1st Outing with new 300/2.8 VRII - Serious problems !
Yesterday was my first outing with this brand new lens. I\'d previously tried the lens bare and also with the TC14EII and also TC20EIII, both in my garden and in the local park, I had been delighted with the performance, the lens delivering both superb AF and wonderful IQ, so I was raring to go on my next birding trip.
There however seems to be a few issues.
#1 was the AF was far from silent and seemed to be far noisier than I expected, with intermittently what I\'d call a low grinding sound. Also some clicking (I guess that is the VR) after each focus attempt ?
#2, and most seriously, BIF was impossible with either TC or even just the bare lens. The bird would be in the centre of the frame and the AF tried to focus, but failed every time (I thought I must have a focus limiter on but realised this lens isn\'t like the Sigma and doesn\'t limit infinity in either setting) ! Each time when the lens failed to find focus on the first attempt the AF froze and I\'d have to point it at a subject near MFD to pull the AF out of it\'s reverie, and often even this did not work until after a few attempts, the AF was just frozen. This happened on all BIF and even sometimes when trying to find a bird in the deep bush (so very low contrast situations).
Of course my other birding lenses (Sigma 120-300 with 1.4 & 2.0 TCs and Sigma 500) I\'ve used have never had this BIF focusing issue (failing to find focus and then freezing). All have been used on the D800.
Have I inadvertently pushed one of the action buttons on the front of the lens and done something to restrict infinity focusing ? Have I somehow set up the lens wrong for birding (A/M, VR On Normal, Focus limiter on Full, Memory Recall on AF-L) ? Or is the AF on this lens seriously flawed and it needs to be returned for repair ?
Note I am in China so no return for exchange or refund, just a one year guarantee to fix issues.
May 11, 2013 at 11:00 PM
Previous versions of Frogfish's message #11546617 « 1st Outing with new 300/2.8 VRII - Problem was NOT a lens issue ! »
