It's been a while since I posted here (ie: years lols), nice to see the forum is still so active. I was so busy buying Sigma lenses the past two years but this is something I think worthy to show because it is so hard (at least for me) to find really good reference of these old lenses. I recently acquired the Nikon (Nikkor) 400mm f2.8 AI-S and 800mm f5.6 AI-S. As some of you might recall, I used to have the 300mm f2.8 AI-S and did some bird photography with it. I'd like to get back into nature/wildlife photography so there was a guy selling a full set of telephotos all almost mint and I missed the 600mm f4 and 200mm f2 so I got these two as consolation lol. My plan is to explore their capability and compare them to more modern AF lenses. For example I might get a Sigma 300-800mm and compare with that as I think there might be something to be said for simpler optical formulas. Plus I plan to compare these lenses against each other as I also got the 1.4x (Nikon TC-14B) and 2x (Nikon TC-301) teleconverters.
So here's the breakdown of focal lengths etc with converters:
400mm f2.8
1.4x = 560mm f3.9
2x = 800mm f5.6
800mm f5.6
1.4x = 1120mm f7.8
2x = 1600mm f11.2
Here are the two lenses as they arrived in their hard cases.
Here are the two lens cases opened, with the 400mm f2.8 on the left and 800mm f5.6 on the right.
Closeup of the 400 in the case
Closeup of the 800mm in the case
Here's the 400mm f2.8 AI-S with Nikon D800
Here it is with the 2x doubler on
And now the 800mm f5.6 AI-S on the D850
And with the 2x
Here are the two standing side by side, 400mm on the left with the D800 and 800mm on the right with the D850
On the weekend I got a Manfrotto 393 gimbal head, so here is the 400mm on it.
Another shot
And a few other angles so see how it is balanced with the 2x TC-301 added.
So it will be fun to get the time to put these through their paces.
So here's the breakdown of focal lengths etc with converters:
400mm f2.8
1.4x = 560mm f3.9
2x = 800mm f5.6
800mm f5.6
1.4x = 1120mm f7.8
2x = 1600mm f11.2
Here are the two lenses as they arrived in their hard cases.
Here are the two lens cases opened, with the 400mm f2.8 on the left and 800mm f5.6 on the right.
Closeup of the 400 in the case
Closeup of the 800mm in the case
Here's the 400mm f2.8 AI-S with Nikon D800
Here it is with the 2x doubler on
And now the 800mm f5.6 AI-S on the D850
And with the 2x
Here are the two standing side by side, 400mm on the left with the D800 and 800mm on the right with the D850
On the weekend I got a Manfrotto 393 gimbal head, so here is the 400mm on it.
Another shot
And a few other angles so see how it is balanced with the 2x TC-301 added.
So it will be fun to get the time to put these through their paces.