Cropping vs TCs - Testing the 400mm f2.8Z TC + 1.4x 2x TCs

I was quite surprised when pixel peeping - the answer of cropping vs TCs is not an easy one.

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[frankcruz]

Thanks Matt, great work as always! I completely concur. I did the same test yesterday and found the 2X TC acceptable (IQ 8 and up) under good light. Otherwise, the ISO goes so high that there is a clear drop in quality. The 1.4 TC has the same behavior but at a smaller scale. As you mentioned; TCs work in direct proportion to the light available. With this lens and Z TCs, the quality is so good that the old TC expectations are gone; it is all down to the amount of light available, because the optical losses due to internal optical match are nearly gone. I shot Ospreys all afternoon, and the mid-afternoon with the 2X TC shots was great; as the light dropped, I switched to the external 1.4 TC plus the internal; at the end of the day, I was shooting with no TCs to keep the ISO under 2500. Nikon has done a great job on this lens for 400 2.8, and very good at 560 F4, the rest is the rest...

[Bobgolf]

Matt, coming from a sports background (also wildlife) I own all of these lenses/TC's and previously owned the AF equivalent as well. I pretty much agree with the conclusions you provided. Both the internal and external 1.4TC are very sharp and entirely acceptable (although for sports I don't normally use the external TC since the lens has the built-in TC which is just brilliant of Nikon). Being able to flip a switch and go to 560 instantly saves a lot of sports pictures. I also agree that the 2.0 TC is noticeably softer than the 1.4 however both of these Z TC's are superior to the older AF TC's.

[jsbatra]

Appreciate the nuances in your video. There is no simple answer that applies to all circumstances

[caraliusana]

Thanks for your work and greetings from Poland.

[randymo]

Love the instructional analysis at the end of the video. Would be interesting to see a video showing how you deal with subjects like birds at longer distances.

[RG-rmjt]

Matt, you must really love that lens. Thanks so much for sharing.

[realnikonlover]

Great video Matt. I just returned from Alaska and shot the Z9 with a Z 70-200 f/2.8 and 2x TC. The weather was cold, overcast and flat gray light. Lighting is everything. But sometimes the gray just overrides any available color especially when cranking up the ISO and shutter speed. Nonetheless, I was able to get some great shots with the TC that I might not have captured without a much longer lens. Cheers. Jim

[tristanbane]

Hey Matt. Agreed with all your points. However, as a user of the 400 TC for wildlife, one my main considerations of whether to engage the TC wasn't mentioned. I can barely distinguish between an image cropped versus taken with TC. However, I find that eye AF will often be much improved with the TC engaged as the subjects eyes will be larger in the frame

[antontaranenko]

Thank you for the nice review Matt😊
You had answered the questions, I was asking myself about double TC😊
Luckily Nikon Z 7/7ii and Z8/9 sensors are perfect performers at high ISO levels 😊 making this double TC idea very much usable in some situations😊

[GeoffCooper]

Having done the same kind of tests on this lens and teleconverters, I have found the same conclusions. With the amazing quality of the Z-teleconverters and the resolution of the Z9 (or Z8), I can see very few situations in which cropping would yield a better image than the teleconverters after post-processing, as long as the setup was properly supported etc in the first place. In my practical usage I have found that the increased variation due to atmospheric distortion and the need for more support make a far bigger difference to the keeper rate.
Note: for me, the internal + external double 1.4x TC combo was noticeably weaker than the straight 2x TC, but still usable.

[travellingjoey]

Thank you so much for doing these tests 👍

This is a fantastic video and it definitely is going to affect the way I shoot and editing in the future!

[angelawilkins]

I had both external tc with this lens and settled on keeping just the 2x. I got a photo of an eastern screech owl (using a tripod) at 1120mm, f8 1/20 iso 220 and very happy with the results. Owls don’t move very fast so you can get away with slow shutter speed and use bursts to get a keeper.

[kuau]

curious what was your conclusion when comparing using both the internal and external 1.4tc vs just using the 2X TC ?

[Twobarpsi]

Great test Matt! I find cropping works for me. Internal TC's are way more practical though.

[louaiello]

Matt - fantastic video! Thank you for doing this and psychically answering my questions! Is it safe to assume cropping results would be similar if I used DX Mode on my z6ii? in other words is it necessary to compare the TC vs DX mode - or did you already do it? other possibility is that you answered that and I wasn’t paying attention enough.

[Photojouralist]

Thanks for doing this comparison fantastic

[DREES_TRR-qwvr]

thanks Matt, really interesting to hear your also enjoyed seeing you back in HK, I used to have an office in 3PP so instantly recognised the location of your shoot with Honey 🙂 Looking forward to seeing more images from your Iceland trip, from your last email it sounds like it was super successful 👍👏👏

[blakeparry]

as a heavy user of TC's for sports and action (where you need the faster shutter speeds), one issue that wasnt fully mentioned is that a TC can often cause some abberations in the bokeh.

Higher ISO and some loss of contrast/sharpness can be dealt with more easily these days with post processing so i generally dont feel too bad about using a TC if i have to on one of my long primes.

[gabewrsewell]

teleconverters definitey had their use in the days of 8-12 megapixels, where even after adding in the teleconverters, the optics were still outresolving the sensor. but now that we’ve settled around 45MP, it’s really nothing but downsides when compared to just cropping in :/

[MikeT-yy]

Hi Matt, Sorry not to post this on your X2D vs Nikon article but there was no way to add any further comments
See here goes, I am a Sony shooter who has just ordered a X2D 100C with the latest 90mm lens
With the 90mm and a 100meg sensor I am debating whether I can manage with just the 90mm lens and rely on being able to crop the sensor for an effective longer length lenses, better field of view.
I would value your expert opinion on how much if any, would my image quality suffer if I crop the central 25 to 30 meg out from the centre of the X2D sensor.
I see it as making a 100meg print then cutting out the central 25 to 30 percent of the print.
Will I see any drop in quality on my smaller print
Many thanks in anticipation of a reply.