michael_bradtke

<p>I have the 105 f/1.8 I bought it to shoot sports in venues that had crap for lights. It worked well then and it works well now.</p>

<p>It would help to know which equestrian sport we are talking about.<br> Dressage and jumping you can let the shutter speed drop to as low as 640 and still have perfectly sharp images. But you have to know the sport and make your exposure at the correct time.<br> To be on the safe side I try to keep my shutter speed around 1/1000 and things are golden.<br> Forget about VR it will do nothing to help you with a moving subject and made increase image softness<br> I am usually around f/3.5 to f/4 on my lenses and the AF is set to 9 point and continuous. Follow the horse around the circuit and let the camera track it the whole time. Don't just point the camera at the subject and mash the button. Give the camera some time to focus.</p> <p>While you can shoot this stuff with manual focus I don't recommend trying it with a DSLR. I started shooting this stuff with a F and all manual focus lenses. the keeper rate was poor to say the least. Moving up to a F4 and then a F5 made a huge difference. <br> Telling us what kind of stuff you are shooting and showing us what the problem is would be very helpful. Feel free to message me with questions. Photographing equestrian sports is what I do for a living.. This is the kind of work I do<br>

<p>Unless you need to shoot at f/1.4 all the time save your money and get the 50mm f/1.8 G. I own a lot of lenses in the 50mm range and the best ones for sharpness and AF accuracy are the f/1.8's. I do not own the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 but I have the Nikon AFD and I have access to the 1.4G and the f/1.8 is a better lens.</p>

<p>You can look at the 8mm f/2.8. Edge sharpenss is okay on the sample I play with..</p>

<p>Have you tried different cards?<br> If it just wont work with any card send it in and have it checked out.</p>

<p>SHun<br> I Have not had any problem using batteries from the D100 in my D200 or D300.</p>

<p>D300 or D300 S<br> Layout of the controls are very close to the D100 and it will use the same CF cards and batteries. But then I still use them alongside my D4 so I guess I have a soft spot for them</p>

<p>Oliver<br> While I don't use manual focus override I do shoot a lot of manual focus fast glass on my dslr's. You have to practice at it and you never get 100% but the keeper rate can be very high with practice. The other thing you need to make sure the diopter is set correctly for your eye. The older cameras like my F and F3 are easier because of the way the ground glass was made. </p>

<p>I bought the 105 f/1.8 AI-S a few years ago for shooting night sports with my D300. The lens was a more affordable option then a D3. This new lens looks very nice but 2K?</p> <p>I also have and use a 135 f/2 DC for sports and I really love the way it lets me separate the subject from the background when shooting it at f/2</p> <p>In time I might look at the new 105 again but the price is going to have to come down considerably</p>

<p>This is also a very helpful link<br> http://www.holovachov.com/fluorescence</p>

<p>You will need a filter to put in front of the lens as well as the adapter to go from M42 to F. You focus by moving the camera. I am not sure that you will get anything out of the D800 because of the filter pack built into the camera. I used a D40 to do digital UV photography because of the weak UV filtration. I also used Tungsten balanced film for UV photography and that worked very well.<br /> D-40 with 75mm El Nikkor 13 seconds at f/16<br /> /> 800 ISO Tungsten balanced film<br /> /> Unless you modify your camera this is not going to be hand help photography. Some of my exposure times got into the several minute range.<br /> This is probabaly the least expensive filter that will let you see if you really want to do this.<br /> http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/8212-REG/B_W_65040725_58mm_UV_Black.html<br> If you really want to go that far into UV you will need a </p> <h1 id="title" >Baader Planetarium U-Filter 2" (Venus, Ultraviolet, ZWL 350nm)</h1> <p>The run in the $300 range</p>

<p>I swear I posted this just a little while ago.<br> I don't agree with this lens not being sharp and having lots of CA.<br> Here are some links to images I shot with the 135 f/ DC shooting X Country. THe first group was shot at f/3.2 on my D4<br> First the full image<br> Now a partial crop<br> And now 100%<br> https://flic.kr/p/eGsCnY</p> <p>Here are two at f/2.0 <br> Full image<br> And 100%<br> <p>Wide open there can be some CA but ACR deals with it very well. I normally shoot this kind of stuff at 3.2 or 3.5 just to have enough DOF to keep the horse and rider in focus. <br> I have thousands of images shot with this lens and the ones that get tossed for not being sharp are the ones where I screwed up not the lens.</p>

<p>I have the 135 DC and use it in a variety of situations mostly sports and probably less then 100 feet but farther then portrait distances. I think the lens would work well for landscape work and at the farther distances some of the focus quirks will go away.<br> I am one of those people really like this lens and have no focus problems with it.</p>

<p>It is easy enough for the mount on the camera to come out of adjustment. That's kind of what it sounds like since you are having issues at one focal length.</p> <p>You can always try a different repair facility and see what they say.</p>

<p>B&H has a package of two Pocket Wizards for about half of what I payed for one in 2008.</p> <p>http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1074537-REG/pocketwizard_801_329_pocketwizard_plus_x_two.html</p>

<p>The draw back to the first version AFS lenses is that when they die they become door stops. I have an 80-200 f/2.8 AFS that is an amazing door stop and a very nice manual focus 80-200... I replaced it with the Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 and could not be any happier. Its not a 300 but it is a lot easier to hand hold then a 300 is.</p>

<p>I have the Nikon 80-200 f/2.8 AF-D as well as the Nikon 80-200 AFS. Bith of them are now door stops. The AFD has suffered the cracked focus switch for the second time and the AFS no longer auto focuses because the motor died and parts are not available. I replaced them with the newest Sigma 70-200. It has VR and is AFS. It focuses faster then either of the 80-200 ever did.</p> <p>Shooting head to head tests against the Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 VR II the Sigma is a little less contrasty at f/2.8. By f/3.2 there is no difference between the two copies that I can get my hands on. <br> The testing involved resolution charts, color charts as well as shooting equestrian events. <br> I just can't see buying a used Nikon lens when for not all that much more you can buy a new Sigma and have the warranty. </p>

<p>I use the Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 and I am very happy with the results I get from it. I use it on a D4 or a D300s depending.<br> If it holds up as well as my Sigma 120-300 has ( 8 years of pro use and counting) I will be very pleased</p>

<p>I have the 50 mm f/2 H with a factory AI conversion installed. I also have a 55 f/1.2 with a hack job of a conversion and I have a 58 mm f/1.4 that John White converted for me.<br> For sharpness wide open the f/2 is the best of the bunch. But for the way it draws an image I find the 58 to be the most pleasing with the 55 just having a look all it's own.</p>

<p>I like my 55 f/1.2 very much. I find the way it draws an image to be very pleasing. I find that shooting multiple shots of the same image help with nailing the focus especially when I amusing it wide open.</p>

<p>Two cameras same problem it is the lens. I had this problem with my 80-200 AFS. Unfortunately when I sent it in Nikon did not have the parts available to repair it. <br> Your lens is new enough to make it repairable. Send it in and have it checked.<br> In all my time shooting a DSLR in nasty environments I have never had issues with dirty contacts. </p>

<p>That is not normal at all. Sounds like there might be something up with the AF</p>

<p>Thanks for posting this. I had been holding off on buying a new one for my D4. Nice to get 32 GB for half of what I payed for the original 16 GB.</p>

<p>I tried two different after market batteries for my D2h. The first one would not take a charge so I sent it back. The second one took a charge 4 times and the stopped. Gave up on the after market batteries and just stuck with the Nikon ones.</p>

<p>1) I would get he 50mm f/1.2 fixed instead of buying another lens. <br> 2) I would buy the AI version for the longer focus throw. it makes manual focusing less of a pain</p>