I took the plunge.

S

Shadyapex

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2013
Messages
203
Location
Bishop, CA
Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR Lens
So I was lurking on ebay hoping to find a good deal on an older super tele for wildlife shooting and found a Nikkor AI-S 500 f/4 for $1300 ending in 3 hours with no bids on it. So I headed over the kenrockwell.com to see if he had anything to say about this particular 30+ year old lens and found a rave review of the 200-500 zoom, for the same money. B&H reviews confirmed the enthusiastic response. I know it's a stop slower but it has VR, modern optics, is a zoom, and is brand new. It's supposed to arrive on Thursday, 1/21, and I know where I'll be that afternoon. It's also not $6000.
 
Congrats on the big glass! With all the raptors we see in the upper Owens Valley, I'm looking forward to seeing some cool bird shots.
Sort of off topic, but do you see elk in the Owens?
 
Congrats! I think you will like the 200-500/5.6. if you can keep your shutter above 1/1500, VR isn't needed. The modern coatings make a real difference in the super tele world. My experiment with a 600/4 AI S told me that old telephotos were not that great with digital cameras. Tons of chromatic aberration.

Let us know what you think of the new lens.
 
I've been doing a lot of bird photography recently (and posted some in the wildlife forum) with an old AI-S 300 f/4.5 and am so looking forward to the new kit, and yes, I'm shooting at 1/1200 or more. Some of the reviews on B&H sound a little far fetched regarding slow shutter speeds with the VR but we'll see what I can do with it.
We do have elk, the most common places to see them are around Big Pine, particularly just south of town on the west side of the road. There's a wildlife viewing sign there and it's not uncommon to see them out in that field.
 
Happyjax said:
I have the new Nikon 80-400 which cost me $2700 + tax. This lens is supposed to rival it. I am curious to see if it does. Looking forward to your pictures.

BTW Thom Hogan (http://www.bythom.com/ )

or Nasim Mansurov ( https://photographylife.com/ ) are much better resources than the one you mentioned....
Click to expand...
Hey thanks for the resource links. I'll post some pics once I've had a chance to get used to the lens. Steve,,,,,,
 
Well, the lens came yesterday afternoon so you can guess what I've been doing. So far I'm very impressed. The VR is fantastic, the AF is pretty fast and doesn't hunt too much although I have missed a couple of shots because of it. Of course the subject was pretty far away in a cluttered background and flying so I wasn't too surprised. And it's pretty big, the whole rig just barely fits in the Mindshift Gear holster which is the largest one I could find at B&H. Here are a couple of shots.
All are cropped a little, no sharpening.
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Those are some sweet bird photos. The new glass agrees with you. I particularly like the heron in flight. Always a challenge with something moving so fast.

Alan
 
I prefer stocking my subjects.

Just kidding of course.

It would be pretty cool to own a beast like your 200mm to 500mm. Have fun shooting in detail what is a dot on most of our cameras.
 
I'm super pleased with the sharpness in the kestrel photo, having nice light and a cooperative subject doesn't hurt either.
I'm also impressed with how slow I can hand hold. I'm still shooting at at least 1/500 to 1/1000 (out of long habit) but I've done a few test shots at 1/50 and 500mm and they're still sharp. It's a little like discovering that beer is good for you, or that eating too much doesn't make you fat.
 
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