Nickaroo

I just Love how you make it so easy, peasy Paul. You prove that you have Nikon knowledge and Canon along with Sony. Probably a little Hasselblad and Mamaya just to cover a couple more bases. Hope that all is going well. Going to do some more Blue Ice shooting in Mackinaw in 3 days, then hit the annual pain in the ass Grand Haven Lighthouse. And then, GOD willing, we shall be in Chi-Town for 5 days with family. Shoot me a heads up on where I can go have a couple of CC's on the rocks and try out my R6. It just arrived. My Wife told me that she wished that I would coddle her like "That Darn Camera". Wait until she pulls up the expense account and sees the Bill That I Put On Her.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Our restaurants are at 25% capacity and I think the bars are all still closed. The newish thing in Chicago is the River Walk, on the southside of the Chicago River from Lake Shore Drive to Wolf Point where the two branches meet / diverge from the section to the lake. From there you have easy access to Union Station and some great interior shots of this Art Deco train station. Bring your 15-35 for this walking tour.

JimBart Loc: Western Michigan

NicKaroo.... I also heard there is some blue ice in the TC ( traverse city) area which you might like. Also you may want to try and shoot the Muskegon lighthouse (my home) if not already done and then Grand Haven. While in Muskegon you might also want to stop at the “The Camera shop” and see what they have in stock. Might surprise you. Also be sure to take in the St Joseph lighthouse.... a lot better too than the Grd Haven one.
Stay safe and enjoy your trip. I’m down south now otherwise I’d say let’s have a burger n Brew at “The Station” in Muskegon... a great local watering hole

kkayser

A teleconverter image which is not cropped will be sharper than an non-teleconverter image which is cropped to give the same size image as the teleconverter image. This assumes that the teleconverter image does not over fill the frame. The moral of the story for wildlife is: if you can get close enough to fill the frame without a TC you will get sharpest images. If the image fills only .7 of the frame (without the TC) you will get sharper images with the TC. The TC images with no or less crop will be sharper then the non-TC images cropped to a greater degree.

Canisdirus

Only if you have a lower resolution camera.
If you are starting out with 24MP's (random example)...cropping loses a lot of detail. You get down to 10MP or less in a hurry.
If you start out with 50MP's ... cropping is no big deal.
As long as you have a really sharp lens...which you should anyways with high res cameras.
I routinely crop my A7RIV aggressively and still get 24MP+ images.

Tele's have their place, but make sure you buy the best. You get what you pay for...usually.
And again...you need a razor-sharp lens to take advantage of a tele...and get desirable results.

Nickaroo

Thanks for the heads up Paul. Today, here in Michigan the weather is beautiful. I just hope that the winds of Spring aren't blowing too hard. Chat later and have a great day.

JIM H Loc: Broad Channel NY

Check out Steve Preey's video https://backcountrygallery.com/all-about-teleconverters-tcs/

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I'm going to suggest an alternative to using a teleconverter with that lens.

Instead, buy a used D7200 camera and use the lens directly on that. This will give you the EFFECT of a 1.5X teleconverter WITHOUT the loss of a stop of light or any concerns regarding compromise of the lens' optical image quality.

A Nikon AF-S 1.4X costs $497, while a Nikon AF-S 1.7X is currently selling for $397. You "lose" one stop of light to the 1.4X, making your f/5.6 lens into an f/8 when the TC is fitted. You lose 1.5 stops to a 1.7X TC.

There's always some loss of image quality, too... when you add a teleconverter. It may be a little, it may be a lot, depending upon the exact combination. Also, usually the stronger the teleconverter, the more loss of IQ.

Here you can see some test shots done with 200-500mm alone compared to the lens + 1.4X: https://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/ISO-12233-Sample-Crops.aspx?Lens=1035&Camera=614&Sample=0&FLI=3&API=0&LensComp=1035&CameraComp=614&SampleComp=0&FLIComp=4&APIComp=0

And here are similar test shots comparing the lens alone against the lens with a 1.7X TC: https://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/ISO-12233-Sample-Crops.aspx?Lens=1035&Camera=614&Sample=0&FLI=3&API=0&LensComp=1035&CameraComp=614&SampleComp=0&FLIComp=5&APIComp=1

Both the above are shown using the D3X, which I believe is the same format and resolution as your D600. There are also test shots done with higher resolution FX cameras, but they tend to make things look worse. To best understand what you are looking at in those test shots, here is a link describing and showing the entire target that was used: https://www.the-digital-picture.com/Help/ISO-12233.aspx

Or, used directly on a 24MP D7200 (no teleconverter at all) your 200-500mm f/5.6 will "act like" a 300-750mm f/5.6 lens would on your D600 (if such a lens existed).

The D7200 is discontinued, but remains one of Nikon's best DX bodies. It's higher resolution than the current D7500 or D500. DXO rates the D7200 as having the widest dynamic range and deepest color depth of any Nikon DX format camera to date. It has dual memory card slots, while the current D7500 only has a single slot.

Your D600 is two or three years older model than the D7200... and it uses an anti-alias filter over the sensor. That's done to prevent moiré from occurring in repetitive patterns. But it's sort of "old school" now. Newer cameras are doing away with that filter and using other methods of counteracting moiré. The anti-alias filter on your D600 actually slightly blurs the image, requiring it be sharpened later with software in post-processing (or in-camera, if shooting JPEGs). This "costs" a little loss of fine detail. All current and relatively recent Nikon cameras have done away with the AA filter entirely... including the Dl7200.

The D7200 has a similar, but more advanced AF system than your D600. It is able to continue focusing in about 2 stops lower light than your camera. The D7200 also has 51 AF points (15 of which are the higher performance "dual axis" type). Your D600 has 39 points (9 dual axis).

D7200 also has a higher native range of ISO... instead of topping out at ISO 6400 like the D600, the D7200 goes two stops higher, to ISO 25600. Both cameras have two more stops of "extended" ISO, but those tend to get pretty noisy on most cameras, so might not want to use them. Whether the D7200's ISO 25600 is actually usable or not is up to you. Everyone has different expectations and may be able to use ultra high ISO for some purposes, but not for others. For example, often a high ISO can be used for an image displayed small online or converted to black & white, but may not be acceptable for a large, color print. There also are various noise reduction tools available, which might make very high ISO images usable. But if a camera doesn't even have the higher ISO settings, then you simply can't use them.

D7200 also has a slightly higher specification shutter.... it has a top speed of 1/8000, versus the 1/4000 fastest shutter speed on your D600. Hand-in-hand with this, the D7200 also has a slightly faster flash sync speed: 1/250 vs 1/200.

D7200 has roughly the same continuous shooting rate as your D600... 6 frames/second and 5.5 frames/sec, respectively.

Both the D7200 and your camera use the same EN-EL15 battery, so they could share those. The D7200 is a bit more power efficient, rated to get about 1100 shots per charge versus around 900 with your camera.

Best of all, I found some used D7200 selling for about the same price as a new Nikon 1.4X teleconverter... a little under $500. You may not be able to find a D7200 new, but it will cost more if you do. Right after they were discontinued and Nikon was clearing the shelves, they could be bought brand new for around $800. But now if you even find one new it will cost at least $1000 and might be higher because the discontinued model has remained popular and some sellers are taking advantage, marking them up. The reason for the D7200's continued popularity is because some people consider the D7500 that replaced it a downgrade in certain respects..... While the D500 is an upgrade in most ways, but also is much more expensive.

Keep your D600 and use it alongside a D7200. The full frame camera will probably have better high ISO performance, even though DX cameras have improved and the D7200 has much higher selectable ISO. Still, both cameras are 24MP... which means the D600's sensor is far, far less "crowded". It has larger pixel sites and they are further apart. That reduces heat and cross-talk, which are key causes of digital noise in images. The D600 also may be a better choice for some other things... such as wide angle work or portraits where you are using a large aperture for strong background blur. But for telephoto work, switch to the DX camera and you'll get the effect of a teleconverter without the corresponding loss of effective lens aperture.

P.S. I am pretty sure your D600 is "f/8 capable", meaning it would be able to autofocus the 200-500mm with a 1.4X installed. It will probably focus slower and be limited to fewer AF points than usual, but able to AF. The 1.7X TC, on the other hand, will make that lens an effective f/9.5 and likely unable to to autofocus... or at least very likely to slow way down, struggle and hunt even in good light conditions. Effective f/9.5 also will make your viewfinder quite dark, so even manual focusing would be difficult. The D7200 is also f/8 capable at limited AF points.

You also might consider an older but less expensive D7100, which on paper looks very similar to D7200. The latter has various AF and image quality improvements. But probably one of the biggest upgrades was that the newer camera has a considerably larger buffer that makes it able to take far more shots in a series before it needs to pause to clear the buffer. One of the main complaints against the D7100 was that it's buffer was way too small and that causes missed shots during any sort of fast action photography. It's no fun waiting for the camera to catch up to you while watching the shots you missed during the pause! The D7200 is also a bit more power efficient.