Lens with sliding zoom

[gsmith]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to photography and came across your wonderful site.

I'm hoping someone here might be able to help me. I take a lot of photos of fast moving objects, namely military jets on training exercises, and I am looking for a decent lens that will cover a large zoom range.

I have just bought the Nikon D70 kit with the 28-70mm and the 70-300mm Nikor lenses. Not bad but a larger zoom would be benificial. Another guy I work with has Canon (not sure the model) with a 135-400mm zoom. The zoom on his lens slides in and out (ranther than twisting as per the Nikor lenses) which he swears by 'cause it allows him to zoom out (or in) alot quicker by sliding the lens down and the come toward us and pass overhead.

No my question to everyone here, is there lens suitable for the Nikon D70 with the 'slide' zoom similar to the Canon and is there really any benifit of a 'sliding zoom' funtion over a 'twisting zoom'

Thanks.

[MCWB]

Push-pull Nikkor zooms do exist, a popular one is the so-called 'one touch' 80-200 f/2.8. In terms of ergonomics it's easier to zoom with the push-pull zoom, but harder to hold without zooming. If you're constantly zooming whilst taking pics the push-pull is better, but otherwise the ring zoom is better. At the end of the day it comes down to how good the glass and the photographer are too. I sold my 'one touch' 80-200 2.8 and bought the 70-200 VR, as it's better glass. Maybe the 80-400 VR would be suitable for your use?

[birddog114]

Hi gsmith,
Welcome!
Nikon has the old generation zoom with push & pull action as MCWB said, which is still circulated around. It's a good glass with superb optics in that era. The newer editions does not have that type of action.

You may come to the mini meet and will see lot of new and old glasses laying around + playing with them, might give you the best ideas of what your next lust.

I also organize few meets in the Hunter Region/ Newcastle/ Nelson Bay, hope one day you can make to the meet.

We now have a bunch of Newcastle's members, perhaps time to start a Newcastle chapter.

[Matt. K]

For flying jets....80-400 VR is good value for money and will do the job.

[DionM]

The Canon 100-400 IS L has the push-pull zoom.

There is always a lot of debate about which is better. For my money I would find it just too weird to use.

[DaveB]

The Canon 100-400 IS L has the push-pull zoom.

Indeed. One of my main lenses.
I find the combination of push-pull for zoom and twist for focus to feel quite natural, and I've used it a bit for aircraft shooting at airshows (birds in flight and running dogs are probably my chief other moving targets).
When tilted down the zoom can creep under gravity, but the lens has a tension/lock ring beside the focus ring which becomes second-nature fairly quickly.