Agonising over 80-400 ED VR

[Marc]

If you are going to shoot cars, using a 70-200+1.7, handheld.
I am not sure you will be pleased, with the results.
You do lose 1.5 stops, this makes the 70-200 a f5, that is pretty slow, for moving objects.

[billsstills]

Marc I'm hoping the D3 will deliver where other Nikon Cameras to date have failed. Namely "into the night finals".
Unless a photographer has spent time at the track shooting top end drag cars I don't think it's so easy to understand just how difficult it is to pan from the grandstand to get shots you can sell.
Many shooters stay at the grid and just get "take-off" wheally shots all the time because what I do is too hard. But there's been one or two of them following me around lately.

I remember once there was this photographer with so many wrist bands on I wasn't sure what they all meant. I only get one lowly media pass wrist band which is all I need. Anyway this fellow had the 200-400 f4 lens along with what I thought was a 300AF-S? on two D2X cameras.
He followed me up to the grandstand and scoffed at my D2h with 70-300 cheepo lens.
He didn't stay with me for long because his gear was too heavy for such fast and accurate panning. He went down to the grid with everyone else.
I made good money that weekend.


Bill.
OptusNet Member Website - zunico

There are two photos on this link "Read Racing" and "Morgan" if you let it load then scroll down.
Both photos were published as double contents pages in the two opposing magazines which follow the sport in Oz. Both titled simmilarly as "this is what a top fuel car looks like at over 500km's per hour".
Nobody else had been able to catch this in Oz before.

[JerryLevin]

Hey Bill -

I regularly use the 1.7 in combo with the 70-200, on a D2X.

One big caveat - make sure you're at least at f6 or above. At the minimum (about f4.8) stuff gets weirdly soft. Sometimes it's nice when wide open (completely depends on the type of background), but more times than not, it's barely usable.

At the higher fstops, the images are great.

Hope that helps a bit...

PS - the few times I rented the 80-400, I was very disappointed. Lens was very slow to focus lock, lots of hunting even with the limiter on. For anything moving fast, the 70-200 w/the TC is a much better story.

[Marc]

Originally Posted by billsstills

Marc I'm hoping the D3 will deliver where other Nikon Cameras to date have failed. Namely "into the night finals".
Unless a photographer has spent time at the track shooting top end drag cars I don't think it's so easy to understand just how difficult it is to pan from the grandstand to get shots you can sell.
Many shooters stay at the grid and just get "take-off" wheally shots all the time because what I do is too hard. But there's been one or two of them following me around lately.

I remember once there was this photographer with so many wrist bands on I wasn't sure what they all meant. I only get one lowly media pass wrist band which is all I need. Anyway this fellow had the 200-400 f4 lens along with what I thought was a 300AF-S? on two D2X cameras.
He followed me up to the grandstand and scoffed at my D2h with 70-300 cheepo lens.
He didn't stay with me for long because his gear was too heavy for such fast and accurate panning. He went down to the grid with everyone else.
I made good money that weekend.


Bill.
OptusNet Member Website - zunico

There are two photos on this link "Read Racing" and "Morgan" if you let it load then scroll down.
Both photos were published as double contents pages in the two opposing magazines which follow the sport in Oz. Both titled simmilarly as "this is what a top fuel car looks like at over 500km's per hour".
Nobody else had been able to catch this in Oz before.

I understand, I have been to your site, cool pictures.
I love indy and nascar, my daughters friend wants to go to the dirt track.

Try the 80-400 during the day time if you can, use the focus limiter switch on the lens, to keep it from hunting
good luck.

[Roger_Martin]

I became a believer of the 80-400 after reviewing the pictures I took at the Great American HillClimb. I was forced to use my wife's "HorseShow" lense because I needed the range with my D2X to cover the hill. After that Event, I ordered a second Nikkor for myself and have used it for many different kinds or Events including asphalt motorcycle racing. It is now dedicated to my D3.

Last weekend I used it on my D3 at MotoCross and the combination focused faster than Kathy's D300 with Nikkor 70-200.

My experience with doublers is that the 70-200 AFS f2.8 performance with 1.7 or 2.0 is not as good as the 80-400 f4.5-5.6. The 70-200 without doubler is about 20-30% faster than the 80-400 The difference feels like lag. It can be made up for by either prefocusing or tracking a little further.

At the MotoCross Event this last weekend I shot 20+ bikes in a row many times without a blur. They were coming at me very fast and very closely spaced.

[billsstills]

rumours persist that a new lens (AFS VR) will come so I have to bide my time and hope for the best.
In the mean time I can get it done with the equipment I have.

I'm not gonna buy an old lens which Nikon will upgrade soon.


Bill.

[Roger_Martin]

Originally Posted by billsstills

rumours persist that a new lens (AFS VR) will come so I have to bide my time and hope for the best.
In the mean time I can get it done with the equipment I have.

I'm not gonna buy an old lens which Nikon will upgrade soon.


Bill.

What rumors? Where? Internal or telescoping Zoom?

There will be lots of new AFS VRII lens but will any of them be 80-400 or 50-500?

Can you imagine what an internal focusing (non telescoping) Nikkor 50-500 f/2.8 AFS-VR lense would look like. My guess is 18+ inches long 6+ inches in diameter and 15+ lbs.

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