now, to shoot at 1/1000s (or preferably even faster) at F16 or F22 requires very bright light and fast, grainy films. Thus, the combination of a slow telezoom and the Kenko, although capable of producing images of at least acceptable quality, is highly impracticable.
When used with the AF Nikkor 1.8/50 produced soft corners when wide open, but improved much when stopped down 2 stops.
Produced reasonable-quality images with a Russian 300mm F4.5 (Tair3) lens wide open and improved when stopped down, but again stopping down the already slow (F9) combination is impracticable
With the Tamron lens AF is both quite precise and relatively fast in bright light at shorter focal lengths, and bearable, despite the effective aperture of F11, at the long end, but is unreliable and hunts a lot when the light and contrast are low. With the AF Nikkor 1.8/50 the AF sometimes drives the lens very fast beyond the Similar Products Used: Vivitar 2x-3 (MF) - VERY unsharp except in the centre with any lens when wide open, a bit better when stopped down
Russian 2x, 5-element (MF)- just a little bit less sharp than the Kenko MC7, but v
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