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Hi All,

I am having some difficulties with my aperature ring on my secodhand 300 2.8, my problem is that i can't seem to lock it into any other position then F22.

I tried to shoot a night football game on friday night with it and it was next to useless as it was letting no light in, I was using manual mode with settings of iso800 F2.8 and 1/320th. The only time it did let some light in was when i went right down to 1/60th, not a good speed to using when shooting sports.

Thing is i changed back to my 70-200 and dropped the shutter speed down to 1/250th which worked a lot better (still not what i really want, but im still learning at night).

Can't fault the 300 during the day time it, its seems to work just fine being in F22 position and using shutter speed priority.

My question is, has anyone else had this sort of problem with their aperature rings or is there some sort of lock besides the little toggle switch?

cheers
shaunus

shaunus wrote:Hi All,

I am having some difficulties with my aperature ring on my secodhand 300 2.8, my problem is that i can't seem to lock it into any other position then F22.

cheers
shaunus

Is it the AF, AF-S, VR of the 300 2.8?

All AF lenses have lock on the smallest aperture setting (May be f/22 for your lens here), it does not lock in any other position than at that.

If you are using a body that can control aperture itself, you don't need to turn the aperture ring around for it.

Maybe I misunderstood your problem, but I don't see why you should move your aperture ring around if your lens is not an AI/S lens.

thanks for the reply yi-p

first of all its an afs 300 2.8, a non vr and i am using it with a d200, which theoretically if i leave it in f22 the aperature should be controlled by the camera

secondly i probably should have posted some shots of what i am refering to and these are straight from camera, just resized.

this is with the 300 set at 2.8, 1/200th, iso800 and pattern metering



this is with the 200 set at 2.8, 1/250th, iso640, spot metering



this is during the day with 300 and using shutter priority, set at 1/800th, iso250 and center weighted average

They seem near on equally as dark to me?

I'm with Ronza, the images from the 200 & 300mm lenses look similar. What camera body are you using?Try using the DOF preview button - if it doesn't change the image in the viewfinder then you know you've got a sticky aperture which needs servicing. No Nikon digital bodies use an aperture ring, it should be left locked at the minimum on any digital.

granted there both crap, and i was expect the 300 to work the same if not better then the 200 at the exact same setting, thats only the second night game ive tried and i didnt have the 300 first time around

rooboy, thats the sort of answer is was looking for, will give that ago and see what happens, thats why i asked about aperature ring and i do leave it set to the minimum all the time

What camera body are you using?Try using the DOF preview button - if it doesn't change the image in the viewfinder then you know you've got a sticky aperture which needs servicing.

thats the problem, the only f stop that doesnt change is 2.8, think this might be a expensive exercise

The 300/2.8 will work the same as the 200/2.8 at the same settings - albeit one will be at a larger magnification. f/2.8 and 1/200s at the same ISO will yield the same exposure no matter what glass your using.

Further to that, f/2.8 doesn't click down because your not stopping the aperture down at all - its "wide" open.

Ok. Firstly, your lense isn't broken but if you think it is then I'll be happy to take it off your hands. The problem here is the terrible lighting at SANFL games.

At 2.8 if you press the DOF preview button it won't do anything because the lens is always at F2.8 until you actually take a photo or press the DOF preview button. This is so you can actually see through the viewfinder.

Try 1/160 F2.8 ISO 1600 that's probably the only settings you could use at night.

ok, will see what happens this saturday night

Give us a PM later in the week, I might be keen to head down if I get my 400 2.8 this week

mate, thats the last thing i would take to elizabeth oval on a saturday night