Nikon 70-300mm VR pictures

[mothman13]

My 70-300mm VR lens arrived at the office today. I got home just before the sun set, so with the lens on the D80 and the D80 on an old tripod. I took some pictures in the street outside my homebefore it got dark, some of the ubiquitous brick wall shots and then some into the setting sun to force some flare shots.

All camera settings were default, Program Mode, ISO 100, VR Off, some Spot, Matrix and Center weighted (check the exif's).

These were obviously not shot for any artistic value whatsoever but just to get some test shots for others who are thinking of getting this lens to view. They were shot as NEF's, brought into Capture NX and saved without any processing as highest quality jpg's so you can see what came directly out of the camera. I've posted 20 pictures up, full-sized at:

http://www.pbase.com/mothman13/70_300_vr

I'll try to take more meaningfull pictures tomorrow and post them as that is the beginning of my Christmas vacation. Serendipitous shipping from Wolf Camera, eh?

Mothman13
http://www.pbase.com/mothman13

 

[bibi0012]

It is becoming clear now:

Nikon is way better than Canon with its consumer grade lenses.

Thanks for your full-sized samples!

 

[bibi0012]

70_300_03.jpg suffers from hand-shake.

Did you have the VR on?

1/50 sec with VR isn't fast enough to stop the shake?

 

[mothman13]

No, the VR was off the whole time. Unfortunately, my current tripod is an old beast and doesn't give a rock solid platform. On that shot, the act of pushing the shutter button physically moved the camera as the shot was taken. I should probably remove it from the gallery so as not to give a false negative impression of the lens.

Thanks for pointing it out to me. I was so busy moving the files around and setting up some .asp files on my other web site that i hadn't actually LOOKED at the pictures I'd taken very closely (grins).

Mothman13

 

[bibi0012]

Sorry, I didn't read the headings.

It seems like your tripod isn't sturdy enough. If you shoot with VR on, you should be able to get relatively-sharp photo at 300mm with 1/50 sec shutter speed.

 

[mothman13]

As I start my vacation tomorrow I'm going to take a bunch of shots with a more stable platform, use shutter delay, various focal lengths, VR on and off, etc and replace the ones currently in the gallery so people can make a more accurate appraisal of the lens. I only had a couple minutes of daylight left by the time I got home and was hurrying to get some pictures to post for others who are considering this lens to view.

What's that old saying, "Act in haste .. repent in leisure"

Mothman13

 

[roypogi]

It is becoming clear now:

Nikon is way better than Canon with its consumer grade lenses.

Thanks for your full-sized samples!

Nikon Consumer lenses IMHO has always been better than canons. But the Canon 70-300 IS is no slacker, they call it a hidden L lens.

 

[mothman13]

Every test of the Canon 70-300 IS lens I read show it to be one of the great bargains available with outstanding glass. I bought one for my brother from E-Bay for $400. The next time we get together we're going to make direct comparison shots. Not completely fair because he's using a Canon 300D body, but then he's twice the photographer that I am, so that should even things up a bit (grins).

Mothman13

 

[LeeTee]

Thanks for posting these. I am looking forward to your next set.

How do you rate the focus speed and accuracy?

Thanks!
--
LeeTee
Why does work have to get in the way of Life?

 

[chichibabin]

On that shot, the act of pushing the shutter button physically moved
the camera as the shot was taken.

Why not use the self timer set to 2 seconds?
Sat

 

[jhorse]

Thanks for posting, got mine yesterday and looking forward to trying it this weekend. Also looking forward to more of your shots and assessments.
--
Jon

http://jules7.smugmug.com/

 

[mothman13]

Ok, I've replaced the shots from yesterday. I took shots using Center Weighted, Matrix and Spot Metering for 12 scenes so you can see the differences.

http://www.pbase.com/mothman13/70_300_vr

All were shot in Program Mode, ISO 100, VR off, Auto WB, NEF format, with all other camera settings at default. The NEF's were converted to jpg using Capture NX and saved at the highest quality setting with NO post processing. Average jpg size is 6.45 MB. With just a little Unsharp Mask and slight levels adjustments, I'm pretty impressed with the lens. If people want the NEF's to play with, I'll upload them to my other web space and create a web page with links to them. They average about 8.65 MB each.

With decent light, it focuses accurately very fast. In very poor light, it has a tendancy to hunt.

All in all, this lens looks pretty nice so far.

Mothman13

 

[Daniel Bliss]

Central sharpness looks really, really good. Corners at f5.6 are a bit soft in a way that makes them look less contrasty, so landscape shooters will probably want to go down a click.

With sample variation in recent Nikkor zoom lenses everyone should watch this like a hawk -- then again this comfortably beats previous efforts at "consumer-grade" 70-300 zooms.

 

[Jeff Tan]

Great work, mothman13. I am enjoying my 70-300VR too. It complements my 17-55 well.

The image quality is pretty good wide open:



1/60s f/4.5 ISO100 70mm (VR on)

and the VR is very useful for capturing handheld 300mm shot:



1/160s f/5.6 ISO100 300mm (VR on)

as well as handheld indoor night shot:



1/8s f/5.6 ISO400 70mm (VR on)

For the above photos, I have set the Optimize Image in my D80 to the following Custom settings:
+1 Image sharpening
+1 Tone compensation
Ia Color mode
+ Saturation
0 Hue adjustment

The original size photos are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jefftanys/70300VR

Ok, I've replaced the shots from yesterday. I took shots using
Center Weighted, Matrix and Spot Metering for 12 scenes so you can
see the differences.

http://www.pbase.com/mothman13/70_300_vr

All were shot in Program Mode, ISO 100, VR off, Auto WB, NEF
format, with all other camera settings at default. The NEF's were
converted to jpg using Capture NX and saved at the highest quality
setting with NO post processing. Average jpg size is 6.45 MB.
With just a little Unsharp Mask and slight levels adjustments, I'm
pretty impressed with the lens. If people want the NEF's to play
with, I'll upload them to my other web space and create a web page
with links to them. They average about 8.65 MB each.

With decent light, it focuses accurately very fast. In very poor
light, it has a tendancy to hunt.

All in all, this lens looks pretty nice so far.

Mothman13

 

[TimK5]

very much appreciated!

Center sharpness looks acceptable, but the corners are rather poor.

Overall I am rather disappointed with the samples I have seen so far.

 

[alantan]

very much appreciated!

Center sharpness looks acceptable, but the corners are rather poor.

Overall I am rather disappointed with the samples I have seen so far.

I don't see the corners being poor... I thought the corners looked almost as sharp as the center. are we looking at the same samples?

 

[SantaFeBill]

To my eyes, the sharpness of the photos varies consistently with the metering mode used, with the center column being the sharpest.

Why should the metering mode affect the sharpness? I assume it's a focusing issue, but I've never heard of this kind of interaction before.

 

[Slough]

To my eyes, the sharpness of the photos varies consistently with
the metering mode used, with the center column being the sharpest.

Why should the metering mode affect the sharpness? I assume it's a
focusing issue, but I've never heard of this kind of interaction
before.

The exposure will change, which might affect the result. 1/100" might be fine, but 1/50" could show vibration.

One extra check is to place a beanbag on top of the camera, across the pentaprism, when shooting. That kills a lot of the vibrations that occur around 1/100". Hence you will be able to check if vibration is an issue. But when you get to 1/15" it might not be enough. At least that was my experience with an F80 + 200mm micro lens. I nearly returned the lens thinking it was soft. It's not.

 

[FocusPuller]

Well a collateral benefit of your tests is to prove that the D80 3D matrix metering does in fact overexpose in even slightly contrasty situations. Interesting.
--
-FP