Mongo's Nikon 200-500mm has arrived !

[mongo]

Proof that even if you have been naughty and perhaps eaten one or two endangered species (that you promised not to), you may still get your wish for this lens.

The images will be in this and the second post in this thread as there are 8 in total


the ruler in the images is a 300mm ruler. The camera body is a D4s.


So image 6 is about 310mm all up


image 7 is about 400mm (with the hood)


image 8 is about 490mm (lens extended with hood)


Mongo thought he would be unhappy with the foot but must say , on first impressions, it seems sturdy but Mongo has yet to try it attached to a tripod in a real life situation. It will still need changes to attach to most current systems.


One instantly noticeable thing is the weight. Mongo was expecting it to be heavier. Mongo suspect it is heavier than his senses compute. Mongo thinks the main reason for that is that the lens is short, stocky, has great balance in the paws/easy handling and thus may give the impression of being lighter. For whatever reason, it is better than Mongo had prepared for on this issue.


Also had the quickest of looks through it and took a few random images. Again, the VR is instantly noticeable in its effect - very good. Focus seems pretty fast and sure. Sharpness also gives the impression (subject to some fine testing and pixel peeping) to be as good as has been said about it. Mongo needs to really try it wide open and then , say, up to 1 stop down in 1/3 increments. Also, must try the 1.4EII on it as a realist converter for practical use. Mongo is sceptical about the practicability of any bigger converter (even though it may work with the lens).

It comes with a soft pouch (with a stiff front for lens protection)


Lastly, no zoom creep.


A lot more to come when properly tested.


If you have any reasonable questions Mongo can try to give an answer to, please ask them. Mongo notes that they may be the type of question that will require him to look into while testing in the next short while.


regards

Mongo

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[mongo]

last 3 images

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[thegrump]

Now all you have to do is build a room, it which to house it.

[Gazza]

From a Canon owner... "But but but it's Blek..."


Now a little more serious.... Hope all goes well with your new purchase/toy/creative device -

[cupic]

MOngo Mongo.Seems the early bird catches the worm
With luck Xmas this year more stock to arrive ...Always looking at the worst case scenario
Will look closely @ the TC 1.4 II same what i have and the results in your test
95mm opening looks encouraging

cheers

[thegrump]

Just curious!!!!! is your arm long enough to manually focus this beast

[Cage]

I'm just a tad envious.

Very interested to see the results at the long end, and in particular with your 1.4 T/C.

[Mary Anne]

Happy Shooting and all that.

[mongo]

Mongo will post some very quick initial images but there is much more that needs to be investigated over coming days.


These are from D800E. Only problem is that Mongo forgot and left the camera set to “normal Jpeg” rather than RAW. So, this is not what Mongo is used. However, felt it was best to post these with small explanations along the way with each image. Hope it hops until Mongo shoots more images in Raw.


The first in each pair of images is an UNPROCESSED jpeg taken from a screen shot in order to see the focus point.


The second image is a slightly processed version of the original Jpeg (and remember, Mongo is not used to processing jpegs). He has, as much as possible processed them in the way he would have processed Raw images. There is a slight noise reduction, a mild high pass sharpening at 0.3 of a pixel and the it is a 100% crop of the original. All images taken handheld VR on

Again, this may require several posts in this thread to be able to post all the images.

first pair @500mm, f5.6, 1/800th, ISO400
unprocessed Jpeg DSC_7862.jpg

DSC_7862processed.jpg

second pair @500mm f8, ISO640, 1/500th
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DSC_7864processed.jpg

See next post

[mongo]

continuing from previous post

third pair @500mm with 1.4EII converter @f8 (ie wide open) , ISO1100, 1/800th
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fourth pair @500mm with 1.4EII converter @f11 (ie i stop down) , ISO2000, 1/800th
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DSC_7870processed.jpg

Mongo found that the 1.4EII converter worked very well. Focus was reasonably quick, image quality wide open to be good (becoming very good by stopping down 1 stop). It may be possible that the image quality may have been just as good stopping down less than 1 full stop but have not yet tested for that.

results with 1.7 EII and 20EIII will be posted shortly

[mongo]

D4s with 200-500 and 1.7EII converter.

500mm (850mm equivalent) @f11 (effectively stopped down about 2/3 of a stop), ISO2200, 1/1000th @ 100% crop
DSC_8718_01.jpg

500mm (850mm equivalent) @f11 (effectively stopped down about 2/3 of a stop), ISO800, 1/1000th @ 100% crop
DSC_8719_01.jpg

Important things to keep in mind:-
all were handheld with VR on
focus did hunt a bit and had to be manually overridden in "MA" mode but this was done easily and sometimes, the lens would find focus unassisted
it was quite overcast and raining at the time the images were taken and light was not the best

For the above reasons, Mongo has delayed the 20EII shots as he feels a lot of the result may be due to these factors - not the least of which hime trying to focus with his finger while holding the lens he has not used before.

One thing Mongo can say with reasonable certainty (and he hopes this will be proved subsequently) is ;-

1. the 1.7 and X2 converters do work even if they may need manual assistance or even used manually outright
2. the 1.7 can give very good results that Mongo would be happy to get
3. the X2 converter (and to some extent, the 1.7 converter) seem to need some degree of AF fine tuning from Mongo's initial experience. However, it remains to be seen if this is the case or simply Mongo's fault and the conditions being less than ideal on the day. Either way, Mongo is very optimistic about the future for use with these converters.
4. the question that still remains after all this is the SPEED of AF with these converters. This will require some specific testing to be done soon.
5. all initial feedback from this lens (including build quality which Mongo failed to mention) is quite positive and begs further exploration.


Keep tuned

[Lance B]

Congrats on the new toy, Mongo! The results look very encouraging, as are the results I have seen elsewhere. Look forward to having a little play with it when we next meet up.

[mongo]

Congrats on the new toy, Mongo! The results look very encouraging, as are the results I have seen elsewhere. Look forward to having a little play with it when we next meet up.

thanks Lance - look forward to it.

[Cage]

Some pretty impressive results there Mongo for a quick 'n' dirty test.

I'll be following this thread with interest.

[mongo]

Just curious!!!!! is your arm long enough to manually focus this beast

yes

[feathers]

Mongo,... just when l think l have my gas problem under control, ... you post another beauty:eek.
a great presentation.

[mongo]

Mongo,... just when l think l have my gas problem under control, ... you post another beauty:eek.
a great presentation.

feathers ...did you mean "glass" or do you really mean "gas" .....??? either way, Mongo has problems with both ! Having said that, so far, Mongo thinks this new glass is a gas ! (does that expression show Mongo's age ???)

[knumbnutz]

Whats it like side by side and weight wise to the 70-200f2.8 VR ?

[mongo]

Whats it like side by side and weight wise to the 70-200f2.8 VR ?

Mongo will give you an answer tomorrow morning

[Shelley]

Mongo has outdone himself... congrats... look forward to results in the field.