Grognard wrote:
Canon has one, why has Nikon not fleshed out their super long line by bringing back the 800mm and 1200mm focal lengths?
Would you buy one? If not, why the fuss?
And that 1200mm...I believe Canon has sold 10 or thereabouts of them. Ever. It costs 100k. Why would anyone ever bother making such a thing, unless someone comissions them. And still, it would be so much easier to just buy the Canon 1200mm (rent more likely from the handful of agencies that have one) and a body.
Lenses like that fill a tiny niche gap in the market. Once the gap is filled, there is no reason for any other company to try to fill it. Unless it is for bragging rights.
rumor is that Canon made about 100 1200/5.6 IS lenses. list price at B&H when i last saw them have a price was $80K. they had a used one for sale about a year ago for $100K.
HerbChong wrote:
rumor is that Canon made about 100 1200/5.6 IS lenses. list price at B&H when i last saw them have a price was $80K. they had a used one for sale about a year ago for $100K.
Herb...
Yes...probably right. I read some urban myths but cannot find them now. One was that some Seikh or whatever Prince in the Middle East bought 10 just because.
Well, right now I can't afford either a Canon or a new Nikon 800/5.6. But I could and did afford an old Nikon 800/5.6 ED and am enjoying using it every weekend. It most definetly has contributed to the quality of my bird images since buying it a few months ago. At first I used it on my EOS gear but then I picked up a D300 to mount it to. Now I get everything but AF but boy is it a monster.
Somehow I doubt anyone here was referring to the desire for a couple of 20+ year old lenses to show up for sale when the inquiry was made into 800mm f/5.6 lenses being produced by Nikon. The two you pointed to may have quality optics for their production time-frame, but they're manual focus, no VR, no new technology coatings, etc. Not exactly in the same league of the Nikon 600 f/4 VR...
Old does not mean bad. Go to my site and search for the images from the old 800/5.6. Or just look in the Eagles gallery where there are a bunch from this year.
True, but I was pointing out that Nikon had them in the lineup before, so why not update them, and make more modern lenses?
coracii wrote:
Somehow I doubt anyone here was referring to the desire for a couple of 20+ year old lenses to show up for sale when the inquiry was made into 800mm f/5.6 lenses being produced by Nikon. The two you pointed to may have quality optics for their production time-frame, but they're manual focus, no VR, no new technology coatings, etc. Not exactly in the same league of the Nikon 600 f/4 VR...
Grognard wrote:
True, but I was pointing out that Nikon had them in the lineup before, so why not update them, and make more modern lenses?
They work great as is. Why update? VR? now that's funny Manual focus??..I know that's a lot of work.....Maybe you guys don't know how good the optics are on this old glass. How many people really have apurpose for glass like this...other to post hypothetical questions on the internet (must be raining or something).
How many people really have a purpose for glass like this...other to post hypothetical questions on the internet (must be raining or something).
Exactly the point that many people in this thread, myself included, have been trying to make for the first three pages. The 800 f/5.6 never was a big seller no matter the quality of the optics that were in the MF lens. If Nikon decided to build a new version and did not include AF-S, VR, coated optics, etc they would be skewered by the people posting on every board of the internet no matter how high of quality the lens was. Just look at all the complaints that the 24-70 didn't come with VR, on a lens that really has no pressing need for it. Even if the hypothetical 800 was on a tripod 100% of the time, people would still never shut up if it wasn't equipped with VR and AF-S. They might sell a couple of hundred lenses total, and would lose countless sums of money on the R&D, construction, marketing, warranty coverage, etc. If a person really needs a 800mm, there's already options available to get there.
Well my 800/5.6 sees lots of use but I am limited with it. This old body will take into the backcountry on an ATV but I'm sure not hiking any distance with it. But as a shoot by the car or in the car lense it is great. And this old soldier wouldn't have hesitated to hike several miles with the beast a few years ago. But bad knees and bad back now prevent that.
I must also say that using this lens on a D300 or similiar body is truly viable. You program the lens info in and then get accurate metering, aperture indication in the Viewfinder, DOF preview, and a very accurate focus confirmation. You really can manually focus it quite quickly and hit a high percentage of your shots.
I almost passed on this lens myself because of all the "percieved" problems using it by all those that have never even seen the lens. All I can say is that I'm glad I did not.
It would be nice if Nikon would actually produce its 600 VR in sufficient supply so you don't have to wait months to get one. I would image the waiting list for an 800 would require a 12 month wait and the list would probably only have a few hundred names.
