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Benefit of teleconverter over shooting in DX mode?

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George Payne Jr

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Can someone tell me what the benefits are using a teleconverter over shooting in DX mode? I know with some converters you obtain more magnification, but what else? What are the best Nikon options out there for teleconverters? I will be using it for shooting my sons lacrosse games.
 
George Payne Jr said:
Can someone tell me what the benefits are using a teleconverter over shooting in DX mode? I know with some converters you obtain more magnification, but what else? What are the best Nikon options out there for teleconverters? I will be using it for shooting my sons lacrosse games.
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For the same subject size, shooting in DX mode will give you less pixels than shooting with a TC. You have to consider whether less pixels will give you a sharper photos than using a TC, which is a magnification added to the lens. It may not have been designed to work well with the lens you are using, so it may not give you a sharper photo than shooting in the DX mode. More pixels do not always give you a sharper photo.

Sometimes I shoot with a TC on a 400mm, and somes not. It depends on whether I can get away with shooting at f4 instead of f2.8, or whether I should use a 24mp (D600) instead of a 12 mp (D3s) camera.
 
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With teleconverter you are magnifying part of center image circle from the lens to the full sensor area and with crop mode you are just using less area of the sensor(same) as cropping full image later in PC. TC will give you better results.
 
George Payne Jr said:
Can someone tell me what the benefits are using a teleconverter over shooting in DX mode? I know with some converters you obtain more magnification, but what else? What are the best Nikon options out there for teleconverters? I will be using it for shooting my sons lacrosse games.
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There is no image quality advantage for you to shoot in DX mode. Whether you crop in camera (dx mode) or crop in post, you would have the same pixels. Adding a TC will add focal length to your lens and add detail to your image.
 
George Payne Jr said:
Can someone tell me what the benefits are using a teleconverter over shooting in DX mode? I know with some converters you obtain more magnification, but what else? What are the best Nikon options out there for teleconverters? I will be using it for shooting my sons lacrosse games.
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More pixels on subject. That's your advantage. Disadvantages are introduction of more glass (distortion, loss of acuity, increase in flare) and loss of light.
 
Tharaphita said:
With teleconverter you are magnifying part of center image circle from the lens to the full sensor area and with crop mode you are just using less area of the sensor(same) as cropping full image later in PC. TC will give you better results.\
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+1. IQ should be better with a TC depending on the TC and lens combo you would be using. Generally 1.4 TCs only suffer very minor image degradation, but beginning with 1.7 TCs there are compromises to be made with reach vs IQ.
 
George Payne Jr said:
Can someone tell me what the benefits are using a teleconverter over shooting in DX mode? I know with some converters you obtain more magnification, but what else? What are the best Nikon options out there for teleconverters? I will be using it for shooting my sons lacrosse games.
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I depends on the lens and teleconverter.

All teleconverters degrade the image, cropping the image will also show more defects, the question should be which one does the less damage to the photo, and again that depends on the lens.

say you are shooting a target that has 100 sensor pixels from edge to edge, DX mode, cropping or magnifying (teleconverter), will not change it.
 
PHXAZCRAIG said:
George Payne Jr said:
Can someone tell me what the benefits are using a teleconverter over shooting in DX mode? I know with some converters you obtain more magnification, but what else? What are the best Nikon options out there for teleconverters? I will be using it for shooting my sons lacrosse games.
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More pixels on subject. That's your advantage. Disadvantages are introduction of more glass (distortion, loss of acuity, increase in flare) and loss of light.

--
Craig
www.cjcphoto.net
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I could be wrong but I don't believe you will get more pixels on the subject.

Wait I think I am wrong, crap I don't know.:-)
 
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Thanks for all the replies everyone! I'm looking at the Nikon TC-14Elll to use with my Nikon 70-200 VRll.
 
(I'm not a professional, but ...) If you are looking for the best results, buy the lens that will do that job. For example, if the game is played on something like a scoccer field you'll need reach, perhaps 400mm (on an FX body). But then you have a very specialized lens. You get a TC to cut cost and maintain flexibility, but you might have to give a little quality to get the shot. But most importantly you've got the shot. ;-) It's a bit pricey, but 80-400 gets pretty high marks, behind that a TC with the 70-200 mm f/4 will work. ..... Best of luck and let us see some of your shots. ;-)
 
BobWorrell said:
PHXAZCRAIG said:
George Payne Jr said:
Can someone tell me what the benefits are using a teleconverter over shooting in DX mode? I know with some converters you obtain more magnification, but what else? What are the best Nikon options out there for teleconverters? I will be using it for shooting my sons lacrosse games.
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More pixels on subject. That's your advantage. Disadvantages are introduction of more glass (distortion, loss of acuity, increase in flare) and loss of light.
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You're definitely wrong.

With a TC, you get ALL your sensor's pixels on the subject. With cropping, you only get some of them.

The advantage to cropping is that you lose nothing but pixels. With a TC, you introduce glass, and you lose light.

Of course one advantage to both TC's and cropping is that you (may) eliminate problematical corners (depending how you crop).
 
Teleconverters have a negligible impact on image quality when used properly with good lenses. The problem is that any shortcomings of the main lens and the technique of the photographer are magnified along with the image.

The IQ loss from cropping is always going to be greater than having the image properly magnified with a top quality teleconverter. With the original Nikon 80-400mm f5.6 VR lens the lens was not usable with a teleconverter as the IQ and autofocus performance was already marginal and this was the case with pro level DX cameras. With the new version of this lens I can autofocus with all three Nikon teleconverters with a D7100 camera and that is with what amounts to an f11 max aperture lens setup.

The latest generation of teleconverters are quite a bit better than the older ones and although it is expensive to buy the newer ones it is money well spent. The offset in part is that I can continue to use the teleconverters on my current and future Nikon lenses.

With my teleconverters the TC-20E III provided better IQ than the TC-17E II and the TC-14E II ones. The TC-17E II was better than the TC-14E II teleconverter (which I recently replaced with the TC-14E III teleconverter).

There are those that even stack teleconverters with super telephoto lenses and if using good technique they can get professional results and pictures that would not otherwise be possible. George Lepp has produced some impressive images with the Canon 800mm lens and two of the Canon 2x teleconverters.

One area where teleconverters can negatively impact image quality is with the increased diffraction when they are used with super telephoto lenses. This was apparent with the D3 and even more so with the D800.
 
BobWorrell said:
PHXAZCRAIG said:
George Payne Jr said:
Can someone tell me what the benefits are using a teleconverter over shooting in DX mode? I know with some converters you obtain more magnification, but what else? What are the best Nikon options out there for teleconverters? I will be using it for shooting my sons lacrosse games.
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More pixels on subject. That's your advantage. Disadvantages are introduction of more glass (distortion, loss of acuity, increase in flare) and loss of light.
Click to expand...
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DX mode reduces MP used by over 50% - likely to result in a reduction in resolution between 20 and 30%.

Whether you can see the difference depends on how much you enlarge the image.

1.4 TC's loose less than 10% in the tests from reliable sources I have looked at giving them a resolution advantage.

The TC slows up AF speed and reduces viewfinder brightness. For sports in low light a cropped DX mode (or post cropped) image which is sharp because the AF worked better is usable. An unsharp image because a converter reduced AF performance is rarely usable.

Photography is often simple. The challenge is often doing the simple things well :)

Knowing whether and when to crop (DX or post) or use a converter is part of the learning curve of becoming a good photographer
 
George Payne Jr said:
Thanks for all the replies everyone! I'm looking at the Nikon TC-14Elll to use with my Nikon 70-200 VRll.
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Shooting in DX is just a in camera crop ,nothing more,you should get much better results with the TC if you fine tune the combo at one focal length and leave it there. (IMO zooms and TC aren't a good match) Your also going to need great light to make the combo work. Whenever I go out with the TC I always bring along the front and rear caps just in case I need to remove it for one reason or another.
 
George Payne Jr said:
Can someone tell me what the benefits are using a teleconverter over shooting in DX mode? I know with some converters you obtain more magnification, but what else? What are the best Nikon options out there for teleconverters? I will be using it for shooting my sons lacrosse games.
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This is not what you asked (and there have been many useful things said on the subject that you asked about), but I think the best 1.5x converter for lens normally used on a 24 MP FF camera would be to use that lens on a 24MP DX camera.

Jim
 
JimKasson said:
I think the best 1.5x converter for lens normally used on a 24 MP FF camera would be to use that lens on a 24MP DX camera.
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Mainly +1 - except Nikon have yet to put group AF (good for birds in flight) into a DX body.
 
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