p.1 #1 · Is This Decent Sharpness for V1+FT-1+2xTCIII+70-200VRII?
I got my first chance to try out the V1 today with the FT-1 adapter attached to Nikon 2xTCIII and 70-200VRII. After a lot of research it sounded worth getting the VRII to match with the TCIII because this is supposed to be a combo that can yield surprisingly good results for a zoom + 2xTC. In looking at the shots I got, they seem reasonably sharp and I think I am probably content with the results. Original image looks decent to my eyes, while the crop does not look good and makes it apparent that this setup won't give any leeway with even light cropping. Does this look like acceptable sharpness given the setup? I have heard of sample variation with teleconverters and lenses, so am curious if anyone has tried a similar setup and gotten better results or if I should be happy with this. Focus is of course on the eagle nest, so don't mind the background being out of focus a bit. This shot was at the max reach: 1,080mm equivalent focal length. Shot on a very sturdy tripod with electronic shutter and 10 second timer so any vibrations from me touching the shutter release were gone before the capture. 1/500 SS, F8, ISO 280. I have done no post processing, just exported the original RAW file as a JPEG and did the same with a crop of the nest. Thanks for any insights. -Loren
p.1 #2 · Is This Decent Sharpness for V1+FT-1+2xTCIII+70-200VRII?
those images are coming out huge...how do I post them at a reasonable size while maintaining quality for board use? This kind of defeats the purpose of my post because the full size image looks like sharpness is much worse in the post than it is in LightRoom....how do you all upload photos to the board without IQ loss while meeting the size requirements?
p.1 #6 · Is This Decent Sharpness for V1+FT-1+2xTCIII+70-200VRII?
most of the time with images like those shown the softness is from from atomospheric conditions, haze, heat waves...etc. rather than from optical flaws..
p.1 #7 · Is This Decent Sharpness for V1+FT-1+2xTCIII+70-200VRII?
thanks for the responses. To be noted, even the jpeg preview on my desktop looks considerably better than the web uploaded image. Good call on atmospheric conditions, I forgot about that factor.
Exdsc wrote:
F8 with V1 sensor is equivalent to F22 at full frame sensor. The ideal aperture before diffraction sets in with V1 is f5.6 (f16 equivalent at FF).
Secondly, at such distance, atmospheric conditions are more important to the final sharpness than lens resolution.
Images for the web needs to be color corrected, contrast adjusted and sharpened, there is no way to post unprocessed high quality images for the web.
Really interesting.....so does this outweigh the talk of the tc/70-200 being better stopped down? I'd rather shoot at f5.6 for the faster shutter speeds but assumed f8 would help iq because of the tc....please elaborate!
p.1 #9 · Is This Decent Sharpness for V1+FT-1+2xTCIII+70-200VRII?
Loren E wrote:
just looked through my shots...I played around with apertures and f14 looks sharper than f5.6? is tc/lens performance outweighing diffraction?
You should set the aperture depending on how much dept of field you need. F14 will give you more sharpness in depth, f5.6 with V1 will give you more sharpness in detail; however, at 1000mm sharpness in detail is always going to be tricky, so it makes sense to use small aperture and get sharpness in depth and then sharpen for detail in post.
p.1 #12 · Is This Decent Sharpness for V1+FT-1+2xTCIII+70-200VRII?
I've found that it is often more efficient to add in sharpening on the exported, slightly lower res image.
If this is a kind of reach you seriously need, then I would suggest that you use the 300F4.0 @ F5.6 in stead. It has much better detail resolution on the 1-series cameras than the TC combo. The enormous image resolution (60MP FX resolution) seems to be a bit to much for any TC combination that I've found.
p.1 #13 · Is This Decent Sharpness for V1+FT-1+2xTCIII+70-200VRII?
Thanks for the tips all.
Suede, I would certainly add a 300mm F4 to the arsenal if it was in my budget, but the 70-200 VRII cost a bundle, so for now the 2xTCIII will have to get by since my wildlife shots aren't the ones I get paid for. I'd have to add the 1.4TC to the 300 to get to similar reach anyways as well, though I have read that combo is spectacular if you don't need VR.
. No there is no free meal.