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TC-20E Nikon TC-20E. enlarge. I bought mine at Adorama, and Amazon is also a great place to get it. I helps me keep adding to this site if you use these links to get yours, too. Thanks!
June 2008 More Nikon Reviews TC-14E TC-17E TC-20E III 10 December 2009
Introduction top Intro Specifications Performance Recommendations The Nikon TC-20E is an expensive (about $400) 2x teleconverter. Its front elements poke out, so they are shrouded in rubber. After about ten years, this rubber develops a little bit of a gray haze on it, which wipes right off.
Compatibility It works only with the more exotic of Nikon's AF-I and AF-S lenses. One cannot mount any other lenses on it unless one grinds down lugs on the female teleconverter mount at a machine shop. Nikon makes no AF teleconverters for its general line of AF lenses. One must instead use a Nikon manual focus converter and focus manually, or screw with discount brands and hope the matrix metering couples correctly. See Teleconverters for more.
History 1976-2005 Nikon has also made manual-focus 2x teleconverters for decades. I'm ignoring them here.
Nikon TC-20E II. 1992-2001 Nikon's first AF 2x teleconverter was called the TC-20E. It was marked "AF-I" for the only kind of lenses with which it worked when it was introduced. As Nikon introduced AF-S lenses, these converters worked perfectly, but innocent people were confused as to why it said AF-I instead of AF-S.
2001-Today Nikon tweaked the cosmetics, changed the lettering to read "AF-S" and renamed it the TC-20E-II. Nikon made about 20,000 of the original TC-20E, and as of 2008, has made about 15,000 of the newer TC-20E II. Both converters are identical except for the name and trim. Both work with both AF-I and AF-S lenses. I use the names TC-20E and TC-20E II throughout the text interchangeably. They are the same product.
Specifications top Intro Specifications Performance Recommendations Optics 7 elements in 6 groups, multicoated.
Size 2.588" diameter by 2.174" flange-to-flange (65.73 x 55.22mm), measured (TC-20E), excluding lens release pip. Nikon specifies 2.6" (65mm) around by 2.2" (55mm) long.
Weight: 12.577 oz. (356.6g), measured without caps; 13.160 oz. (373.05 g) with caps. Nikon specifies 12.5 oz (355 g).
Front Cap Special extended BF-3 or BF-3A (albino) cap.
Rear Cap Standard LF-1.
Case CL-31S, not included.
Nikon Product Number 2130 (TC-20E II).
Front, Nikon TC-20E. enlarge.
Performance top Intro Specifications Performance Recommendations The TC-20E provides perfect data and signal interchange with Nikon cameras. This means the f/stop correctly reads two stops different both on the camera and in the EXIF data. VR works swell. Focal length reads double in the EXIF data, too. The TC-20E has so much magnification that, at least on a D3, there is usually some loss of sharpness wide-open. I've used the TC-20E with the 70-200mm VR, 400/2.8 AF-I and the 80-200/2.8 AF-S. See those reviews for details of performance with this converter. If you're splitting pixels, the TC-17E gives sharper results at the largest apertures. If you need 2x, the TC-20E is your converter. This shot looks great to me, and needed the full 2x 400mm to give me an 800m lens. |
Sunset. Nikon 400mm f/2.8 AF-I with TC-20E on a D300. f/11 at 1/2,000.
Rear, Nikon TC-20E. enlarge.
Recommendations top Intro Specifications Performance Recommendations This converter is intended for professional use with long AF-S and AF-I super telephotos. It is not like the old TC-201 teleconverter that was intended for general use to make a normal lens into a telephoto. Likewise, the results are great with 300mm and longer fixed AF-I and AF-S lenses, but only so-so with the 80-200 AF-S and 70-200mm VR zooms. If you have an f/2.8 AF-S or AF-I super telephoto lens this is a very handy addition. It is useless unless you have an AF-I or AF-S lens of f/2.8 or faster. One CANNOT mount any other AF or manual lens or accessory to the front because it is keyed mechanically to prevent this. For instance, the 70-300mm AF-S VR, 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-D and 80-400mm VR lenses can't even be mounted to this converter. Nikon designed them this way. It makes little sense to use this with the 28-70 AFS, and you'll damage the system if you set the 28-70 lens to its shorter focal lengths since glass will collide. Only silly people worry about the fact that this probably does not work with the 17-35 AFS. Just for fun, you can attach another manual focus teleconverter to the rear of this, but not the front. There is no difference between the TC-20E and TC-20E II. They both work with VR and AF-S lenses.
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Mr. & Mrs. Ken Rockwell, Ryan and Katie.
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