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HarvM wrote:
My 70-300 VR was purchased Sept 2007, does this make it the original version?
I know birds in branches are particularly tough. I am amazed at how well the lenses do the job.
Harv
Harv, yes that's the original version. A very capable lens in bright light, especially when shot at less than 300mm. But it does like to hunt a lot and is very slow to rack back and forth relative to other lenses. Imo the "hunting" seems normal until u use a lens like the 70-200 vrII. All of a sudden it is like bang! Instant focus lock! in most any background/situation. Obviously the 70-200 is much more expensive so I'm not trying to compare the two that way.
I have found the longer zooms and primes vary by lens as to how well they lock on to a subject, how fast they lock on, and how they behave when missing focus. It's a little like the lenses have different personalities. Some lenses like the 70-300 vr (original version) and 200-500 "recover" after missing focus by sort of throwing up their hands and saying "I don't know what to do so I'll just rack back and forth hoping something good will happen". Other lenses "recover" by saying, "I missed focus but this is pretty close so I'll just stop there". The latter of those two is much better behavior because u can instantly refocus and not have to wait for the lens to rack back and forth. Plus the initial missed focus is pretty close and a quick press of the AF-ON button get you perfect focus.
Also related to re-acquiring focus, if your camera has the ability to do "AF-ON" (often called back button focusing) that will make a world of difference in getting better initial target acquisition and in re-acquiring target. I don't know your cameras af system but if it allows you to use Af-On (camera focuses only when you press the focus button), af-c mode (continuos focus), single point focus (or dynamic 9) that setup will help a lot.
I would also note that many recent sigma and tamron lenses allow u to change their af behavior (as well as vr behavior and other things) via their dock/tap in console. For Nikon, if u are using a Nikon 300 2.8 or any of the longer exotic primes there is no need to change the af behavior anyway because they have "instant lock" amazing focus already.
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