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 p.86 #2 · Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR | |
I shoot a lot of motorsports, and have been shooting big lenses since the mid 90s, first the white kind, now Nikon. I've rented the best, I own some older AIS glass, and I shoot the same stuff at same location under similar conditions quite a bit, so comparing this lens with that other high end stuff isn't difficult for me.
Image quality is amazing for the money. That's the first and most important reason to get this lens. Everything else I can work around. Heck, I shoot a manual focus lens when I am not renting fancy glass, and do manage.
But it's not just the IQ that makes this lens a great value (and kills the value of 80-400mm and 200-400mm, plus has had me rethink the purchase of a used 400/2.8)
Bonus: it is a zoom, so more than just a great 500mm f/5.6 that Nikon probably could have sold for the same money.
Bonus: AF is very fast. I used it with a D500 and compared to a 400 f/2.8 on D810, it was faster. Clearly the body and the new AF processor in the D500 helsp a lot, however, the lens kept up with it just fine. Faster possible? Sure, but I won't pay $10,000 more for it, not even $1,000 more.
Bonus: it is lightweight compared to the lenses I used to shoot these images with. Panning and hand holding all sorts of things is a lot easier.
Bonus: size - this thing is tiny compared to my usual big glass. I can bring it along anywhere in the backpack, while the big lenses are on my shoulder or in my hand, but never on my back. This puts long tele reach in my pack at all times.
Bonus: VR works quite well. Not sure I have figured out how to best use the sports mode, but then I only used it for about 4000 clicks on a single race weekend on a camera I had never used before.
Bonus: it works with my TC-14e II very well. Not officially supported, but hey, it takes 10 minutes and a dremel and you have yourself a 700mm f/8.0 lens that autofocuses on a D500 just fine. And it's still very sharp, sharper than my 600mm f/4.0 AIS without TC.
Not so great: background is always much busier than I'd like it compared to creamy glass like the 400mm f/2.8. Also, colors are just so much better with the top end glass, but it still is well ahead of my old AIS lens.
Also not so happy about the weight distribution. It is all too far in back. The front, especially at 500mm, is all air, so handling this lens is quite different from the big glass I am used t. My camera hand got tired very quickly, leading to about the same time frame before I had to stop hold it up as with a 14 pound 600mm on the body where there is a lot more weight up front, making for a more balanced package. Nothing you can't get used to, though.
Durability - well, it's lens shade will be the first thing to go, then the rest. Too much plastic for a lens at that price point, so I will probably just rent it when I want to use it. It's dirt cheap to rent for a couple of days at a time.
How good is this lens - here on D500 with TC-14e II on a hot day from quite some distance at full zoom, equivalent to 1050mm on FX, monopod, no AF-fone tune, just out of the box from lensrentals. 100 pixels chopped off horizontal, 300 or so vertical, so almost the full sensor area. LArge images here, just because it's so darn good
Mark Kvamme gets all the attention at Starworks
And here without TC on a full frame D600, handheld with VR indoors, no crop. 1/100s @270mm f/5.6
Corvette DP on the lift
Impressive lens, especially on a fast AF body. On my D600, AF wasn't usable with the TC, and it was rather sluggish on everything else. Bottom line - to get the most from this lens with moving targets, you need a fast body, and that does cost almost twice as much as the lens in DX, and 7 times as much in FX... ouch.
Here's one of those tracking shots with the D500 - car making a hard left turn with me standing outside, picking it up just before this angle as the car turns away and accelerates. About 70mph here. Lens at 400mm on D500, center dot AF on the lowest AF dot count and full AF-C - ultimately, my panning skills were the only reason many of these shots failed, but the focus was always on the money. f/11.0 1/320s
Cruisin' with the Monkey
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