Nikon 70-200 VR Arrived: First Impressions

sabbath999 · Oct 26, 2007

Hey Switch, there's a chance I may be out your way in the spring... if so, I will bring along the 70-200 and you can try it for yourself...

Sw1tchFX · Oct 26, 2007

That'd be neat!

sabbath999 · Oct 30, 2007

Ok, I have now used the lens a couple times in daylight, and once at night at a football game.

At the football game, it is everything you would expect from a quality 70-200 f/2.8. Except for operator error (I had to learn the lens) it was fine. Obviously, VR doesn't come into play. I can't share examples because I was shooting under a contract and do not own rights to post the images.

I then shot Sunday at the St. Louis Zoo. Here's what I learned.

1) This lens autofoucuses in insanely low light

2) It's a bit shorter than I would like (not the lenses fault, obviously) so I am going to try it with a TC-17E.

3) The VR works OK. It works at about the same level as it does on my f/2.8 105 Macro VR, which is about half as effective (2 stops or so) as the insanely accurate VR on my wife's 18-200 VR.

4) Image quality is pristine, as you would expect.

5) The resolution of the lens far exceeds the ability of a D80 sensor to record it.

6) I need to learn a whole different way of shooting with this lens... it shoots significantly differently than my cheapo Tamron 70-300 or "The Beast" (my Sigma 50-500).

7) The removable tripod food is the bomb. I can just take it off, leave it in the car and walk around without a tripod (which is the whole point of the VR lens).

8) The lens case is poorly designed, but then again most of them are.

9) The gold plate bolted to the front is a bit gaudy.

10) The three focus lock buttons on the end of the lens are the greatest thing ever... lock focus on the eyes, then recompose

That's all for now.

Here are a few unedited shots (except for resizing). I make no claim that these are good pictures, most were shot in very tough lighting conditions (animals standing under trees with bright backgrounds), giving ye-ole SB-600 a good workout. The tawny frogmouth at the end was taken handheld in near darkness, totally backlit, no flash, through a cage...