I got my Z7 II and 40mm 2.0 today. The battery was extremely, extremely dead. Charged it up for a hour, still low as charge indicator shows. I'll know by tomorrow. I did use it a bit with battery fumes, seems ok, maybe 25 shots so far. The camera looked like new but did not do the shutter count. The camera actually refused to start for over a hour, had to recharge over a hour before it started up. Error messages when it finally started but none since. I have suspicions my battery is bad and my camera was returned because of that. I will be buying a new battery tomorrow if the current battery seems iffy tomorrow. Not really worth quibbling over a lousy battery after the price I paid. The 40mm that I got seems good but it's too early to tell at this point.
Update for these interested. My very dead battery did come back fine. No problems so far. Still early for now. I did get a new 28-400mm for my refurb Z7II. It's good so far. Slightly worse in the corners vs my Tamron 28-200 on a Sony A7RIII. Occasionally better in the corners a few times. The center is better. A good performance for a huge super zoom lens. It is a bit unbalanced on the Z7II, tho. So far, my Sony A7RIII has slightly more consistent metering.
Yesac13 wrote:
Update for these interested. My very dead battery did come back fine. No problems so far. Still early for now. I did get a new 28-400mm for my refurb Z7II. It's good so far. Slightly worse in the corners vs my Tamron 28-200 on a Sony A7RIII. Occasionally better in the corners a few times. The center is better. A good performance for a huge super zoom lens. It is a bit unbalanced on the Z7II, tho. So far, my Sony A7RIII has slightly more consistent metering.
If you want edge to edge sharpness on the 28-400mm I have found, just leave it at f8 through the whole zoom range. For example, I found 28mm f4 a bit disappointing for landscapes. I have the 24-120mm f4 too, and for the most part, I feel the 24-120mm is sharper at f4 than the 28-400mm is at f8 in the corners. But there is a big difference between 120mm and 400mm so I am happy to have the 28-400mm in my bag. When I need telephoto range, I use the 28-400mm, when 120mm is enough, I use the 24-120mm. I think of the 28-400mm as a much more convenient 70-300mm. The 28-400mm zoom range is letting me get photos I would have definitely missed due to changing lenses in the past. It's not a perfect lens but it opens up unique opportunities once you learn how to work with it and I am definitely happy Nikon made it.
I have to agree with what you said. F/8 is where it is at. Sometimes f/11 but my copy seems happiest at f/8, even at the long end when f/8 is wide open.
My APS-C Sony 70-350mm on a A7RIII does outperform my Nikon 28-400mm but not that dramatically and I pretty much have to look at 200% to see it... at 100%, I can't tell 95% of the time. The Nikon beats the Sony 1/3 of the time so it is that close. As you said, I do think of my Nikon 28-400 as a much more convenient 70-300mm. That is niche it lives at. Not a real replacement for something like the 24-120mm. I likely will be selling my Tamron 28-200mm and Sony 70-350mm, I doubt I will use them much from now on, the image quality are too close to bother using them for a hair better quality photograph.
Unless you need the DOF of f11, you will lose some sharpness at f11 due to diffraction. Most lenses hit their sweet spot around f5.6 on a FF 45mp sensor. Admittedly, I have not tested the 28-400 at f11 so it is possible f11 is hiding some field curvature or aberrations that will make some photos appear sharper. But the general rule of thumb is to stick to f8 or faster unless needed for the sharpest photos.
