I just looked at a set of test slides that I shot with my recently acquired TC-16A and was amazed at the results. At 1/3 the cost of a used TC-14B, I expected to see some clear degradation in image quality. Instead, using real world outdoor subjects (with a tripod), there was practically no difference in sharpness, contrast, or color with and without the teleconverter -- even wide open! It was even hard to tell the difference between a straight 300 f/4.5 ED-IF at 4.5, which is quite sharp itself, and an AF 80-200 f/2.8 ED-IF with converter at an effective 320mm f/4.5. I'll keep the 300, though, because with the TC-16A it now makes a great 480 f/7.2. (The combination autofocuses pretty well, too, in sunlight with an F4.) As an added bonus, of course, this thing autofocuses much better than the TC-14B <g>. My question is, do the newer AF bodies, like the F5 and F100 support the TC-16A? Also, why did Nikon discontinue this thing anyway? The optics are great and it still retains some autofocus capability, albeit limited. In fact, if they made a TC-16B with the same optics and a wider focusing range, they'd probably sell a ton of them. Joel
