Tough choice deciding between diff. Nikon 80-200 lenses

<p>Hello, I joined this forum today to decide on a new lens!<br>

After playing with the Nikon 18-200 and 50mm and 28mm primes for a year, I decided that I needed a telephoto zoom with f2.8 aperture. Since I'm only a student, I have a tight budget. The lenses that are available to me are:<br>

1. Nikon 80-200 D (push-pull)<br>

2. Nikon 80-200 D (2 ring)<br>

The Nikon 70-200 lenses are out of my budget and the sigma and tamron lenses I have bad experiences with. <br>

My main concerns are price, warranty, and focusing speed. <br>

Price:<br>

I can get the push-pull for about $500 from keh.com bargain grade and I can get the 2 ring for $1100 new from amazon.com or $820 used (bargain) from keh.com. I'm not sure the $300 for the 2 ring lens is worth sacrificing the 6 year warranty. Any advice in the matter?<br>

My second, bigger concern is the focusing speed comparison of the two lenses. I have a d90 and don't know if the focusing speeds of the push-pull will be adequate for sports photography. If anyone has both lenses, could you kindly make a video comparing them or give me statistics about their focusing speeds?<br>

Thanks!</p>

<p>No question about it.</p>

<p>Get the 2-ring with the tripod mount.</p>

<p>Your reason?</p>

<p>I have an 80-200 f/2.8 (push-pull) it is an excellent lens, very sharp and has pretty reasonable auto focus speed. You can only get this lens used as it is out of production and you will not get any warranty.</p>

<p>I use mine on a D200 and D700, they do have a much more powerful internal motor than the D90 so your focusing speed may suffer. The 80-200 f/2.8 AFS (1200.00 from keh.com) would have better auto focus speed but that lens used is more than the new 80-200 f/2.8 new. The AFS model was discontinued by Nikon and the non-AFS was kept in production.</p>

<p>KEH (a reputable used equipment dealer URL http://www.keh.com ) has several in stock ranging from 500.00 to 650.00 depending on condition</p>

<p>Lorne, do you know if the pushpuull will have a good focus speed with a d90 motor? And do you think that the bargain grade in keh is good enough? </p>

<p>from what I have heard, the bargain grade from KEH is usually pretty good, my brother has purchased 4 or 5 lenses (Pentax MF) from there and they were all in good shape.</p>

<p>My other brother has a D90 and we tried the lens on his camera and it did not seem much slower than on my D200 which is about the same as the D700.</p>

<p>I have to admit that I mostly use it for portrait work on my D700, but I was able to get some pretty decent bird in flight shots with it. It does have a tendancy to hunt if your subject gets away from the focus point, but using the focus limit switch keeps it within reason.</p>

<p>I use the push-pull on a D70, mostly for climbing pics, and like it a lot. Confirming what the previous poster said: It is a really nice portrait lens. No problems with focus speed, except when I try to follow birds in flight, with nothing else but empty sky in the frame; then it might start hunting. I guess I should use the range limiter...<br /> Mine had (and still has) a dent in the filter ring, that's how I got it for 300 bucks. But I think that must have been the cheapest 80-200/2.8 ever on ebay.<br>

I also think it might be good for self-defense (1.6 kg).</p>

<p>How about a 180/2.8?</p>

<p>I had a push-pull 80-200/2.8 for a while but found it to be heavy and slow to focus. No complaints on image quality though. I was using a D50 at the time - now a D90. I eventually got a 180/2.8, which isn't a speed demon but is about twice as fast to focus as that zoom. I have a better hit rate shooting basketball with the 180 than I did using the zoom due mostly to the focus speed and I believe I can get the 180 on target more quickly (half the mass). For the short end of the zoom range I use an 85/1.8. I love the feel of the 180, it just handles very well and draws nice pictures. Mine is a non-D version from the late 80s - I bought it before the D3 came out and paid only $300. Best deal I've made on a lens so far.</p>

<p>I have an older (non-D) push pull version on the D90 and that has terribly slow focus, I think the D version is different in that regard. So make sure you at least get the D version.</p>

<p>Not a big fan of the 2-ring lens, I like the push-pull lens better. It's fast enough for football, auto racing, soccer, baseball and basketball on the D2 series and D200. I also like the image quality it offers. Good prices for them also. As for KEH, I've bought several items from them, several BGN grade, and never had a bad experience.</p>

<p>Rick H.</p>

<p>The push-pull lens focuses much slower, zooms slower (physically moving the front of the lens instead of twisting a ring), the barrel can get worn out and loose from extended use, and it doesn't have a tripod collar. No question in my book, get the two-ring. It's a little bit of a fallacious argument to be willing to forego a warranty on the older push-pull lens that is not only older but has more that can wear out, but with the newer 2-ring version you have to spend the extra for a brand new version.</p>

<p>I'm sorry that you've had bad luck with Tamron and Sigma, but I've had near-universal good luck with them. Was it perhaps because you have only used their bargain-basement products? Tamron has never really been bad, even back to their Adaptall days they've had lenses that fared very well against the factory versions. I still love my 90mm macro and 180mm f/2.5, and even the 60-300mm performs very well for a zoom, regardless of brand. My only complaint with my Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 is that when using flash, exposure is inconsistent. And with my Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8, the only complaint I have with it is a bit more chromatic aberration when zoomed in and focused close (i.e. using it as a macro lens). The only reason that I say all of this is because if you're on a budget, you should give the Sigma 70-200mm another chance. It performs very well, more people than not are happy with it, and it has HSM focusing, so the focus speed will not be dependent on your D90's consumer-grade screwdrive focus motor. My 50-150mm's focus speed is unreal, and no screwdrive lens can match it. Even photo.net's owner, Shun, has claimed that when using the Sigma 70-200 against the Nikon 70-200mm at shooting events, it was near-impossible to discern which lens was used for which shots.</p>

<p>My understanding from a question I asked about a year ago is that there are two versions of the push-pull version of the AF-D 80-200 f/2.8. The <a href="http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/nikkoresources/AFNikkor/AF-Nikkor80200mm/index.htm">older</a>, and as far as I can tell more common, is quite slow to focus. I would love to report on its performance, but mine has a defective aperture which I didn't notice (because I hadn't had the chance to use the lens) until some months after I received it, so mine's currently a paperweight - I'm not blown away by the sharpness, but the lens may have been traumatized.<br />

<br />

The <a href="http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/nikkoresources/AFNikkor/AF-Nikkor80200mm/index1.htm">newer</a> version of the push-pull design has significantly faster autofocus, which may or may not be due to it being "D" and therefore telling the camera what it's doing. Performance is allegedly similar to the two-ring AF-D<br />

<br />

The two-ring AF-D (I got a used one while visiting a country where they're actually sold, unlike the UK) is respectably fast to focus (massively better than my 28-200, probably not up to my 200 f/2 AF-S) on my D700 and visibly but not hugely less sharp than the 70-200 (I bought it with a view to it being used by a friend to help photograph my wedding, if that explains my standards, and having used it next to a 70-200 AF-S VR 2 I decided the difference wasn't worth the price and weight - although I may rethink that opinion when I own a D800). I've never used the AF-S 80-200. The previous thread suggested that the optics on all of these is identical, possibly excepting coatings.<br />

<br />

My advice: If you really find a one-ring AF-D, it's probably a bargain (so long as you're careful not to zoom the camera when you tilt it) unless it's the same price as the two-ring, in which case it comes down to the handling you prefer. A non-D one-ring might be okay if your subjects don't move much/fast, and my bad experience is probably not representative, except in that all these lenses will be old by now. Other than that my one-ring doesn't work properly and would cost a fair bit to service, I still think it would have been good enough for me. Good luck.</p>

<p>Just to be clear, the 80-200/2.8 that I said was slow to focus was the oldest of them, the non-D version with a rotating ring for the focus limit selector.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/lenses.html#70-xxPro">http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/lenses.html#70-xxPro</a></p>

<p>jiawei,<br>

I have the 80-200 push pull D-version which I used on my D90 prior to switching to D-300s. I used it for shooting HS and MS sports (football). I have never used the 70-200afs but I feel the focus is pretty quick. Before selling the D90 I did a unscientific side-by-side focus motor comparison between the D90 and D300s and I would call it a draw. In my opinion the big advantage the D300(s) has over the D90 is it's ability to lock onto and stay focused on an object. If the D90 could lock on better I'd imagine the images from the two would be identical. The other thing I noticed with the 80-200 screw drive focus when compared to my 28-70afs is that the movement of the motor focusing the lens tended to twist (torque?) the camera as it focused, usually my shutter speed was high enough for this to be a non-factor but it is much more pronounced in the screw drive lens.<br>

Brian</p>

<p>Forget a new 80-200/2.8 D ED, a used 80-200/2.8 AF-S is the superior lens. keh has a bargain one for under $1000 USD if you can go that far. I have bought bargain and ugly lenses from them that were terrific, and worth more than what I bought them for. </p>

<p>If your budget does not go that high I would go for the original push pull for well under $500 USD.</p>

<p>Thanks for your responses guys. I think I'll try to get the 2 ring for about $700 or less on ebay or maybe get a new one if I feel like I want the warranty. </p>

<p>Correction: the original first version push-pull ED (extra dimensions) AF weighs 1.3kg, not 1.6kg. It has four positions on the focus range limiter: close - 3m, full range, 3m - infinity, 5m - infinity. And yes, you can definitely feel the torque when the focus motor stops.</p>

<p>The 'D' version of the push/pull lens is perfectly snappy, but I wouldn't call it fast. If you're doing sports you'll probably find it lacking, but for everything else it's fine. It's not a speed demon, but it's not slow by any means. The non-D version, however, is slow. On your D90, you would definitely notice a speed difference between the D and the two-ring AF-S versions. On a DXXX, or any higher-end cameras with better motors, I don't think there's really a noticible difference.</p>

<p>I've never shot test charts with them, but I seem to recall picture quality being pretty similar on all of them. Very sharp, especially around 5.6/8 - maybe even sharper than the 70-200 VR I. Certainly better edge-to-edge than the first 70-200. But all are a little hazier wide-open than the 70-200, and that doesn't get better until f/4 or f/5.6, depending on the lighting.</p>

<p>Despite being f/2.8 lenses, I always treated it like it was an f/4 lens most of the time for that reason. If you really need to use it wide open, you may be better off going for the Tamron, and just dealing with the slower AF speed. In my experience, you really need to pony up the big bucks to get a lens that's awesome wide-open AND focuses really fast, but there are a ton of lenses that will do one of those things for a reasonable price.</p>

<p>“Tough choice deciding between diff. Nikon 80-200 lenses”</p>

<p>Deciding on an 80-200mm lens was tough for me too. However, when I tested various lenses, I had different criteria.</p>

<p>Focusing speed, vibration reduction, and one-ring verses two-ring were not important to me. What was important was that the image quality of the telephoto zoom at f/2.8 was as good as the image quality of my manual focus Nikon 180mm prime lens at f/2.8.</p>

<p>The 80-200mm f/2.8 D AF-S and the 70-200mm f/2.8 G AF-S were the only ones that had the image quality that I needed.</p>

<p><a href="

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<p>I have the push-pull version but it's mounted on a d2h and they have a VERY strong motor so I have absolutely no focus speed problems. Quality is outstanding also. As far as KEH goes i would have absolutely no qualms about buying one of their BGN grade items. I have found,in my opinion, they really grade low and I have bought quite a bit from them over the years.</p>

<p>Here is a picture I took with the 80-200 push-pull. I think I also had the 2x teleconverter mounted: <img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/15273152-md.jpg" alt="" /><br>

<a href="../photo/15273152">http://www.photo.net/photo/15273152</a> links to the 100% crop.</p>

<p>If you always use auto focus go two ring faster focus.<br>

But if you like to manuel pick off the focus. the push pull is beeter.<br>

You can zero in on the focal range and framing and focus in one swipe. Not for the faint heated but the pro can nail it all at one time.<br>

On the 2 ring you are back and forth.<br>

Upside on the 2 ring is that the lens zoom does creep when look down or up!</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>Forget a new 80-200/2.8 D ED, a used 80-200/2.8 AF-S is the superior lens. keh has a bargain one for under $1000 USD if you can go that far. I have bought bargain and ugly lenses from them that were terrific, and worth more than what I bought them for.</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>Agree strongly on the AF-S version. The optical quality is really terrific. The only thing to be careful about is dying motors, but you won't have any trouble spotting that (squeeeeeeak!). That and the useless tripod mount...</p>