Nikon 200-500mm Zoom lens

**DeanoH** · 12th December 2015, 03:47 PM

Christmas has come early to our home but Kaye doesn't know it yet.

Nikon has recently released the Nikkor AF-S 200-500mm f5.5E ED VR zoom lens and I snuck off and bought one the other day trading in our old 80-400 AF (not S) VR lens.

This lens is not compatible with D70, 80, 90 etc (which we have) as the electronic shutter won't work and you're stuck on f5.6 but AF etc all OK. Not the end of the world but limiting. The good news is that this lens works with D3100on, D5000on and D7000on. It also works with full frames D700 and newer and D300on.

I also bought a mint second hand D300 with only 1427 shutter actuations to fit it to which I reckon was a bargain at around $300.

This camera lens combo really pushes the 'hand held' mode to the limit.

The lens camera combo weighs in at just under 3.5 Kg and fully extended it's bang on 500mm long.

I reckon we'll be dusting off the monopod / tripod with this combo.

Just to prove the 200-500 works on the D70 here's a couple of shots.

D70, 1/640, f5.6, ISO200, 200-500mm @ 200mm.

D70, 1/200, f5.6, ISO200, 200-500mm @ 500mm

I haven't been able to give the lens much of a try out as SWMBO went crook last year that i told her what her/our present was beforehand so this year I'm keeping it quiet.

I managed to get a couple of shots off today, terrible weather, overcast and blowy with a hint of rain but here you go. No PP on either shot.

Full size crop
D300, 1/500, f8.5, ISO400, 200-500 @ 500mm

Re-sized (down) crop
D300, 1/400, f6.3, ISO400, 200-500mm @ 500mm

So far so good and at just under $2K IMO this lens is cheap. Only time will tell if it's as good as I reckon. More pics when able .

Deano

**incisor** · 12th December 2015, 03:52 PM

NOICE!

**dullbird** · 12th December 2015, 06:39 PM

Nice!! You have sold me I want one!! I believe it is an FX lense too isnt it.

Good write up to Deano well done.

Your gunna have oodels of fun with that!!

**DeanoH** · 13th December 2015, 09:19 AM

Yes DB it is most definitely an FX lens so on the D300 the effective range is 300 - 750mm

which is very useful for our avian photography in particular.

I find it amazing how normal it has become with the advent of VR to use slow shutter speeds on long lenses. Once upon a time with anything over 130mm it was 1/1000th of a second or faster if you were good enough to use the lens hand held and definitely use a tripod over 300mm. Now it's normal to take hand held shots with 500mm at 1/200 second and still get good results. I reckon VR has revolutionised the use of zoom lenses such as this.

It's very easy to think you're a better photographer than you really are with this lens, turning the VR off soon brings you back to ground though.

Deano

**dullbird** · 13th December 2015, 09:37 AM

I thought the 300 was Fx not Dx you only get that effective range on a Dx body I thought unless you were using an FX body that gave you the ability to run crop sensor size by selection

**DeanoH** · 13th December 2015, 06:16 PM

The D300 was a bit of a one off for Nikon, or 2 off if you count the D300s which is basically a D300 that can take movies.

The D300 is probably best described as a professional (full frame) camera body but with a DX crop sensor CCD. So essentially a professional DXcamera. I reckon there would be plenty of potential buyers out there for an upgrade D400 if Nikon ever decided to make one.

Canon did a similar one off and called it a D1 something but they used a one off cropped sensor somewhere between a normal cropped sensor and a full frame one, but again a one off.

Deano

**Bytemrk** · 13th December 2015, 06:54 PM

Nice one Dean!...

I had a play with one at the Digital show recently and its definitely on my wish list..... nice piece of glass at an impressive price for what it is.

**Bytemrk** · 25th December 2015, 07:47 PM

Well seems you pushed me over the edge Dean....

I found one locally at a nice price and decided the only person that was likely to buy me one for Christmas was me

Now I need to work on my technique.... particularly birds in flight. Trouble with 500mm is tracking.... there seems to be a lot less frame to fit a bigger bird in!

**dullbird** · 26th December 2015, 01:29 PM

Good photos. Whats this taken on mark dont you have the 750 and the 7000 or am i thinking of someone else.

You got any more to share Deano?

**Bytemrk** · 26th December 2015, 04:27 PM

No you are right I have a D750 and D7000.

Someone might have upgraded the D7000 too

The Heron D7200 200-500@450 f/5.6 1/1250 ISO500

The Cockie: D7200 200-500@240 f/5.6 1/5000 ISO800

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