Kenko PRO 300 3x teleconverter

I have used this teleconverter with a nikon 180/2.8 ED and a Tamron 90 mm/2.8 macro. Both lenses are well known for their extreme sharpness and good contrast.

With the 180 mm on a digital DX-size sensor you obtain 180 x 1.5 x 3 = 840 mm of focal lenght. This is near impossible to hand hold, also because of the increased minimum aperture.

The results are dissapointing. I obtained massive color fringing on a Nikor D200, high loss of contrast and sharpness. I intend to trade in the tele converter for a good quality 2x.

You will get that distant bird or rabbit full frame, just not sharp
autofocus did still work on my D200, though slow and not always 100% accurate

very visible loss of contrast with good lenses
very visible loss of sharpness. With 10 megapixels an enlargement and a 2 x teleconverter will probably give a better end result.

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This review is based on the use of Nikon F80/N80 and Nikon 2.8/300 AF lens, using Fuji slide film and a tripod. According to the encouraging results of the shorter Kenko converters with this particular setup, I went lunatic and procured the 3x converter to get up to 900mm effective focal length. I did not expect much more than that it would work somehow and deliver something like an image. If you read carefully what the instruction leaflet sais, this TC is designed to be used with tele lenses of f/2.8 or brighter (maybe tailored for the Tokina 2.8/300 lens). It is certainly not designed to boost a zoom lens. To make the story short, it works and delivers images. Period. Nobody shall expect particular image quality, but my results are reasonable with respect to the handling problems inevitable when shooting with extremely long focal length, i.e. a tripod is a "must". I noticed acceptable sharpness but a distinguishable loss of contrast in the images. I recommend to under-expose by about 0.5 f-stop when using such a combination. I could not detect any quality improvement in stopping down the aperture, and the loss of light, equivalent to three f-stops, does not encourage to stop down at all. I also noticed some slight colour fringing towards the corners. To my surprise, I found the handling was not more problematic that using a 2x converter. This item is considerably longer than a 2x TC, I expected more trouble with panning motions and mirror shake, but it is virtually just the same order of magnitude. In my opinion, this TC produces a magnified cutout of the centre part of the prime lens image, because the otherwise noticeable light fall-off towards the corners is completely absent. With the a.m. combination I cannot notice any vignetting at fully open aperture. This TC is a nice tool to occasionally boost a good prime lens to the limits, and I recommend it to all amateurs wishing to experience photography at this level. It is useful to elaborate skills in techniques of photography. It does probably not satisfy the needs of professional photographers. My rating accounts for the fact that this is a unique tool and that limited optical quality should be expected.

Identical good build quality like other Kenko Pro300 converters. No observable vignetting. No change to coulour rendition. Fits well and works with Nikon mechanical AF lenses. Reasonable sharpness.

Visible reducion of contrast. Requires careful exposure metering, as it appears to over-expose slightly. Not good enough for people addicted to top quality.

Other Kenko Pro300 series, Zeiss Mutar II

Not needed for this item, otherwise excellent in Germany.

Let me start by answering the question anybody who's considering purchasing this 3x TC is asking himself/herself: yes, it is for real and it *does* work. Optical quality is very good, expect the same results as a good third-party 2x TC, BUT (here's the usual big but when anything seems too good to be true...) even overlooking the loss of 3 f-stops (which is, by the way, a *SERIOUS* loss: your typical f/5.6 tele-zoom becomes f/16 and your catadioptric f/8 becomes f/22!!!), the autofocus on this thing only works on lenses with a max aperture of f/2.8 or larger, frankly RIDICULOUS, especially if you are using it on a long telephoto/zoom lens. In order to successfully use this TC on your average amateur tele-zoom, you will need 1600 ISO film, a very bright day, a very sturdy tripod, a stopped mirror (if your camera has such a feature, mine fortunately has it...consider that even the simple mirror shock will blur the photo) and, last but not least, a very STEADY subject. Forget about flying birds, airplanes etc. If you can live with all the above limitations, by all means go out and buy this teleconverter, as the optical quality is quite good.

- 3x - Good/solid construction - Good glass/optical quality - Affordable price (around $200 on Ebay from several vendors.)

- Loss of 3 f-stops - Autofocus useless on lenses with max aperture smaller than f/2.8 - Extremely sensitive to vibrations (tripod, fast film and stopped mirror obligatory to get decent results.)

- All sorts of Nikon and third party 1.4, 1.5 and 2x teleconverters.

No experience yet.