Nikon 200-500mm/f5.6 E Shipping in Taiwan

I received my Nikon 200-500 on the 17th. I live in southeast PA and purchased it at a camera store in Delaware. So far I

am very pleased with it. The lens is pretty heavy and bulky, but that was expected and doesn't cause me any angst. You

can hand hold it, but you'd be hard pressed to lug it around all day.

 

I've had it out to take eagle pictures twice now and I'm really starting to like it. The auto focus is quick and precise but I

have had situations when it has lost its lock on the bird and picked up the rocks or trees in the background. This doesn't

seem to be an issue with the lens, rather, I think it is just me pushing its limits in an attempt to see what it will do. These

are long shots (300-500 meters) under challenging conditions. At more normal distances, the results have been VERY

good. The birds are sharp and clear while the background is pleasantly blurred. At f5.6 and 500mm the subject is nicely

isolated from the background and fairly leaps off the screen at the viewer.....it makes for very dramatic pictures. Another

thing to note about the autofocus is that it is absolutely silent. Strangely silent would be more accurate as there is no

noise nor sense of internal moving parts whatsoever....a nice feature for wildlife for certain.

 

Today we stacked it up against a Tamron 150-600 and the Nikon just blew the Tamron away. We had identical D7200's at

the same settings and both cameras were tripod supported. Both photographers used wired remotes to try and eliminate

any user influence.......all shots were as identical as we could make them and the Nikon was in a different league across

the board.

 

It's a very nice lens and barring any issues, I think it will be very difficult to best in its price range.

<p>Chris H, thanks for your observation of this lens. It sounds positive and very encouraging. </p>

<p>For me, the most important thing is it needs to be sharp at 500mm. </p>

<p>I am looking forward to receiving mine tomorrow. Hwvr, I will be very busy this week and next - still hoping to have the time to test it in some meaningful way though. </p>

<p>Yeah, Chris, welcome to photo.net and thanks for your first-hand info. Everything I have read so far concerning early experience with the 200-500mm/f5.6 is highly encouraging. Unlike the 300mm/f4 PF, availability of the latest three Nikon super-teles has not been a major issue. Both the very expensive 500mm/f4 E and 600mm/f4 E have been mostly in stock since day 1 (which wasn't the case for the 2007 version of those lenses early on). And clearly B&H has already shipped quite a few of these 200-500mm. When those mail orders arrive in the next few days, we'll have more hands on info.</p>

<p>For me, unfortunately my local store says they haven't received any 200-500mm lens yet, so I'll have to wait a few more days (hopefully not much longer).</p>

Thank you both for the welcome!

Mary...I have found it to be very sharp at 500mm. I think you'll be very happy with the results!

<p>OK, got it. Took a few shots. Seems sharp at 500mm. Thought focussing speed does not seem to be as ready as my 80-400mm lens. But maybe it was just me. Here is a 100% crop off of a purple cone flower, with no sharpening @500mm.</p>

<p>I believe it would look much sharper if compressed. As I mentioned in a prior post, I was hoping Shun would beat me to it and give you an objective report on a brick wall, etc. (Shun, please hurry up!)</p><div></div>

<p>Now the image in the above post does not look that sharp on my screen. Hwvr, it's @100% crop, and also it can be due to other variables. How does it look to you?</p>

<p>Variables which may affect apparent "sharpness" would include plane of field and focus point (among other more obvious things). Now I am not sure whether I gave you a fair sample. I was in a bit of a hurry. Perhaps I should have waited.</p>

<p>Here is this lens when stretched to 500mm with lens cap.</p><div></div>

<p>OK, I think this is a better sample. The top is part of the original image sized to 700px. The bottom is 100% crop of a really tiny area pointed to by the arrow.</p>

<p>This is part of a sage leaf. Considering the camera plane was not 100% parallel to the leaf (impossible to do so without plucking out the leaf and staging it because of the required minimum distance, and the tripod was not high enough).</p>

<p>So, the conclusion is I am quite happy with the sharpness at 500mm considering every photo would need to have basic sharpening anyway and hopefully I would never have to do a 100% crop in real life.</p><div></div>

How does the lens feel physically? Does manual focus feel sloppy? Is the tripod mount sturdy enough for its weight?

Mary, would you have had a chance to use the lens with a 1.4 teleconverter?

<p>Chuck, it is heavier and bulkier than the 80-400 for sure but it is hand-holdable. I don't normally use manual focus but it seems normal. There is manual override for autofocus. The tripod collar seems OK too as far as I am concerned. VR is supposed to be good up to 4.5 stops - not sure if the claim is an exaggeration for normal use. No I have not tried it with a 1.4x yet. I have not tried anything other than testing it at 500mm. I will do more later.</p>

Mary, thanks.

 

If you have the 80-400 VR II as well, could you give an evaluation of how this lens stack up against the 80-400 in terms of

of the range where they overlap?

<p>Since Nikon has started shipping this lens world wide, I have started a new thread for people to post their early impressions on this new lens: <a href="/nikon-camera-forum/00dVDu">Nikon 200-500mm/f5.6 E AF-S VR Lens Early Impressions</a></p>

<p>http://www.photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00dVDu</p>