400/2.8 VR

Got to play with one this morning and gave it a test drive at the Bronx Zoo.

 

Killer lens. These shots were tripod mounted, VR turned on. 2 of these were

with a 1.4 TC between the D2x and the 400.

 

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2077/2129325407_00328dc720_o.jpg

 

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2256/2129325565_beb510b135_o.jpg

 

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2398/2130101818_1a8005dba0_o.jpg

Great shots! On the last one, he was getting upset with you, huh?

 

Rene'

The flash makes a nice catch light in the second photo.

<em>eric waller said, "[...] These shots were tripod mounted, VR turned on[...]"</em><p>

you shouldn't use VR when mounted on a tripod.

oops - forgot to mention ... nice shots!

These new super telephotos have a VR mode for tripod shooting:

 

http://nikonimaging.com/global/products/lens/af/telephoto/af-s_400mmf_28g_vr/index.htm

thanks for the correction, Eric ... what's the quote i'm looking for, from a long-time-ago Johnny Carson (or was it SNL)? "i did not know that".

I had to do a little digging on the VR info - I was sure I'd heard that newer lenses with the VR turned on were OK for tripod use, but I checked the little manual that came with the 70-300 VR I bought last spring and Nikon still recommends no VR for that lens.

Nice shots, awesome lens (very sharp with excellent color and contrast).

The 400VR, 500VR, and 600VR have a VR tripod mode unlike other VR lenses from Nikon.

It sounds like Dick Martin on "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in"

Bjorn,

 

I have not noticed VR making any difference on my 70-200 when its mounted on a tripod (maybe I need to look closer). Since I have the greatest respect for your observations, I wonder if you seen a difference with that lens?

Whether or not VR makes a difference could depend on the lens, the shutter speed(s) involved, plus of course the nature of the tripod support. My 200/2 VR is *terribly* unsharp 1 out of 3 times when the exposure is 1/30 or slower and I forget to turn off VR. When VR is off, usually no problems at these slow speeds (I say "usually" not "always" because this lens has an appalling tripod mount so wobbles a lot anyway). My AFS 105 VR Micro-Nikkor is a dog with or without VR, so it's hard to tell if tripod operation influences the (non-existing) sharpness ! I only own these two VR lenses.

 

I've shot with the 600 VR tripod-mounted using VR on and could not detect any significant degradation of the image quality.