Bikerbrent_RIP
Senior Member
OK! This lens does have the VR switch. But most of the other "P" lenses do not have this switch so you cannot disable VR on the D7100. Nikon promised an fix, but have yet to really come though.
Please suggest a good 70-300 lens for my Nikon D7100
- Thread starter soumyabiswas
- Start date
OK! This lens does have the VR switch. But most of the other "P" lenses do not have this switch so you cannot disable VR on the D7100. Nikon promised an fix, but have yet to really come though.
mikeee
Senior Member
Yeah, that is true. I was just talking about this particular lens (which is a very good one!)
I've just joined this forum today so wasn't here to answer earlier. I just now posted this as an answer in another thread, but it's relevant here too:
Some months ago I bought an AF-P lens to use on my D7100, and ran into the same problem [as in the other thread]. It did auto-focus, but I had to re-focus after turning the camera on and off, or even after the metering turns itself off due to timing out. Following advice I found elsewhere on the interwebs, I updated the firmware of the camera - with trepidation, but it completed OK. After that the focus no longer reset up power-cycle. The D7100 with the latest firmware is ALMOST fully compatible with AF-P lenses. One cannot turn off the VR though - for AF-P lenses that's done via the camera menu but it's not available in the D7100. That does not seem to hurt too much, the VR on these newer lenses is pretty smart. And the lens I bought, the 70-300 AF-P VR, is a dream come true. Sharp handheld pictures at 300mm!
So to answer the question in this thread, I think the AF-P lens is much better: half the weight, very sharp even at 300mm, fast focus, extremely effective VR, and cheaper to boot. You may need that firmware update for the D7100 though.
Some months ago I bought an AF-P lens to use on my D7100, and ran into the same problem [as in the other thread]. It did auto-focus, but I had to re-focus after turning the camera on and off, or even after the metering turns itself off due to timing out. Following advice I found elsewhere on the interwebs, I updated the firmware of the camera - with trepidation, but it completed OK. After that the focus no longer reset up power-cycle. The D7100 with the latest firmware is ALMOST fully compatible with AF-P lenses. One cannot turn off the VR though - for AF-P lenses that's done via the camera menu but it's not available in the D7100. That does not seem to hurt too much, the VR on these newer lenses is pretty smart. And the lens I bought, the 70-300 AF-P VR, is a dream come true. Sharp handheld pictures at 300mm!
So to answer the question in this thread, I think the AF-P lens is much better: half the weight, very sharp even at 300mm, fast focus, extremely effective VR, and cheaper to boot. You may need that firmware update for the D7100 though.
soumyabiswas
Senior Member
Hi mbraner - Can you please confirm the following:
1. what was your d7100 earlier firmware version?
2. what is your latest firmware version?
1. what was your d7100 earlier firmware version?
2. what is your latest firmware version?
Sorry, I am not sure what the old version was, it was several years old, maybe version 1.01. The new version is 1.04 which was the latest as of a couple of months ago - and they don't publish many updates. I also updated the lens database, to 2.018. Not sure if the latter is needed for general AF-P support, but seemed like a good thing to do while I'm at it. E.g, it allows the camera to correct for distortion on the lenses that are covered in the database.
alpine_56
Senior Member
So I am pretty much set on this or the 70-300 P FX lens. How would anyone that has the Sigma rate it to the Nikon? Is the extra 100mm of zoom worth it?
TwistedThrottle
Senior Member
I have the AF P 70-300 4.5-5.6 (fx) and also the Sigma 150-600. I have not used the 100-400. I use the 70-300 for having something compact that zooms pretty far on my crop body camera. It's also a fantastic day time portrait lens on a full frame camera. I use the 150-600 when I am going out to specifically shoot birds or wildlife or even the next state over from the top of a mountain. The 70-300 is smaller and lighter than the 100-400 but the 400 is equal to 600 on crop sensors. On a side note, I got the 150-600 because the 300 wasn't long enough for me, (450 on crop). Not sure if 400 would have been either. Since getting the 150-600, rarely am I shooting anything less than 600 through that lens, (which is 900 on crop) but its a beast of a lens so it's more of a plan-to-use-it kind of lens. I also end up using it more on my crop body than full frame. If you don't plan on getting anything longer and length is your priority, get the longest lens possible but be careful because as they get longer, they also get heavier. If its too heavy to be convenient, it gets left behind most of the time.
Focal length is not everything. I've tried several 300 and 400mm lenses, old cheap manual-focus ones, and generally found that my old Nikkor AIS 200mm (which I bought for a pittance and partly disassembled to remove some fungus) yields better results even after I crop the photo as needed. The screw-focus Tokina 400mm is not too bad - if used on a sturdy tripod. But the AF-P DX 70-300 VR completely blew them all away and I consider it a game changer. Handheld shots at 300mm are often very sharp and can be cropped much further. And it's light and cheap to boot. I was so impressed I bought a D3300 to use with it so I don't have to lug the D7100 unless I want to. (The AF-P lens won't work with my older D3100.) I should figure out how to post photos to this forum so you can see.
