Tele-converter Lens's

A recently purchased an Nikon D40 camera Kit at a Nikkor 55 to 200 mm AF-SED
F 4-5.6 lens. I'm very happy with the camera and lens. Although I read mixed
reviews about the Nikkor lens I purchased, I have to say overall the 55 to
200 mm lens takes excellent pictures overall for a $200 lens.I would prefer
however, a greater ability to be able to take photographs of birds and
wildlife at a distance. Unfortunately, I don't have $4,000 to blow on the
lens at this point in time. My question is would he be reasonable to get a
1.4x Tele converter lens for the Nikkor 200 mm lens? I've seen Nikon Tele
converter lenses for $3-$400 and this is much more affordable for me. Any
suggestions would be great. TIA

In article J2w9j.3908$L91.2832@trndny05, someguy469
wrote:

A recently purchased an Nikon D40 camera Kit at a Nikkor 55 to 200 mm AF-SED
F 4-5.6 lens. I'm very happy with the camera and lens. Although I read mixed
reviews about the Nikkor lens I purchased, I have to say overall the 55 to
200 mm lens takes excellent pictures overall for a $200 lens.I would prefer
however, a greater ability to be able to take photographs of birds and
wildlife at a distance. Unfortunately, I don't have $4,000 to blow on the
lens at this point in time. My question is would he be reasonable to get a
1.4x Tele converter lens for the Nikkor 200 mm lens? I've seen Nikon Tele
converter lenses for $3-$400 and this is much more affordable for me. Any
suggestions would be great. TIA

not really.

a 1.4x converter will turn the 55-200 into a 77-280 f/5.6-f/8 lens, and
that's past the limit of what the autofocus officially supports.
however, in good light it will still focus most of the time. it won't
be particularly ideal for birding, however. there's also a loss in
quality with the converter.

a better choice is the stabilized 70-300vr which is about $450 these
days and an excellent lens, or a non-stabilized version for around
$100-$150 from nikon and third party vendors (and nowhere near as
good). stabilization at the longer end is *very* useful.

however, depending on how far away from the birds you are, even longer
lenses might be needed. tokina makes a relatively inexpensive 80-400,
and lenses longer than that, the price starts climbing dramatically.

On Mon, 17 Dec 2007 14:52:25 GMT, someguy469 wrote:
A recently purchased an Nikon D40 camera Kit at a Nikkor 55 to 200 mm AF-SED
F 4-5.6 lens. I'm very happy with the camera and lens. Although I read mixed
reviews about the Nikkor lens I purchased, I have to say overall the 55 to
200 mm lens takes excellent pictures overall for a $200 lens.I would prefer
however, a greater ability to be able to take photographs of birds and
wildlife at a distance. Unfortunately, I don't have $4,000 to blow on the
lens at this point in time. My question is would he be reasonable to get a
1.4x Tele converter lens for the Nikkor 200 mm lens? I've seen Nikon Tele
converter lenses for $3-$400 and this is much more affordable for me. Any
suggestions would be great. TIA

I don't think that will work very well. For starters, you'll lose
autofocus (your f/5.6 lens will become f/8 if you mount a 1.4x
converter).

If your budget is $400, I'd think about trying to stretch a bit and get
the $470 70-300 f/4.5-5.6 VR lens. That will get you roughly the
same focal length as your 55-200 + 1.4x, and you'll get something that
will actually work without massive amounts of fiddling.

You could probably either sell the 55-200 or buy a used 70-300, and that
would likely get the net price down below $400.

-dms

someguy469 wrote:
A recently purchased an Nikon D40 camera Kit at a Nikkor 55 to 200 mm
AF-SED F 4-5.6 lens. [...]
My question is would he be reasonable to get a 1.4x Tele converter lens
for the Nikkor 200 mm lens? I've seen Nikon
Tele converter lenses for $3-$400 and this is much more affordable

I wish it were that easy myself. Keep in mind that tele converters do impact
the picture quality. Good ones less than bad ones, but even good ones do.
But more important Nikon states that teleconverters should not be used with
lenses that are slower than F4 because it effects the autofocus. On the
other hand many people report that AF still works, even with a slow lens. I
guess it's really a matter of how well lit your scenerie is, but at least be
prepared to fall back to manual focus.

I bought a 70-300f/4.5-5.6G VR instead. It is still reasonably priced at
e.g. 470$ at B&H and I am very happy with it. Unfortunately anything longer
or faster is becoming very expensive very fast.

jue

On Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:02:51 GMT, Daniel Silevitch wrote:

On Mon, 17 Dec 2007 14:52:25 GMT, someguy469 wrote:
A recently purchased an Nikon D40 camera Kit at a Nikkor 55 to 200 mm AF-SED
F 4-5.6 lens. I'm very happy with the camera and lens. Although I read mixed
reviews about the Nikkor lens I purchased, I have to say overall the 55 to
200 mm lens takes excellent pictures overall for a $200 lens.I would prefer
however, a greater ability to be able to take photographs of birds and
wildlife at a distance. Unfortunately, I don't have $4,000 to blow on the
lens at this point in time. My question is would he be reasonable to get a
1.4x Tele converter lens for the Nikkor 200 mm lens? I've seen Nikon Tele
converter lenses for $3-$400 and this is much more affordable for me. Any
suggestions would be great. TIA

I don't think that will work very well. For starters, you'll lose
autofocus (your f/5.6 lens will become f/8 if you mount a 1.4x
converter).

If your budget is $400, I'd think about trying to stretch a bit and get
the $470 70-300 f/4.5-5.6 VR lens. That will get you roughly the
same focal length as your 55-200 + 1.4x, and you'll get something that
will actually work without massive amounts of fiddling.

You could probably either sell the 55-200 or buy a used 70-300, and that
would likely get the net price down below $400.

-dms

Whereas you could get an excellent 36mm-736mm f/2.7 to f/3.5 IS lens by buying
any one of the 12X Canon P&S cameras and putting nice $90 Sony 1.7x
tele-converter on it. The Sony tele-converter works better than Canon's. All for
the price of just that one lens.

I don't expect you to do that, because ... well ... there's just no reasoning
with the completely blind and totally insane.

On Dec 17, 9:52 am, "someguy469" wrote:
A recently purchased an Nikon D40 camera Kit at a Nikkor 55 to 200 mm AF-SED
F 4-5.6 lens. I'm very happy with the camera and lens. Although I read mixed
reviews about the Nikkor lens I purchased, I have to say overall the 55 to
200 mm lens takes excellent pictures overall for a $200 lens.I would prefer
however, a greater ability to be able to take photographs of birds and
wildlife at a distance. Unfortunately, I don't have $4,000 to blow on the
lens at this point in time. My question is would he be reasonable to get a
1.4x Tele converter lens for the Nikkor 200 mm lens? I've seen Nikon Tele
converter lenses for $3-$400 and this is much more affordable for me. Any
suggestions would be great. TIA


Try to find a 500mm f5.6 lens, $3-400 maybe a little low for such a
lens, but you maybe able to find one that is not AF, learning to focus
is not such a bad thing. The teleconverter is not a good idea on such
a slow lens as your 55 to 200, remember it is f5.6 at 200mm. Another
"cheap" birding outfit folks use with Nikon is the 300 f4 with the 1.4
teleconverter. f4 (f5.6 with the converter) is about the highest f
stop you can use while retaining autofocus. Mjor birders use 600mm +
lenses, well out of most folks range price wise, have to be obcessed
with birds to get that one.

Good luck
Tom