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First up, my grateful thanks to Glen for loaning me this lens.

To me this is a classic Nikkor lens that is beautifully made and has the added benefit of a built-in lens hood. Simply extend the hood and twist to lock - reminds me of Nikkor’s way back when.

Even with my problems this is an easy and well balanced lens to take hand-held shots. The lens is sharp and focuses very quickly and accurately.

The 3 pics below were all taken hand-held with shutter priority.

Now for the bad news - the tripod collar is totally and absolutely pathetic. Whilst taking shots of the moon the other night with the lens mounted on the D2Hs and Gitzo, I achieved results that had to be disposed of.

Checking both the RRS and Kirk sites I would say by looking at the design of their replacement collars for this lens that the Kirk may be the better of the two.

So in conclusion - a brilliant lens with pathetic collar.

yikes that 3rd one is just gorgeous
sharp and creamy
you must be having fun with that lens is it huge?

I've always wanted a play with that lens and you have pretty much nailed what I wanted to know. The glass appears to be excellent and the detail of your captures excellent.

Thanks for sharing this!

Paul

wendellt wrote:yikes that 3rd one is just gorgeous
sharp and creamy
you must be having fun with that lens is it huge?

Wendell - about 225mm in length with out the hood extended

Very nice indeed.

Chris, you have come to the same conclusion as bjorn about the tripod collar on this lens.

Chris,
Don't touch it anymore, return to the owner! NLD is calling
Nice series of testing this lens.
The RRS replacement collar is working well, fozzie has one with RRS replacement collar.

huynhie wrote:Chris, you have come to the same conclusion as bjorn about the tripod collar on this lens.

I totally agree with bjorn - I actually tried a shot with the Sigma 2x teleconverter attached and got a better result than the lens on its own. This is probably due to altering the centre of balance.

Very bloody nice! Love the bokeh in the third pic - though I'd crop the left a bit to remove that stray petal.

Chris - this lens is excellent value for money, and a delight to use, sharp as and so well balance. The RRS replacement collar is so superior and should be for the cost. BTW: nice shooting

Boy they are sharp!!!

wow!! very sharp... sexy bokeh.... and great saturation!

might need to add that one to the list

cheers

You are making it sing Chris. I also agree with you on the collar. I used it mainly monopod based (with 1.7TC) or handheld otherwise it would have a new collar by now