Bronze decorative fitting from the main Lake Nemi's ship, ~37-41 AD.
D610 + Nikkor 25-50mm f/4 ai-s, ISO 3200, f/8 at 1/200s. 29% cropped (7/24Mp). Museo Nazionale Palazzo Massimo, Rome.
Clear and crisp skies here last night, so I got curious to compare my old and venerable 600mm f/4.0 with the new 400mm f/2.8 G.
Not a fair comparison, however, the twist was to shoot the moon, and with similar effective focal length. The actual contending optical setups were
600mm f/4.0 EDIF AIS with TC-14e II, which I know is the sharpest TC I have on that lens, making it a 840mm f/5.6
400mm f/2.8 AF-S G VR with TC-20e III, which is not the best TC on that lens, but to get to the same reach, it was a must, nor is it a bad combo, especially in image center where the moon would be. This setup comes out to 800mm f/5.6
I used the D500 to get some extra reach, so the actual comparison was 1260mm f/5.6 with 1200mm f/5.6. Both images were done on a solid tripod, remote radio trigger mirror up, 10+ seconds wait before shutter, and centered in the frame. I then picked the best image I had to scale and rotate the images to overlap closely. Then layered and sliced diagonally at 100% view here.
What the image does not show is how long it took to get decent focus with the MF setup (and how badly some images were off when I missed it - it's a super fine line on that lens barrel between being sharp and off by 10,000 miles). The AF setup took one push on the AF-ON button and that was that. VR was on, but probably hurt the image more than help.
Bottom line - if I didn't know which half is the 1980s lens slice, I would not have a clue how to tell. Can you?
I was hoping to see a real big difference between these lenses so I could finally let go of that old MF lens, but as you can see, a moon shot at least is not enough reason to dismiss this piece of glass as obsolete.
One thing I didn't mention - both lenses were stopped down one stop, although the 400mm looks identical wide open. The 600mm clearly was softer wide open.
as promised, digging through previously unseen RAW files
From July 19, 2014, California Sierra Nevada, John Muir Trail, standing knee deep in cold water with a semi-submerged tripod to get this angle with the 16mm f/3.5 AI. Posting at 1600 size since the page is already blown past most smaller screens
Some shots from Melbourne. This was at Victoria Markets, in the summer they have food stalls once a week, every type of food imaginable. Live music, late afternoon sunshine, good food and a few drinks with our eldest son and his gf who met us after work before we all got the tram back to their apartment.
