Tamron 1.4 AF SP Teleconverter compared to Nikkor 50mm 1.8 AF-D

Teleconverters are a small, light adapters used to extend the focal length of a lens. A teleconverter simply magnifies the center of the image circle on a lens, thus extending its respective range. The most common ranges are 1.4x and 2x teleconverters. 1.4x teleconverters lose one stop of light and tend to maintain good image quality when used with the right lens. 2x teleconverters rarely give good results because it’s just too much magnification, and lose two full stops of light in the process.

There are two distinct disadvantages to using teleconverters. The first is that they reduce the amount of light getting to the sensor, making it harder to focus and keep up a high enough shutter speed for sports. The second disadvantage is that if the lens is not of superb optical quality, any flaws will be magnified by the tc. Consumer zooms are generally a no-no with teleconverters, image quality will be very sub standard. On the other hand, a good prime lens and tc can make an amazing combination of light weight, good image quality, and cheap overall cost.

Why Tamron? I am generally a big fan of Nikkor optics, but their teleconverters are about the same quality as Tamron’s SP line of tcs, but the Nikkors only offer AF for AF-S lenses. The Tamron offers AF with older Nikon screw drive AF lenses, but not AF-S. I don’t own any AF-S lenses, and the Tamron’s are under half the cost, so the choice was obvious!

Taylor Robertson, North Fork American River.

Nikon D700, Nikon 75-150 Series E @ 150mm + Tamron 1.4 TC = 210mm @ 1/800 F5.6 (aka 8 with a TC) ISO 200 Post processing: Saturation +50, 0.1 pixel @ 25% Smart Sharpening.

Now it’s easy to make just about any image look good online with the use of smart sharpening, so the truth is in the crop. 100% crop no sharpening:

Image quality holds up pretty well for the combination of a $100 (used) TC and $70 (used) archaic zoom!

Now if you combine the tc, and a cheap, long old prime, with a cropped camera, you can get an incredibly long and surprisingly good lens for not too much.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 300mm F4.5 EDIF + Tamron TC = a 588mm F6.3 for only $200 (not counting the D200 of course).

Moonrise over Sacramento.

Nikon D200, Nikkor 300mm F4.5 EDIF, Tamron AF SP 1.4x TC @ 30 seconds F8 ISO 100.

So is a TC worth adding to your bag? I say yes if you use primes or high quality zooms (noting that some work well with tc’s, many don’t.) Nope if you have consumer zooms, or the money to buy high end long telephoto lenses.