Nikon 1.5x Tele Converter TC-E15ED

The Nikon 1.5x Tele Converter TC-E15ED package comes with the lens and front and rear caps. See the left image below. The TC-E15ED cannot be mounted directly on the 5700. In fact, an adapter is required. See the adapter page for the details. The right image below shows the use of Nikon's UR-E8 to mount a TC-E15ED on the 5700.

Here are some important notes:

• After mounting this converter, the camera becomes front heavy (see the right image above). As a result, handle it carefully with two hands if necessary, and do not pick up the camera by the lens alone.
• Since this lens is heavy and since any camera movement will be magnified 1.5X, make sure you will hold the camera (and lens) steady or use a tripod to minimize camera shake.
• Avoid to include a strong light source in or near your view because lens flare and ghost may occur.
• Again, since the front glass element of the TC-E15ED is large, one can easily scratch the surface. Therefore, replace the front cap when the lens is not in use.
• Since the area covered by the flash sensor is blocked partially by this lens, the internal flash is disabled; however, external flash can still be used in the Telephoto mode.
• Since the on-camera penetrates into the chamber of the TC-E15ED, remove the lens carefully. Otherwise, you may break the on-camera lens.

The on-camera lens is equivalent to 35mm - 280mm zoom (35mm equivalent). Since this converter has a magnification of 1.5, mounting it on the camera effectively changes the zoom to 52.5mm - 420mm (35mm equivalent). However, not every focal length in this range can be used. If the on-camera lens is zoomed back too much, vignetting will occur. In general, the usable focal length is in the range of 334mm and 420mm. Therefore, there is a focal length gap when using the TC-E15ED. This gap is between 280mm and 334mm, because neither the on-camera lens nor the TC-E15ED can reach this range without vignetting.

Pincushion Distortion

Pincushion is very well controlled with TC-E15ED and in general not very noticeable.

Shooting in Telephoto Mode or Regular Mode

You can use the Telephoto mode. See General Operations for the way of selecting a converter mode. Once this mode is selected, the on-camera lens is zoomed all the way in so that the combined focal length is 420mm (35mm equivalent), and the zooming buttons cannot be used for changing the focal length. In other words, the camera only has 420mm to use. Moreover, the internal flash is disabled; however, you still can use external flashes. On the other hand, you do not have to enter a converter mode to use a lens converter. This means you still can use this telephoto converter in the Regular mode. In this way, you can use internal flash and zoom the lens freely,

Close-Up

The minimum camera-subject distance is about 90cm at 420mm. If the distance is shorter than this, the camera fails to focus. If you wish to get closer, you can use Nikon's high quality two-element, achromatic #5T (1.5) and #6T (2.9) close-up lenses, which have a thread size of 62mm, or use the reverse-mounting technique.

Filter Issues

The filter thread size is 58mm. See the Lens Hood page for lens hood options.

Focus Distance

If you use the Infinity focus mode with the TC-E15ED, the distance scale does not reflect the actual distance. This will also happen when you use the Manual Focus mode. In other words, the use of TC-E15ED will change the focus distance provided by the camera. Consequently, you should ignore this distance and use the LCD monitor to make sure your subjects are in focus.

Technical Data

The following technical information are taken from Nikon's manual. These information are for 5700 only, and should be different for other Nikon cameras. A manual in PDF format is available here.