105mm VR vs 105mm DC on D300

<p>Hello everyone,<br>

I am looking for a long portrait lens for my D300, and I am very interested in the 105mm 2.8 VR and the 105mm 2 DC. There are, however, several rumors out there about these lenses. One is that the 105mm 2.8 VR has a tendency to hunt with the autofocus. I don't know if this is because people forget to use the focus limiter, or maybe use it on an entry level DSLR. Or if the lens is a bit problematic itself.<br>

The other rumor is about the 105mm 2 DC has problems with focusing on newer DSLRs, something that isn't even fixable with Microadjustment at +/- 20. Do you anything about this lens on the D300?<br>

Looking forward to your replies/advice</p>

<p>The focus speed of the 105 VR is too fast and the lens goesd through the point of focus and doesn't come back. Solution: try to stop just before focus and start again in steps till it is in focus. But when you have good light focusing is most of the time no problem.</p>

<p>The problem with the 105 CD I read on an other forum more than one time.</p>

<p>Other suggestion: a manual focus 105 f/2.5. Much cheaper than both other 105's, and optically brilliant. Works fine on the D300, great portrait lens.<br>

But no AF, of course. If that's a deal breaker, sorry for my useless advice. Otherwise, certainly worth checking out. It can easily be found 2nd hand.<br>

With AF... if I recall reviews well, the older AF-D 105 f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor won't make a bad choice either. If third-party is no problem, the Tamron 90mm / Sigma 105mm / Tokina 100mm macro lenses all come into play too - I don't think you can go seriously wrong with either of those.</p>

<p>I've had very pleasing results with the 105 VR on my D700. You have to bear in mind that the lens was never designed to be a portrait lens. It gives very, very sharp details in the skin. Not every "model" will be too pleased with the results.</p>

<p>I've experienced the little micro hunting of the VR lens(if that is what you are referring). It wasn't bad at all but it was noticeable. The lens would keep trying to make small adjustments in AF-C mode. If you are referring to the lens missing focus and going out to infinity and back in lower light, I believe it is no worst than any other lens. I sold it but it wasn't because of it's focus.</p>

<p>I've owned two copies of the DC and both were fine without adjustment on two different D700s. My favorite of all the lenses I've owned(many, many) both for working distance(FX) and image output.</p>

<p>As mentioned, the Tamron 90(I don't have experience with the others) will also do very well. The rounded aperture makes for OOF areas that are very pleasing.</p>

<p>I believe all three will do quite well for what you have in mind.</p>

<p>Wouter, even without metering, I adore my 105 f2.5 on my D90. It is an AWESOME lens!</p>

<p>I have used the 105mm f/2 DC on a number of DX and FX bodies including the D300, and find the focus to be absolutely right on. It is my preferred lens for this type of use since the image quality is outstanding and it is convenient to use (unlike the big zooms). On the other hand, I am aware of the stories about the focus and attribute these mostly to sample variation, both in lenses and bodies.</p>

The focus of the 105 dc can be fixed by playing with the DC control The 135 dc has the same quirk and is fixed the

same way.

The 105 f2.5 is a nice lens and I think it has a nicer look then the micro 105.

You could also look for the 105 f/1.8 I think it has a better look then the 2.5

 

It's not like Nikon makes any bad 105's you just need to find the one you want. I myself have 4 different ones 1.8, 2.0,

2.5, 2.8D

 

Michael

<p>2 Questions:</p>

<p>1. while we're discussing the DC lenses, has anybody used the 105 or 135 DC lenses for sports and, if so, can anybody report back on how fast they are at AF?<br>

my 70-200 f2.8 VR2 is very fast at AF, apparently because it has a wide aperture AND and internal motor. It definitely beats my 105 f2.8 AF (not AF-S) micro and 300 f4 AF (not AF).<br>

The 135 DC is a stop faster than the 70-200 f2.8, but it does not have an internal motor. How does its AF performance stack up?<br>

I have seen some stunning sports images taken with the Canon 200 f2 lens -- pictures with very high magnification that are outrageously sharp. No way am I going to drop $5-6k for a Nikkor 200 f2, but I'm wondering what people can tell me about the performance of the 135 f2?</p>

<p>2. and about using the DC for portraits... studio portrait photographers don't need this because they can control their backgrounds, and studio strobes often force you to shoot at f8 anyway, right? ... so a fast DC lens is useful for outdoor portraits, right? how much time does setting and evaluating the DC feature take? how much does it slow you down?</p>

I have used the 135 for some equestrian events and I found it to be very doable. The focus speed is on par with my

80-200 AF D. The image quality is very good and the f/2.0 let's you shoot in lower light

The DC feature takes a little time to get used to but once you understand how it works it takes no time to adjust the

setting

<p>+1 for the 105mm f/2 DC. I use this lens extensively on my D300s and have no issues with it. I did have some hunting issues on my D90 and D70, but I would just throw it into M and use it that way.</p>

<p>The 105 Micro is a great overall lens and fantastic for macro work. I've not used it for portrait work, but it is a good focal length you'll likely be happy with the results.</p>

<p>RS</p>

 

<p>My 105DC needs +20 AF Fine Tune on my D700. It makes beautiful pictures, is super sharp, and focusses very fast for a screw-drive lens. I haven't heard of focussing issues with this lens when used on DX bodies, just FX, and mostly with D700's. </p>

<p>Allan: From my experience with the 135 f/2 DC on a D700: It's not horrendously slow to focus, but there's a fair bit of glass and it's not as fast as a light AF lens like a 28-80G or a 50 f/1.8 (or a decent AF-S lens). I suspect the 105 may be slightly faster, being lighter. I've not tried it for action sports, but it kept up with a first dance at a wedding. Mine does front-focus a bit (although the DC position seems to have an effect; I was using it with rear defocus), and I never got around to programming in a correction because the LoCA put me off before I spent too long with it. If you don't pixel peep, or if you ensure that everything is either in focus or very out of focus (avoiding the transition), or if you don't use it at f/2, it's fine (the LoCA seems to bother me more than everyone else and it's probably no worse than the 85 f/1.4s) - and the lens behaves as advertised for the backgrounds.<br />

<br />

I've tended to use the 135 more inside than out, where backgrounds are distracting - not in a studio, just where the background is messy. Trying it out isn't rocket science, in spite of attempts to explain it: if you're after the DC effect, shoot in aperture priority and turn the DC ring to the aperture you've chosen, according to whether you want smooth foregrounds or smooth backgrounds. There's a picture in the lens's manual, and photozone demonstrate it in their review. For soft focus, turn the ring further. It works, but it's not as extreme as you might expect: you get slightly smoother blur circle edge transitions, but they're still mostly flat circles. You could try it in a shop quickly enough.<br />

<br />

It doesn't slow me down in that I'd be in aperture priority (and auto-ISO) anyway to control the background; it slightly slows the time that an aperture change takes, but the ring is pretty quick to move, and you can always leave it in neutral if you need to fiddle apertures a lot. Trying to image process out the LoCA in Photoshop slows me down - which is why I got a 200 f/2 and my 135 is heading to eBay - but if I was more competent at controlling my depth of field I'd have less of a problem.<br />

<br />

I hope that helps and I haven't put you off! The DC lenses are lovely bits of glass, one of my reasons for switching from Canon. It turns out that they're not for me, but they're still a bit special and have a lot of happy users, and I can understand why.</p>