Nikon AF-S VR 70-300 f4.5-5.6G IF-ED

[KentYeti]

Thought it would be sensible to start a new thread on this, rather than continue the old one where I was talking about getting a different Nikon Lens!

Lens arrived from Amazon nicely packed and when they said it would.

Looks and feels very nice.

On my D80 it's nicely balanced, bit more weight than the 18-135 kit lens I got with the camera. As expected! I can't see why I shan't be able to get hand held shots with it not using VR. I've been ok my whole photographic life taking still shots with all sorts of lenses and in all sorts of conditions without a tripod. Doesn't look like this lens will change that.

I took a few shots through the kitchen window glass , , on what was a bright and sunny afternoon.

Except the lens must have some device I need to turn off, that meant every time a bird visited my feeding station and I depressed the shutter, the sun went in. Got one shot in sort of half sunshine, but deliberately under exposed so I could use 1/500th second, (in case bird wasn't still). Which meant 500 asa. Looks ok. But I need to take a lot more shots of course before giving an opinion. And not through a dirty(ish) kitchen window.

Focus is as fast as the reviews and Nikon's blurb says it is. Great to be able to just turn the focus ring to move to manual focus. Nothing else to do to achieve that.

VR looks good through the viewfinder. But I need to test to see how much, (if any?), picture degradation there is by using that.

So. Very first impressions are good. But it needs a good few sessions out in the field, so as to speak.

Forecast tomorrow is very good, (meaning it will probably rain), and I plan to head to Sheppey. Hoping to see a short eared owl and some harriers. Amongst other birds. Would like that to be the day I get my first decent bird shot. But I've only been going a week with birds, so that is somewhat optimistic.

[marvin]

Originally Posted by KentYeti

Except the lens must have some device I need to turn off, that meant every time a bird visited my feeding station and I depressed the shutter, the sun went in.

lol...i think we've all got one of those!

hope you like it.

tim

[jaybie]

I've not noticed any degradation using VR on this lens and found it very good handheld or on a monopod. It is debatable whether there is any advantage/disadvantage in turning VR off at higher shutter speeds but I just leave it on. I'll be interested to see what you think.

The only gripe I have with this lens is that is can be a bit soft at 300mm.

JohnB

[KentYeti]

Originally Posted by KentYeti

.

Except the lens must have some device I need to turn off, that meant every time a bird visited my feeding station and I depressed the shutter, the sun went in.

That problem persists. Went over to Sheppey this morning on the basis of a very good forecast. Mist clearing to clear blue skies.

Actual weather was mist clearing to a patch of blue sky situated about 20 miles away and smaller than my handkerchief. Followed by low cloud and mist and just yuk weather. Getting yukkier!

But I took a few photos. Egret, Lapwing and a Curlew. And a useless shot of a Marsh Harrier that took me totally by surprise as I was watching the Curlew. Maybe post a couple here later, but I'd rather test the lens in decent light first. See if this mucky weather clears this afternoon.

But impressions are that it's a good lens at 300mm. Hand held at 1/250th with VR switched off is fine. Focuses very quickly, except when trying to pick up a flying bird when you just try and focus on empty sky! LOL! Best to focus on an object on the ground and very quickly swing up to the bird. Seems to hold the focus quite well then.

So far so good then.

[Tricia]

Sounds promising Tempted to order NOW but, shall wait and see your photos first. Hope you get some good weather to test that lens out

[RobinP]

Anyone considered the Nikon AF 80-400mm f4.5/5.6 ED VR Lens? Reviews seem to say it is a bit slow to autfocus and is quite heavy (1340g) but image-wise good throughout the whole range. At nearly £1k not a cheap option though.

Robin

[Lancashire Lad]

Originally Posted by KentYeti

.... impressions are that it's a good lens at 300mm. Hand held at 1/250th with VR switched off is fine....

Well, if you can get sharp shots at 1/250th at the 300mm end, hand held and with the VR off, it looks like all you need is some decent weather, and a few good subjects in front of the lens and you'll be away.

Regards,
Mike.

[jaybie]

Originally Posted by KentYeti

Except the lens must have some device I need to turn off, that meant every time a bird visited my feeding station and I depressed the shutter, the sun went in.

Unfortunately I haven't found the override for this yet

This is an example from mine on a dull day at 300mm on a D40, on the D5000 I am quite happy to let the ISO go up to 800 with this lens but I try to keep it at around f8-f11 at full zoom.



Look forward to some images and further comment as my lens is a couple of years old now.

JohnB

[Tricia]

Nice photo. I am definitely getting this lens!

[KentYeti]

Went back to Sheppey this afternoon when the sun came out. Sorting through the images and will post some later/in the morning.

Bird wise a superb afternoon. Watched 2 short eared owls hunting at Capel Fleet. And just around a fairly dull sunset watched a barn owl and a short eared owl hunting within sight of each other. Brilliant.

My fav shot of the day was taken when it was almost dark! The barn owl quite close. But I've always liked low light photography, and this lens handled that well.

What it doesn't handle is action shots of birds that are too far away! No surprise, it is "only" a 300mm lens. So I may only get one or two vaguely usable shots of the short eared owl today. Certainly nothing decent. It never came close enough. Can't blame the lens for that.

For getting those action shots of birds I changed the D80 focus to just the AF-single area with AF-center area, normal zone. i.e the smallest focus area in the viewfinder. I think this worked better because the action shots were of birds a long way distant.

Closer piccies of birds that needed little/virtually no cropping gave good sharp piccies at 300mm in both dull and sunshine lighting. A couple of the full sunshine shots are over exposed by at least a full stop. But I was testing a lot, and playing around with exposure, so that is probably operator error!

I shot in both RAW and basic jpeg to help me delete the obvious failed shots quicker tonight. Interesting that with the minimum of work the low light basic jpegs have given acceptable images straight away. I'll need to do a lot of work on the low light RAW images to get them as good as the basic jpegs! That's probably nothing to do with the lens. Maybe I've relied on RAW too much in the past. This is the first time I've shot jpegs with the D80. Not sure I'm going to bother with RAW in the future.