jim_nash2

The heron pic was shot at 1/250 f/13 with the 1.4TC, VR was on. However the bokeh issue exists both when VR is on or off, and at shutter speeds greater than 1/1000. Sounds like I should send it in for repair.

Thanks for the comments. As mentioned in my original post I've taken hundreds of pics with this lens and this was the worst example, many of the images I've taken with this lens are sharp and exhibit no bizarre bokeh. Looking over the images I've taken, the effect is magnified by specific backlight, the lack of focus probably due to the lack of sharp contrast. An example of a better image with the same setup is attached.

To be clear, this effect was the same with shutter speeds up to 1600th. To Andrew's point, it is only slightly radial. For me this moire-like bokeh is very unsettling. Ilkka, tx for the VR on/off comment, I turn it off at fast shutter speeds only in response to Thom Hogan, et al, comments regarding VR at > 500th, but I'll try both.

Thanks. I find it pretty annoying.

Just bought this lens, works fine except I'm getting a very strange artifact in certain light (not the well-documented problem when shooting into the sun). The problem is a series of slightly arcing waves in the background of certain images. The problem is illustrated in the attached photo (Nikon D7100, raw, minor post processing in Lightroom). I've always used this lens is used with a Nikon 1.4TC (TC-14E). The problem is the same shooting wide open or at a smaller aperture. I'm not sure of the VR setting when I took these pics, I generally turn it off when shooting faster than a 500th, and as I have images shot both faster and slower than that with the same problem, I assume this is not VR related. This only occurs in specific light -- I've shot a few hundred pics so far as this example is the worst. Note the attached image is cropped, the arcing behavior of the distortion is more apparent when the entire frame is observed. Is this a known problem, or might there be a problem with my lens or setup? To my uneducated eye, looks like it could be a fresnel-related issue. Thanks, Jim PS If any birders out there, the birds are relatively uncommon00 red-billed pigeons, Rio Grande Valley, TX.