Mike:

Can you tell us anything about the announced TC-E3 3x teleconverter? Will it be as good as the TC-E2 in terms of image quality, and what size will it be? (The TC-E2 is already pretty big!)

Also, given that the Nikon accessory lenses have so far been very good, (and I've already invested in a couple, and will probably buy the TC-E3), it would be nice to keep using them on future cameras. The Nikon 990 will be able to use these lenses, but what about the next Coolpix? And the one after that? Are there dramatic changes in the body design of future Nikon cameras that will render all of the accessory lenses with 28mm threads obsolete?

Thanks,

Max Lyons

-- Max Lyons (maxlyons@erols.com), March 17, 2000

Answers

See answers below on the TC-E3.

Re the future-if CCD sizes increase in the future in terms of both resolution and sensor size as they have so far-we probably can use the same lenses for a couple of generations more (as the telephoto end gets closer in size to the thread...then it will get tricky...

Unlike some of our competition-we have increased our focal lengths to keep the same coverage area for our internal lens and to use the attachment lenses.

Michael

-- Mike Rubin, Product Marketing Manager Nikon (web@imaging-resource.com), March 23, 2000.