Followers

Nikonstudio.tumblr.com Posts

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Ladies and Gentleman, I Give You the Nikkor 70-300mm Lens


I think this is it. The trilogy of casual photographers who needs a complete range at a shoe string budget. The Nikkor 70-300mm F/4-5.6G lens. Trilogy = D90 kit lens + 50mm + 70-300mm.

Its a browsing-turn-buying affair. An unplanned but satisfying purchase. I have been reading about it and I think its developed for people with a family. Priced at $150, its something you cannot really go wrong with. Lens built-quality is like my Nikkor 50mm F/1.8 but with a plastic mount of our Nikon D90 kit lens. I was initially quite skeptical but boy am I surprise with the image quality!

Ken Rockwell is right. It rivals the thousand-dollar high-end lens of Nikon family at a fraction of the price. And in this uncertain times, applying frugality is wisdom. Forget about VR at 300mm handheld. Its not going to help. You need a tripod and a good one will truly get the sharpest image at that focal length. Technically, as per my previous article, I advice people to turn off their VR while shooting from their tripod, as it increases the sharpness of the image. Comparatively, the VR cousin of the Nikkor 70-300mm G has the same aperture size as this lens, implying that they both have rather small aperture size, implying lackluster handheld shooting results.

Bottomline, if you want to use it, use it with a tripod. 3-stops improved performance offered by VR technology will not help you shoot without one. Period.

I got this baby just a few days ago while in Hong Kong.