About 4 years ago I purchased a Nikon TC-16a teleconverter
with a manual focus Tokina 300mm f2.8 for use with my Nikon D2X for a little
bird shooting. The TC-16a is an
interesting beast, it was designed in the late 1980s as Nikon had released few
AF lenses, to give AF compatibility to their then current range of MF
lenses. It doesn't have full range for
AF, but in practice, it works quite well.
You manually focus to approximately where the right subject distance and
let the AF take care of the critical focus that is especially difficult to
achieve with fast tele manual focus lenses.
When I first got it, the TC-16a worked like a dream with the
D2X. Recently, as I hadn't used it for
quite a while and as I'd sold several of my MF tele lenses, I decided to sell
it. I pulled it out, put it on the D600
for a test run and.....nothing. It
wouldn't work. It turns out that few
Nikon SLRs, digital or film, have the right software and protocols to drive the
TC16a. Interestingly the contact pins
are positioned quite differently to most lenses when viewed up closely
too. It just so happened the D2X was one
of the few that could drive it.
So I put it up for sale and hoped the potential buyer's
camera would be compatible. The first
buyer came, and as soon as he pulled out his D600, I knew we were going to have
trouble. And so it was, the TC-16a
refused to work. However the guy still
purchased! It turns out that these are
now quite rare, and a modification can be found to open up the protocol to
other cameras. His idea was to purchase
for his Nikkor 300mm f2.8 Ai-S, which he could then use much more successfully
than current.
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| Hibiscus - Nikon D2X with Tamron 90mm f2.8 macro |
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| Hibiscus - Nikon D2X with Tamron 90mm f2.8 macro |
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| Hibiscus - Nikon D2X with Tamron 90mm f2.8 macro |
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| Hibiscus - Nikon D2X with Tamron 90mm f2.8 macro |
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