This category constitutes a real challenge for optics constructors. The tested lens features as many as 19 optical group, 20 if you also count the protective glass element. If you add the teleconverter to that system the number of groups increases to 25 and it means 50 air-to-glass surfaces (the majority of users will leave also the 40.5 mm UV filter in the set so one element and two surfaces more). If Nikon employed top-of-the-range coatings, which lose about 0.3% of visible light on one surface, the overall loss for 50 air-to-glass surfaces amounts to about 14%. This value can be higher for different wavelengths and different angles of incidence and you should also take the light absorption factor into account. As a result the detector might get less than 80% of light entering the lens.
Keeping it all in mind we are hardly surprised by artifacts, registered in sample shots, shown below. The flares are huge and they appear at practically all focal length and aperture combinations. You can catch them even if the sun is positioned far away from the frame. The contrast of these photos leaves also a lot to be desired.
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