COMBINE THE TWO METHODS FOR QUICK RESULTS

These are 100% crops of jpeg "FINE" photos, right out of the camera with no changes in Photoshop. "Optimize Image"=Normal. They are pictures of an insulator on power lines.

Nikon D70 with 70-200 VR + TC17EII.

By combining the two methods, we can get to good results pretty fast. Let's start with the zoom backed off just a bit, and the F-stop wide open at F/4.8...

F/4.8 at ~290-300mm, not acceptable (ghosting on wire coil).

BUT, if we close down the lens just one click from F/4.8 to F/5, we get acceptable results at the same focal length (whereas at full zoom (340mm), we had to stop the lens down to F/6.3 to get acceptable results). So in this case, using a little bit of both methods gives us a very sharp image. But remember, if you have the F-stop set to F/5, you can still get a ghosty picture if you zoom all the way back in (see below how the ghosting returns).

F/5 at full zoom (340mm), with ghosting. At F/5, just back off the zoom a bit to about 290-300mm (where noted above) to get crisp images.

If you've got the light to stop the lens down to F/6.3, that will get rid of your ghosting even at full zoom, but if you need the F-stop, just stay away from the top end of the zoom.

HOME | STOP DOWN THE LENS | ZOOM OUT A BIT | COMBINE THESE METHODS | CONCLUSIONS