Mongo's Nikon 200-500mm has arrived !

[cupic]

From CameraLabs
Focus, build quality, and image stabilization

Focus accuracy and repeatability is critical to consistently produce sharp shots. Repeatability (the accuracy of focus on the same subject after repeated focus-acquisition) of this lens is very good (measured 97,2% in FoCal) with no outliers over a series of 40 shots. And there is no performance variation whether the lens focuses from infinity or from a closer distance. At 500mm focal length the lens focuses in around 1 sec from infinity to 5m, which is slow. One reason is that the lens starts searching in the wrong direction (beyond infinity) before turning around. That happens at focal lengths longer than 300mm and only when the previous focus was close to infinity. At 300mm the lens focuses in about 0.7 sec from infinity to 5m which is good.
Unfortunately my tests showed that the shutter slap of the D810 still introduces unwanted blur at shutter speeds around 1/25. So be careful and use electronic first curtain to eliminate this source of shake if you shoot from a tripod.

And from photo.net

If you have a static subject under dim light, those cross-type AF points will lock focus ok as long as your subject has decent contrast. Any moving subject under dim light is going to be very problematic.

BTW Lance you have a fan again on

http://photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00dVDu?start=50

Greg S , Oct 02, 2015; 12:33 p.m.

These were the photos that caused me to put in an order for the 200-500. I have held out on buying a travel zoom for many years, but the price/performance on this one makes it an easy decision.
http://www.pbase.com/lance_b/nikon_200_to_500


Will research a bit more to see if any other AF problems exist but still stills me that glass is good

cheers

- - - Updated - - -

[QUOTE=mongo;1317741]got it from Digital Camera Warehouse ($1700)

Yes ( Me too)

I thought so that Mongo used the internet to deal the best deal still Dec unless the Nikkor gods decides to increase the supply to us


cheers

- - - Updated - - -

And from a well respected Brad Hill

http://www.naturalart.ca/voice/blog.html#200-500FIRST

Will be reading his opinion end of month

cheers

[Lance B]

Unfortunately my tests showed that the shutter slap of the D810 still introduces unwanted blur at shutter speeds around 1/25. So be careful and use electronic first curtain to eliminate this source of shake if you shoot from a tripod.

And from photo.net

If you have a static subject under dim light, those cross-type AF points will lock focus ok as long as your subject has decent contrast. Any moving subject under dim light is going to be very problematic.

BTW Lance you have a fan again on

http://photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00dVDu?start=50

Greg S , Oct 02, 2015; 12:33 p.m.

These were the photos that caused me to put in an order for the 200-500. I have held out on buying a travel zoom for many years, but the price/performance on this one makes it an easy decision.
http://www.pbase.com/lance_b/nikon_200_to_500

Thank you for the info, Cupic. Greg S actually contacted me on PBase.

I had seen the Brad Hill blog, he seems to like the 200-500 very much.

[oneeyedphoto]

Thanks very much Mongo for posting the use of this with the 1.7, which is exactly what I've been trying to find image samples on with this lens. Looks like it's a winner in good light, so wondering how you found it in the overcast conditions since your original post? Are you still really happy with it or have you got a few more observations to share with us, now that you've lived with it a little longer? I'm thinking of getting one to use with the D800e & 1.7 combo.

[mongo]

Thanks very much Mongo for posting the use of this with the 1.7, which is exactly what I've been trying to find image samples on with this lens. Looks like it's a winner in good light, so wondering how you found it in the overcast conditions since your original post? Are you still really happy with it or have you got a few more observations to share with us, now that you've lived with it a little longer? I'm thinking of getting one to use with the D800e & 1.7 combo.

Sorry for the late reply but had not gone back to look at this thread until today. Yes, a lot has happened since the early posts. You may have noticed from some of Mongo's more recent threads featuring images with this lens that Mongo is quite happy with it now that it is calibrated and extra fine tuned to his cameras.

Mongo has found that in overcast type conditions it does not necessarily not work, it is like most other lenses that you just have to compensate with extra ISO or more open aperture to get the best results you can in those circumstances. Mongo would not recommend using a 1,7 converter on it as a regular thing. That is not to say you cannot but Mongo would not rely on it if that was the usual configuration you have in mind. It is OK for static subject and in very good light with converter but would not push it as a regular use in all conditions type use. Even Mongo has not since had reason to use any converter on this lens. What Mongo may tend to do instead (and he is not saying this is the best alternative), is to shoot in 30 X 20 crop mode on the D800E some times. At the time, Mongo used converters just for test purposes to see the parameters the lens could be taken to and still work acceptably. Hope this info helps