AI vs AIS Nikon Tele convertors

[p51bombay]

Did a bunch of searching but still cannot find the answer to this one. I have an ED 600mm f/4 (AI version) and just got a D4 body, went out on a birding cruise around Bellingham, Bay, Deception pass and some of the SJ islands over the weekend and it works great......but - on the cruise, they have a minimum approach distance on most islands which even with a 600 and sometimes using the digital zoom (crop) it still isn't quite enough reach. So I'm on the lookout for a teleconvertor or two to reach out a bit further.

What I can't seem to find is if there is an optical difference between the TC-14 (early AI version, for long glass) and the TC-14B, I'm also looking to answer the same question on the TC-300 and TC-301. I don't really care if the TC is AI only as the lens is also and it doesn't matter one little bit on a D3

 

[fidget]

AIs had extra signalling for certain film cameras and will offer you no practical advantage over the earlier Ai versions. I think that perhaps the optics are the same

 

[anabasis]

Roland's site has the same optical formula for the AI and AIS versions. I am not sure about the coatings however.

http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/lenses.html#TC

JCA

 

[p51bombay]

Ya, that the coatings are different is about the only thing I have found but none have said one way or the other whether the optics are the same.

 

[wizzard0003]

Here's a bunch of detailed info on older Nikon TC's

http://mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/nikkoresources/teleconverter/index.htm

If you scroll to the bottom there are links to individual TC's... Don't know if any of this is
helpful or not...?

 

[hdavid]

I have the 600mm AI and the TC-300, using them on the D3s and D800 with very good results. TC-14b also works very well. I have the AF TC's and they met the Dremel tool recently for a quick mod. The AFS versions are sharper.....

 

[rvink]

The optics are the same:

TC-14B(AiS) = TC-14(Ai)
TC-301(AiS) = TC-300(Ai) = TC-2(pre-Ai)
TC-201(AiS) = TC-200(Ai) = TC-1(pre-Ai)

There maybe some differences in coatings between the early and later ones, but all are fully multicoated so I doubt it makes much difference.

The AF-S TCs will not fit manual focus telephotos, but they can be modified to fit. They have an extra lug on the mount which must be filed off. The newer TCs are likely to be better, but certain conbinations of lens+TC do better than others, so in some cases it might turn out the older TC is best ... TC-14 was originally made for the AI 600/4 so it's likely to be decent.

 

[rvink]

Ya, that the coatings are different is about the only thing I have found but none have said one way or the other whether the optics are the same.

The site www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/lenses.html groups lenses with the same optical formula together, so it is easy to see which models have the same optics (not counting differences in coatings)