April, 2007

I bought a Nikon 70-300 VR AF-S f/4.5-f/5.6 telezoom lens as a lightweight carry around lens in addition to my 70-200 f/2.8 VR AF-S bazooka.

I will add my comments on this lens to this post as days go by, but here is the initial set of test shots I took with this lens. EXIF information is intact in the gallery, clicking on each photo will bring a bigger sized photo with the EXIF intact.

Initial thoughts

1. Excellent weight / size. Makes for a perfect travel lens.
2. The lens barrel rotates on zooming. Sucks for circular polarizer.
3. 67mm filter. Now I need that 67-77 mm step up rings.
4. Pleasant bokeh. I was pleasantly surprised to see this on a slow lens. I guess bokeh has got as much to do with the lens design as much it has to do with faster aperture. Agreed faster lenses help with better isolation, but if you watch your background, this lens can do some good photos.
5. Fast AF in good light. AF hunted in low light indoors, but AF assist light from the SB 800 improved the AF immensely. Certainly not a low light lens .
6. Sharp wide open at every focal length I tested. Sharpens beautifully at f/8.
7. Sharpness does seem to fall off from 200mm to 300mm.
8. VR works. As well as it works on the 70-200 f/2.8 VR AF-S.
9. Can’t comment on contrast and colors yet. Like the 70-200 f/2.8 has muted contrast as compared to the 17-55. The colors are accurate.
10. Definitely lacks the “zing” factor of the 70-200 f/2.8 VR AF-S. I am not sure if it is “micro-contrast” or whatever it is, photos from the pro nikon glass just pop out, it doesn’t do that here.

Overall, this seems like a winner outdoor, lightweight travel lens. It is not the uber portrait lens either, but if you watch your background, you can pull off some very nice portraits too.

More as I take photos with the lens .

Update:

Bokeh

I am really pleasantly surprised by the bokeh of this lens. This is a winner.

Studio

This makes for a decent studio lens too. However, in my studio setup with low powered modelling lights, AF hunted a bit. The slow aperture does show up in AF.

Color

This lens has some excellent color .

Flare

The lens is very resistant to flare. This shot was almost shooting into the sun with the hood on.

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