Review 1 of 29
Price Paid:
$120.00
from KEH Summary: This is the great Granddaddy of Nikon's telephoto zooms, being made in 1986-1987. For an old lens it has the notable feature of a constant F4 maximum aperture, which places it between the "Pro" F2.8 zooms and your standard F5.6/6.3 consumer zooms, and this is probably the only lens Nikon has made in this category.
However, it's not a cheap stand-on for a "Pro" zoom as it doesn't have the wicked fast focus of the F2.8 lenses.
In terms of build and quality this is a nice old-school lens, with metal where today's lenses use plastic. Strengths: Has nice color rendition and sharpness. After comparing many photos with a 80-200mm VR zoom (the closest I had on hand) this one is as sharp at F4 as the other is at F5.6, and past they're about the same. So it's apples and oranges how much better one or the other is.
Evenly spaced zoom ring, which as always makes framing your picture easier. The zoom also rotates smoothly with just the right amount of drag.
Good bokeh and full manual controls.
I'd rate the autofocus speed on my D700 as "acceptable," but most other users consider it slow. I noticed on my D50 it did seem noticeably more sluggish, but it'd take a stopwatch to tell for sure.
Good old metal construction, likely will still be here long after the plastic lenses are gone.
As long as someone doesn't think they're holding a valuable collector's item these are available fairly cheap. Weaknesses: The focusing elements rotate way out, which makes a problem for a polarizing filter and trying to use it in manual focus.
The hood is all-metal and screws in. Even the Russians at this point were making plastic lens hoods, and I haven't come across a hood cap yet that will fit it. And no, I don't think metal hoods are "extra" protection in an accident, as if it hits hard enough to dent the hood the mounting threads are also likely to get bent.
The focus scale is all the way at the end of the lens, why I don't know.
The autofocus is screw type, so D40 users are out of luck. Similar Products Used: Over 40 Russian and Nikon lenses. Customer Service: Haven't used.
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