Hi folks,
My current setup does not give me the reach I crave, having solely a 35mm and 85mm lens on my crop body. I have an 80-200 f4 for my old Canon AE1, but am not going to adapt it to my Nikon F mount.
As a budget-crunched master's student, I currently don't have the money to spend on an 80-200 AF-S like I would want. With the plethora of glass out there, I'm simply at a loss as to what to purchase, on a budget, to satisfy my needs.
Anyone have experience with the old legacy 80-200 f4 or the 200mm f4 Nikon glass?
Any advice on good Nikon or 3rd party telephoto primes or zooms that are relatively fast, inexpensive (Manual Focus is not a problem, I shoot stationary for the most part, but have learned to obtain and keep focus fairly quickly when shooting manual), would be very very much appreciated.
You can get a 70-300 VR used on the buy/sell here for a little over $300 ( $325? ).. and that lens is excellent. Maybe trenchmonkey wills stop by and show you just how good it is.
Thanks Chris, I'll do some digging for some photos with it.
I currently am seeing an EX condition 200mm f4 on KEH. I know it won't meter on my D3000, but don't know how important that is (sunny 16 afterall). It is only $135. Is it a lens worth pursuing?
They say the 200 F4 MF is sharp as a tack. I have the 300mm 4.5 I got from KEH They are very reasonable and pretty good quality as log as you don't mind manual focus. Get the AI or AI-S or for a few more bucks you might find it worth while to get the ED IF model
Thank you ray!
Yes, I was looking at the 300mm f4.5 earlier today, along with the 200mm f4, and I think i'll save up a bit and get that 200mm. I don't mind having to use an external light meter, and manual focusing legacy glass is such a delight. I actually find myself manual focusing better/faster with legacy glass than I do with Nikon's latest crop of lenses!!
Yes MDoc, I do have the Rokinon...its a bloody fantastic lens! Sharpness, contrast, everything on it is phenomenal. However, the focus ring is very heavily damped, so I tend to use it more for stationary stuff (street scenes, architecture, etc) because it is not a very easy lens to focus on moving subjects. I have however had success zone-focusing with it.
As an after thought I also have the 100-300 5.6 and it is a great lens. It is very sharp at 300 wide open and my just be what you are looking for.It is well balanced with the 300 extention closest to the body. It also works great with tubes. Bargin priced at Keh for around $100
thanks MDoc, I'll have to poke around for some photos to see how it renders. f5.6 is a tad slow it seems, and I wonder about its background separation.
The 200mm f/4, both AI and AIS are tack sharp, as ray said, and the best bang for the buck in the 200mm range.
In a test against my beloved 80-200mm af-s f/2.8 (which is a well regarded lens, according many slighty better than the 70-200mm /2.8 VR1) the Nikkor AIS is sharper and do not suffer of focus breathing at less than 40-50m.
Some samples:
_D3C1187 Squirrel Cuckoo by labecoaves, on Flickr
Squirrel Cuckoo at 10m away, ~ 40% crop.
D3 + Nikkor 200mm f/4 ai-s, hand held, ISO 2000, 1/125s, f/5.6;
The bird was searching for bugs not fruits!
_DTR2835 Burnished-buff Tanager female by labecoaves, on Flickr
No need for supertelephotos here, this guy (in fact girl, a female Burnished-buff Tanager) was just at 2.5m. D300+ Nikkor 200mm f/4 AI-S hand held, f/5.6 1/60s, ~ 33% crop.
and a close up: Ants preying on a Honey Bee by labecoaves, on Flickr
D7000 + 36mm Vivitar extension tube + Nikkor 200mm f/4 ai-s @ f/8, 1/160s hand held,
ISO 1600, ~ 50% cropped.
