Nikon 2x Tele Converter TC-E2

The Nikon 2x Tele Converter TC-E2 package comes with the lens and front and rear caps.

Nikon 2x Tele Converter TC-E2

Here are some important notes:

• After mounting this converter, the camera becomes front heavy (see image below). As a result, handle it with two hands if necessary. Otherwise, it is easy to break the camera's middle joint.

  Nikon 2x Tele Converter Mounted on Coolpix 4500

• Since this bulky lens blocks the viewfinder, use the LCD monitor for composition.
• Since the area covered by the flash sensor (and the internal flash) is blocked by this lens, both the internal flash and external flashes may not work properly.
• Since this converter has a magnification of 2.0, any camera movement will be magnified twice in the resulting image. Therefore, to prevent blurring, hold the camera firmly or use a monopod/tripod. The use of the swivel lock is perhaps needed.

The on-camera lens is equivalent to a 38mm - 152mm zoom (35mm equivalent). Since this converter has a magnification of 2.0, mounting it on the camera effectively changes the zoom to 76mm - 304mm (35mm equivalent). However, not every focal length in this range can be used. See below. Since adding a converter on top of a lens always reduces some optical quality, normally only the combined focal length that is not available with the on-camera lens (i.e., 152mm-304mm) will be used. In this range we have most of the popular moderate telephoto focal lengths: 180mm, 200mm and 300mm. The relative positions on the zoom scale are shown in the table below:

Therefore, if the combined focal length is less than 152mm, use the on-camera lens rather than a converter. Otherwise, vignetting will occur. See the image below.

Vignetting may occur if a shorter combined focal length is used

Shooting in Telephoto1 Mode or Regular Mode

You can use the Telephoto1 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 304mm (35mm equivalent), and the zooming button can only be used to zoom in and out between the range of 14.1mm and 32mm (or 134mm and 304mm - 35mm equivalent) to prevent vignetting. Moreover, both internal and external flashes are disabled.

You do not have to enter a converter mode to use a lens converter. This means you can use this tele converter in the Regular mode.

Close-Up

The minimum camera-subject distance is about 30cm/11.7 in. If the distance is shorter than this, the camera fails to focus. Should this happen, you can use the Close-Up mode. Another possibility is the use of Nikon's high quality two-element, achromatic #5T (1.5) and #6T (2.9) close-up filters. They have a thread size of 62mm.

Filter Issues

The filter thread size is 62mm.

Focus Distance

If you use Manual Focus or use Infinity focus mode (i.e., the mountain icon), the focus distance is different from the actual distance. Consequently, you should ignore this distance and use the LCD monitor to make sure your subjects are in focus.

Examples

Here are a number of sample images. Most of them were taken using longer focal lengths near the 230mm end on a 990 or the 304mm end on a 995/4500.

Click on the image to see a larger one

Technical Data

The following technical information are taken from Nikon's manual. These information are for 950/990/995/4500 only, and should be different for other Nikon cameras.