Ok, so my replacement for the 80-200 f2.8 has arrived. I am very grateful to the courier for arriving nice an early enabling me to get on with testing the lens, writing this quick first impressions review, and being able to get on with my day.
Firstly, I think that a next brace should be an optional extra! This is a beast of professional glass and no mistaking. Then, they should supply an instructional DVD on all the buttons. I will have to scan the net for some info on these. The limiter is good news, especially for wildlife.
Being able to limit the focus to 2.5m will save it hunting between infinity and closest distance, although its only a saving of around 1m as the close focus appears to be 1.5m anyway.
There are two setting for the VR (aside from on and off). Normal – for use in normal hand held circumstances, and Active – for use when shooting from a moving platform such as vehicle (think safari) or boat etc. At least, thats what I think they do anyway.
There is a switch between Manual focus and M/A focus. M/A is where this lens will spend probably 95% of its life. The ability to override the Autofocus with a little Manual tweak has already been noted on many discussions and is very useful.
The big brass plate is a nice “industrial” touch, although I am not sure its necessary. It does however leave you in no doubt that this lens means business.
I do like the tripod collar. The removable double locking foot is an excellent idea. I can now grab the lens off the monopod/tripod much more quickly and resecure it when required without hesitation or fiddling about.
The foot needs to be removed for comfy handholding.
The balance on the tripod is very good with the D700 body, I should imaging the D3 is even better.
The petal hood clips on the same way as the one on the 24-70 and I quite like that. They might even be interchangeable but I haven’t tried it yet.
So, what about the results?
Well, initial impressons are positive. There is some distortion at the wider end. Which is quite funny in that this is the same problem as the with 24-70 where the distortion is worse at the wider end. I will compare the two 70mm ends at some point.
Distortion seems very well controlled from 105mm onwards to the 200mm. This is excellent news. Perhaps its a secret Nikon tactic – they make the wider ends distort so you are forced to buy the next widest lens. Perhaps the distortion on the 24-70 is to force you into buying the 14-24 (or whatever the next one is)??
I wouldn’t put it past Nikon to be cunning. They do, afterall, want our money!
But back to the results:
70mm
80mm
Sorry, its my now famous very large shed again.
105mm
As you can see the barrelling is significantly better at this point
135mm
And now we start to see some pincushioning instead
200mm
For a zoom, its not the worst I’ve seen, BUT this is Nikon’s premium lens at these focal lengths (as a zoom)
The colour rendition etc has not been altered from the Raw. The white balance used was actually flash as I had come straight from the studio and shooting the test card for focus quality.
Talking of which, here are the results of that:
80mm
105mm
135mm
200mm
Please note that these were taken from a fixed point and zoomed in. The 135mm and 200mm are full frame as shot. The wider ones have been cropped and show the resolution at the centre of the frame.
Full frame ones will follow where the camera has been moved to present the card full frame in each shot.
The next test is for attractiveness of the background blur with wider apertures. This, I believe, is called Bokeh although I have no idea why…
Here are the results:
f2.8
f5.6
f11
f22
Now, when considering this information please note that these shots were taken within minutes of the lens arriving and being unpacked. I have not had time to play/test/examine the lens or its results in detail.
This is a first impression only. The only reason I am not out playing with the lens to obtain some more interesting results is that it has just started raining again. I am therefore taking the chance now to write this (and cook my lunch).
A fuller review will be posted at a later date, and this post may well be updated later tonight and into tomorrow.
Please join me again as I delve further into the Nikon 70-200 1:2.8 ED-IF…oh, heavens, its like its got its own dictionary attached. Its Nikons current 70-200 fast professional telephoto zoom lens. That’s all you need to know. Oh, and they are like hen’s teeth to get hold of and cost a cool £1600!
