The humble Nikkor 70-300 VR

Tidewater · Oct 19, 2013

Gyrfalcon at speed setting up for kill Center for Raptors

Wood Stork not a pretty face but beautiful in flight

Tri-Color Heron i always intent

Center for Raptors Slipping by without a sound

They are all nice especially the 80-400 but I usually find this lens on my camera because of portability and I don't often need more reach.

Comments regarding sharpness etc. welcome

Verbruci · Oct 19, 2013

Nice photos. The 70-300mm Vr is not without faults, but still it's better than most people claim it to be. I use it quite often on my D800 and generally it does a good job. Sharpness is decent and like you said, it's easy to carry around!

Cope · Oct 19, 2013

Thanks for sharing. Nice work. I like this lens.

GreenMountainGirl · Oct 19, 2013

Nice photos. I am especially interested in the 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 because I intend to purchase one. It will replace my 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DX lens. Thanks for sharing.

Susan

Saffron_Blaze · Oct 19, 2013

A most versatile inexpensive lens. Between 70 and 200mm it is very sharp. I could only wish my 24-120 F4 were that sharp in the overlap range. Even above 200 it performs well enough.

BobVell · Oct 20, 2013

Saffron_Blaze said:
Saffron_Blaze wrote:

A most versatile inexpensive lens. Between 70 and 200mm it is very sharp. I could only wish my 24-120 F4 were that sharp in the overlap range. Even above 200 it performs well enough.

paulski66 · Oct 20, 2013

Very nice!

Holmes375 · Oct 20, 2013

A nice set that shows off the zoom lens well.

Its hard not to like lenses like the Nikon 70-300 VR or the Tamron 70-300 VC as they deliver so much bang for the buck while being easily carried about. There's a reason this focal lenght range has always been so popular.

Nice work with a nice lens.

Lawrence W · Oct 21, 2013

Wow, beautiful shots you've taken. I'd wish I were there!

Birds and wildlife photography is the only reason why I have not deserted my Nikon. Weight consideration draws me to M43, but despite having the best camera OM-D, capturing BIF is still short of DSLR. Until they have phase detection and better glass, I will continue to use Nikon for such purposes.

gatorowl · Oct 21, 2013

Tidewater said:
Tidewater wrote:

They are all nice especially the 80-400 but I usually find this lens on my camera because of portability and I don't often need more reach.

Comments regarding sharpness etc. welcome

Very nice, but I find them misleading.

I suspect that you could get nicer captures with a cheap kit-level lens than the average enthusiast could get with a $3000 lens. Most photographers can only dream of getting shots this nice with the 70-300mm (or most any other lens).

Michael Benveniste · Oct 21, 2013

Member said:
gatorowl wrote:

Very nice, but I find them misleading.

I suspect that you could get nicer captures with a cheap kit-level lens than the average enthusiast could get with a $3000 lens. Most photographers can only dream of getting shots this nice with the 70-300mm (or most any other lens).

I don't find them misleading at all. I think these shots do a great job of demonstrating that after a fairly modest threshold, "IQ" is only a minor contributor to the actual quality of an image.

--

I miss the days when I used to be nostalgic.

Tidewater · Oct 21, 2013

Member said:
gatorowl wrote:

Member said:

Tidewater wrote:

They are all nice especially the 80-400 but I usually find this lens on my camera because of portability and I don't often need more reach.

Comments regarding sharpness etc. welcome

Click to expand...

Very nice, but I find them misleading.

I suspect that you could get nicer captures with a cheap kit-level lens than the average enthusiast could get with a $3000 lens. Most photographers can only dream of getting shots this nice with the 70-300mm (or most any other lens).

I have used most of the Nikkor zooms for these larger birds and birds in flight. They all do a great job. The 70-300mm is a refurb for about $400. It is easier to swing around and easier to hold steady so that probably helps some. It is not noticeably less sharp at 300mm in real life. It is less sharp at 300mm compared to the 80-400 at 300mm. I do test all of them and there are differences in test results but the sharpness also requires me to be able to get the ISO down low for the D200, the fstop near the sweetspot for the lens being used and the shutter speed is never high enough.

The owl picture settings were way off. I knew he was in the dark woods but the shutter speed was way low. His face did not blur because he was coming almost straight at the camera, but of course the wings did blur without looking too bad. Also this was taken with the D7100 so ISO 640 was o.k. and the AF worked incredibly well. I should have opened the aperture. That's what can happen in M mode and auto ISO if you are not careful and/or quick.

As far as Kit lenses I really can't say but I have gotten good results with the 18-140 and even the 18-200.

Thanks all

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The humble Nikkor 70-300 VR

Tidewater

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