Nikon TC3-ED Teleconverter

[Bob D]

For winter feederbirds digiscoping provides too much magnification when photographing from inside my house--even using a 15X eyepiece.

I'm considering purchasing the Nikon TC3-ED Teleconverter both for birding and for photographing butterflies.

My question is off topic however, I believe that Andy has used this teleconverter and perhaps others so am asking the question here.

My question pertains to photographing butterflies. Much of my photographing is in the macro mode on my C995. Getting this close often flushes the butterfly. With the teleconverter can I still use the macro mode and does it allow me to be more distant, for example 3 times more distant and get the same image size as without the teleconverter if I were 3 times closer? (Kinda of clumsily stated--I hope it is interpretable).

Thanks!

Bob D

P.S. What an excellent forum. Just discovered this forum this month after spending a lot time over the past year or so on digiscopingbirds. It has helped the month of February in cold Iowa go faster.

[Richard Ford]

If I understand what you are saying I think the answer is yes.
I have recently purchased the 3X converter and have had some good results (I uploaded a picture of a shelduck to the gallery recently taken using it) I plan also to use it to photograph butterflies and dragonflies. Or-though I haven't used it yet for this purpose I have seen results from people who have and they are excellent, and this means you/I will not have to get nearly as close to the insects to get good close ups.

And yes you can still use the Macro and close focus (yellow flower) settings.
I hope that answers your question, if not then Andy has a good knowledge of this product as you say.



Rich

[IanF]

I agree with what Richard says, you do get that extra bit of distance even in macro mode. However there is still a trade off albeit only slightly in that more glass between the camera and subject usually leads to some degradation of image due ti the magnificaton of any minor defects in the lenses. I certainly can tell the difference with the teleconverters that I use. The Nikon 3x does have a very good reputation.

[Mugil]

Bob I agree with Ian and Richard. I have it too and I am very pleased. You can shot in macro mode very close, but be careful to not put the zoom more than half zoom.
It is quite good lens adapter.


Iztok

[Andy Bright]

Yep, it's all been said. From what I remember, the paperwork with the TC3-ED suggested that you shoot in macro mode all the time when using the teleconverter.
I found the optical quality of this tc brilliant, just that with many birds you are still short in focal length and tend to zoom in on your pc more to view it, therefore the subject can look a bit scatchy compared with a full frame subject as in digiscoping.
Don't bother putting the camera in to teleconverter mode via the menus, waste of time.

[Mugil]

Andy good comment. Photos are realy more scatchy compared with digiscoping ones.

[Jay Turberville]

I agree with what Richard says, you do get that extra bit of distance even in macro mode. However there is still a trade off albeit only slightly in that more glass between the camera and subject usually leads to some degradation of image due ti the magnificaton of any minor defects in the lenses. I certainly can tell the difference with the teleconverters that I use. The Nikon 3x does have a very good reputation.

Generally speaking, adding extra glass will degrade an image. But this is not necessarily so. I've done resoltuiion tests with the CP995 at 2X with a 3X TC-E3Ed and found the image to be sharper than that taken with the CP995 at 4X alone. Practically speaking, there is no noticeable degradation in image quality with the TC-E3ED when used with the CP995.

This image is probably taken from a distance similar to what the Bob has in mind. It was taken with a CP995 and the TC-E3ED.

http://www.jayandwanda.com/FlowerPics/BeeHeaven.jpg

[Sven W]

I have only had the converter for about a week an haven't had the possibility to do much testing yet and certainly not on butterflies, far to much snow.

One thing to note on the converter is that the closest focusing distance is rated to something like 90cm, quite long compared to the 2cm you get with the camera alone. This might be OK for larger butterflies but will be a problem for smaller motifs.

The TC-E2 can focus on quite a lot shorter distance and might be a better choice for macro photo only. I saw a comparison containing the exact figures last week but haven't been find it again.

[Jay Turberville]

<snip>
One thing to note on the converter is that the closest focusing distance is rated to something like 90cm, quite long compared to the 2cm you get with the camera alone. This might be OK for larger butterflies but will be a problem for smaller motifs.

The TC-E2 can focus on quite a lot shorter distance and might be a better choice for macro photo only. I saw a comparison containing the exact figures last week but haven't been find it again.

This rating may be accurate when zoomed out of the macro mode, but it certainly does not apply when in macro mode. In macro mode, the subject can be within less than an inch of the TC-E3ED front lens element. The following image of a ruler was taken from such a distance.

http://www.jayandwanda.com/coolpix/3X/DSCN3516sm.jpg

At 31mm zoom, the distance is much longer and seems to approach the 90cm figure (I didn't measure). But overall magnification is still quite high as this image shows.

http://www.jayandwanda.com/coolpix/3X/DSCN3517sm.jpg

Both images are full frame and have simply been resized.

[Sven W]

Jay, thanks for the correction. I read about the 90cm limit in a test and did observe something similar on my first attempts with the converter last saturday. I guess thats another leason not to trust everthing written.

I redid the tests now and was able to reproduce your results. Zoom around 20 mm seems to give good closeup ability. That is minimum zoom then the camera has the lens option set to T3.

This is as far as one can get from a comprehensive test, but it seems like it with the TC-3ED is possible to achive at least half the magnification of the camera alone, which should be more than enough for the butterflies this question was initialy about.