Photowyzard
Senior Member
Well Im really happy with 70 - 300, but then again, i dont know any better as Ive never used a 400mm Lens.... Ignorance is Bliss
No truer words spoken... once you see better.... NAS sets in fast and furious.
Nikon Nikkor 400mm f3.5 ED-IF Ai-S Lens REVIEW
- Thread starter Photowyzard
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No truer words spoken... once you see better.... NAS sets in fast and furious.
Photowyzard
Senior Member
My progression was 70-300 and I then purchased an older 300mm f4. The only reason I sold that lens was because I wanted faster AF, a mistake on my part as there was no difference and I honestly feel the older 300 is better optically than the new one I bought!
I then added 1.4 TC and 1.7 TC to the mix.
The 300mm blows the 70-300 out of the water even with the TC on it! I wanted reach, hence my purchase of this 400mm.
I don't have $10K to drop on a piece of glass right now and this was the best compromise I could make and I have not looked back. I have a lot of images posted in the D800 folder I have, lots taken with the 400mm lens. Judge for yourself.
I then added 1.4 TC and 1.7 TC to the mix.
The 300mm blows the 70-300 out of the water even with the TC on it! I wanted reach, hence my purchase of this 400mm.
I don't have $10K to drop on a piece of glass right now and this was the best compromise I could make and I have not looked back. I have a lot of images posted in the D800 folder I have, lots taken with the 400mm lens. Judge for yourself.
Recently I was with two photographers in their early thirties which mean that both of them were born when this lens was. They were using the AF 400F2.8ED supplied by their employer. I was using my old 400mmF3.5 ED manual. I was taking great shots with my D2X and my D3. My pictures were stunning. Sure, most of my work was almost stationary and with birds posing quietly. So they were looking at my lens and try it. I allowed then to mounted their bodies, a D800 and a D4 on my lens in my heavy Manfrotto 3033 with a 329 Head. After working for a while trying to do, manually, what I was doing, their work turn to be quiet awful. I guess with time using this lens ,they will become way better, but after this, I realized how great a photographer was in the old days when he had to do almost everything manually. That is why I say all the time that film was an ART, digital is NOT. You either take a great shot or you will get stuck forever with a crappy photo. Now days, whatever the crap I see the Pros taking, there is no problem, they can erase that immediately or, fix it in the computer. Sure, automation make our lives easier and more relaxed, but not all technology is the same, if not ask those pilots flying those super automated Airbus, how nervous they get when those A320 takes control by themselves. Like I say, photography is a pleasure for most of us, like me, so, in my case, why sticking with automation, when I will lose the pleasure of making pictures by myself. Of more of the over 40 Nikkors that I own, only six of them are AF. I will consider my AF 70-200F2.8G only for moving subjects, but my two old Nikkors 50-300 F4.5 EDs are my main teleZooms. I never can find anything more reliable than those 6X lenses.