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Harry at Blashford, 1/250 at f/4, auto ISO chose ISO 1000.
Blashford Lakes near Ringwood was freezing on New Year’s Day, but that’s no excuse not to go wandering with the camera! Although it gets a bad press from some sources I thought I’d give this lens a go, a bargain at £69 from Mifsuds.
Why did I purchase this lens? Previously I’d used the Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens almost exclusively on my DX D200 body, but with a full frame camera the resolution goes down. So I wanted something on a temporary basis to compliment my 24-70 f/2.8 lens with a longer reach – Nikon will surely bring out a full-frame equivalent of the 18-200 before too long.
The build quality isn’t noticably inferior to most other Nikon lenses, the zoom ring is smooth and I found the autofocus to be responsive, although not on the level of an AF-S lens. Used on my D700 with auto ISO I shot plenty of images on New Year’s Day and the AF only really started hunting when the light got very low.
Here’s a couple more example images:
A friendly Robin, 1/200 at f/5.6, ISO 3200
Warning sign by the frozen lake, 1/100 at f/5.6, ISO 2200
As a conclusion, I’d be happy to use this lens in most situations as I can’t afford the Nikkor 70-200 AF-S VR pro lens (and don’t have the muscles!) and the D700 lets me get away with murder.
Without the low light performance of the D700 (ISO 3200 on the robin shot – I wouldn’t have dreamt of shooting over ISO 800 on my D200) in conjunction with the AF performance used by top sports shooters on the D3 it makes an ordinary lens much better. Will I get the AF-S version? Unlikely. I’d love to get the pro 70-200 lens in time, but that’s another story.
