Excerpt from an interesting essay, last updated 2/12/2012
http://www.bythom.com/rationallenses.htm"... If you have the 70-200mm f/2.8, 70-200mm f/2.8 II, the 200mm f/2, the 200-400mm f/4 (either version), the 300mm f/2.8, the 300mm f/4, the 400mm f/2.8, the 500mm f/4, or the 600mm f/4, you should get a converter or two. The non-zoom lenses do quite fine with the TC-14E, even wide open. The zoom lenses tend to need to be stopped down a stop to get optimal results. In my opinion the old TC-20E is too much converter for anything other than the 200mm f/2 and 300mm f/2.8 in all but a pinch, and even on those two lenses you'll see clear lowering of image quality.
The new TC-20E III works well with the 70-200mm II, the 200mm, 300mm, and 400mm, and seems to work okay on near subjects with the 200-400mm. On the f/4 lenses you'll probably lose reliable autofocus. The TC-17E is somewhere between the two other converters in terms of image quality, but seems to retain decent focus performance on all of the lenses I've tried it on, including two of the f/4 lenses. D800 and D4 users should note that the new autofocus system does indeed make the longer TCs more interesting, as focus is maintained. I used to carry a TC-14E and old TC-20E. These days I carry all three: TC-14E, TC-17E, and TC-20E III. Note that while you can (usually) use third party converters with the Nikkors, I've yet to find any that match the TCs in quality. Some models also don't pass information correctly between lens and camera. Also, you really shouldn't be trying to use teleconverters on new Nikkors other than ones just listed as the optical decisions for lens and converter were considered together (obviously, many older Nikkors have TCs that were designed to work with them, but that's another article: "best of the older lenses"). In some cases, you can damage your lens if you tried the wrong converter (Nikon's TCs all clear the rear element of Nikon exotics correctly)..."
