I just realized there is no aperture lever on the lens. I guess that is the norm for "E" lenses. I can't change the aperture with this lens on my D70s.
VinnieJ wrote:
G has no aperture ring while E has no aperture lever. I guess that is what the E actually stands for, electromagnetic diaphragm mechanism.
Is it compatible with TCs which have aperture levers? That'd be an interesting (if not always practical) work-around if possible.
There are still discussions in a German forum that the sharpness with activated VC is significantly related to the shutter speed. A guy with a D810 did more than 600 pics
shooting the same object and found the following.
Sitting in a lawn chair feet flat on the ground, my elbows stabilized on me knees, and the D800 pressed to my face. Rolled on the shutter button to AF-S and trip the shutter. ISO tweaked from 50 to 400 to keep the aperture in a the f5.6-16 range (except 1/15 where it's f22 and 1/20 where it's f19). These are untouched, 100% cropped, RAW images.
17Feb2015
I edited these pictures out because I feel that this singular test unfairly represents the lens, as further testing suggests this was not a conclusive test.
The reality here could be that the lens is buggered and user error isn't the problem.
Don't forget, things could look quite a bit different if two people have a problem (or not) but one sharpens for web better or worse than the other.
But I agree, a larger sample size would be more representative. It is slightly concerning to hear potential issues though when there are only a few out in the wild and they're hot off the press. Only time will tell
Danner, I see a substantial amount of shake in almost all the photos below 1/350 shutter speed... maybe try stabilizing on a table or tripod?
Also, has it been AF-Fine-tuned? Would love to see a more thorough testing! Would hate for you to have an otherwise good lens, that hasn't been adjusted, give you some bad performance!
Sitting in a lawn chair feet flat on the ground, my elbows stabilized on me knees, and the D800 pressed to my face. Rolled on the shutter button to AF-S and trip the shutter. ISO tweaked from 50 to 400 to keep the aperture in a the f5.6-16 range (except 1/15 where it's f22 and 1/20 where it's f19). These are untouched, 100% cropped, RAW images.
I'm a bit concerned.
That's how I would expect it to perform if VR wasn't on at all. As soon as you go above 1/300 for a 300mm lens VR starts having less of an impact. By 1/500 it shouldn't be needed.
You can also hear VR turning on? I always use back button focus and when I'm focusing with my D810 I can hear VR kick on prior to hitting the shutter. With my D70s it doesn't turn on with back button focus, I have to use a half press of the shutter to turn it on.
Everyone sets there camera differently, I was just wondering if you were verifying VR is turning on for these shots.
mysh: Those were shot in full sun, I had the ISO turned down to 50, for the troubling shots (1/60-1/180), it was f11 to f9.5, so I don't think it's diffraction.
VinnieJ: I didn't specifically listen for the VR to go active on every shot. OTOH, it has been activating 100% of the time in general shooting, so I am pretty sure the VR was working for these shots. I rolled on the shutter slowly so the D800 could AF, noticed the viewfinder image stabilize, and then the shutter released. The more I think as I type, I'm sure the VR (normal mode) was running in every shot I posted.
General comment. These are 1:1 crops on a D800, for pretty much all of the uses of images from this camera, the slight loss of sharpness is not going to be noticed. Particularly if sharpening is added. So, it's not a big deal to me. But, I will keep an eye out, and if Nikon offers some resolution to this issues, I'll go for it.
Danner wrote:
mysh: Those were shot in full sun, I had the ISO turned down to 50, for the troubling shots (1/60-1/180), it was f11 to f9.5, so I don't think it's diffraction.
VinnieJ: I didn't specifically listen for the VR to go active on every shot. OTOH, it has been activating 100% of the time in general shooting, so I am pretty sure the VR was working for these shots. I rolled on the shutter slowly so the D800 could AF, noticed the viewfinder image stabilize, and then the shutter released. The more I think as I type, I'm sure the VR (normal mode) was running in every shot I posted.
General comment. These are 1:1 crops on a D800, for pretty much all of the uses of images from this camera, the slight loss of sharpness is not going to be noticed. Particularly if sharpening is added. So, it's not a big deal to me. But, I will keep an eye out, and if Nikon offers some resolution to this issues, I'll go for it.
Are you guys waiting a good 5-10 seconds for the VR to for sure settle before shooting, or do you just roll right onto the shutter as described? Some lenses need more time than others to completely stabilize, even after you initially start to see it working in the viewfinder.
Given that those are 100% crops from a D800, those are all within the realm of handheld sharpness inconsistency of a 300mm lens being shot at slower shutter speeds IMHO. Not saying there isn't an issue, but it's going to be something that is extremely difficult to test accurately. In other news, the VR appears to be shockingly good at 1/15-1/30 unless those were some lucky shots haha
trenchmonkey wrote:
Eeeee, I have no E's...guess I'm deprived. Thx
I never had an E lens until now. I guess the 800mm was the first E lens that has AF. Now the 400/2.8 and 300/f4 have joined it. Here is what Nikon says about compatibility:
"Electromagnetic diaphragm mechanism is incorporated for enhanced stability in auto exposure control during continuous shooting even when the teleconverter is used (Not compatible with the D2 series, D1 series, D200, D100, D90, D80, D70 series, D3000, D60, D50, D40 series, 35mm film cameras)"
So I guess it doesn't work with anything older than a D3/D300/D7000/D3100.
Everything actually works with my D70s including VR except for aperture control.
Sitting in a lawn chair feet flat on the ground, my elbows stabilized on me knees, and the D800 pressed to my face. Rolled on the shutter button to AF-S and trip the shutter. ISO tweaked from 50 to 400 to keep the aperture in a the f5.6-16 range (except 1/15 where it's f22 and 1/20 where it's f19). These are untouched, 100% cropped, RAW images.
I'm a bit concerned.
Danner,
Nikon will be announcing a firmware update this month for the D800 that will include an Electronic First Curtain shutter. It would be interesting to redo your results with this setting to see if shutter vibration is causing issues.
