Nikon Tele Zoom Focus Speed

[joe_plumber]

<p>Ive been shooting sports with a Nikon 70-210 Series E AIS lens on a D1h and its a great combo and ive gotten some great shots. Sometimes I  love the manual focus, but sometimes its a big pain. So I am going to add an AF tele-zoom for those moments when id rather have AF.<br>

These are the lenses I am considering:</p>

<ul>

<li>70-210 AF</li>

<li>70-210 AF-d</li>

<li>70-300 ED AF-d</li>

<li>80-200 AF (early version)</li>

<li>75-300 AF</li>

<li>75-240 AF </li>

<li>55-200 DX</li>

<li>55-200 DX VR </li>

</ul>

<p> <br>

I simply want to know which one will focus the fastest!

<p> <br>

Thanks, Joe the Plumber</p>

[ian_rose]

<p>Joe<br>

The 55-200 DX and DX VR have the built in motor and in good light and on items with a good contrast between the subject and background focus quickley but in low light and at the long end do hunt a bit. I use the DX version with my D40 with not to many problems.I belive all the other lenses in your list are of the screwdriver type AF then the mass of the lens comes into play with the speed of focus.</p>

<p>Ian R</p>

[shuo_zhao]

<p>Joe, I'm not sure how effective if the D1h's AF module is; or how powerful its screw-drive motor is. </p>

<p>Generally speaking, for faster AF speed, you're going to want either a large aperture lens (f/2.8 or faster to allow more light to hit the AF module), or you're going need a lens equipped with a ring type AF-S motor. </p>

<p>Three of the relatively affordable choices that are relatively fast (in terms of AF speed) are the 80-200 f/2.8 AF-D (fast aperture and fast for a screw-driver lens, especially on a good body), the Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 (fast aperture, and ring type HSM/SWM/AF-S), and the AF-S 70-300 VR (claimed to be as fast as the 70-200 AF-S VR under good light, due to its ring type SWM). </p>

[glenn_c1]

<p>I don't know about the rest but the 55-200 is very slow, VR or not. The 70-300 VR could be a good choice if your budget allows it, it's pretty fast - don't know about the 70-300 AF-D. The later 80-200 is not AF-S and so its speed is camera-dependent. It's pretty quick on my D90 and was blazing fast on my F5. If I recall correctly the earlier ones are much slower.</p>

[carl_becker2]

<p>I have used the 70-210 AF-D on a D200 and thought it focused very fast. Much faster than my 180mm did with that body. I now have a D700 and the 180 focuses much better. If you want the fastest focus speed a better AF module can also help which means new body time.</p>