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| Moderated by: chrisbet, | ||
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chrisbet
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Is there a significant difference in performance comparing an AF D lens with an AF-S G lens? I note that the earlier D lens is Japanese made while the G lens is chinese - are they the same quality? |
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jk
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Optically I dont think so but for speed of focus acquisition very much so. People get snobbish about Chinese v. Thailand v. Japan made lenses. They are made to a quality standard. Nikon is not a mickey mouse manufacturer and produces some of the highest quality lenses just like Canon, Fuji (who make for Hasselblad), Leica, etc. I never understand why Leica lenses are so highly regarded as it is their design not the manufacturing process that is superior. |
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Eric
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In my experience AFD lenses are more likely to exhibit colour fringing than AF-S equivalents. But the main advantage was the AF-S versions were faster and more assured at focusing. Of course that's a generalisation as I only experienced a limited lens set. The AF-S 70-300 is a good lens at a very good price. Being an FX lens you get 105-450mm on a DX body. |
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chrisbet
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Thanks for that - I'll keep an eye out for a good priced example of the AF-S 70-300. |
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chrisbet
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Eric wrote:The AF-S 70-300 is a good lens at a very good price. Being an FX lens you get 105-450mm on a DX body.They seem to be going for around £200 on fleabay. I assume that the DX lenses give their rated focal length on a DX body? |
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jk
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No the focal length on both FX and FX are the focal length of the lens. The apparent difference is due to the difference in sensor size. A FX has more area to capture the image than a DX and the DX provides a crop of the FX image of 1.5x which gives and apparent focal length equivalent increase of x1.5 |
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Robert
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chrisbet wrote:They seem to be going for around £200 on fleabay.As JK says, the focal length of all lenses is as stated on the lenses. Nikons DX lenses have a smaller image circle, (cheaper to produce). They can be used on FX bodies but the FX body will switch it's sensor to DX area by default, if you disable that you get extreme vignetting outside the DX image area. That's it. Some DX zooms do go some way to filling the FX sensor at the wide end I believe but I have never experimented. Using an FX lens on a DX body has the advantage of better edge and corner sharpness because that's where all lenses tend to have some limitations and with an FX lens on a DX body you don't get to see the corners of the image circle, which in part causes the vignetting. With the exception of the Sigma 10-20 which I no longer have and the 18-105 which I keep for IR, all my lenses are FX and have been since I got my D1 in 2006, I decided the DX was a temporary expedient until Nikon figured how to make full size sensors. So I bought my lenses with that in mind. The DX format does have some advantages but also drawbacks, better for long lenses, as Eric points out but far worse for wides. To get a serious wide you have to go to silly short lenses, with the accompanying distortion and other issues. After the D3 I find using a DX camera like looking at the world though a keyhole, which I tolerate if I have to but it's not my preference. As they say, your experience may vary! |
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chrisbet
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As they say, your experience may vary!Lol - I have a DX only because it is my first Nikon digital camera ( purely film before that) and I wanted something cheap to start with - yes I would love a D5 or Z7 but my pocket won't stretch there and I couldn't really justify it!  |
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jk
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Nothing wrong with DX even though I do think that Nikon under-resources it as a format. I think that a D500 (very fast AF) is ideal for sport and wildlife but the lesser D5xxx and D3xxx cameras have good sensors and AF but lag behind the D500. The D7xxx series cameras are beautifully specified but lack a little on the AF compared with the D500. FX brings some advances but is by no means a panacea. The lenses are heavier and more expensive. The D850 is a heavy camera compared to the Z7 or Z6 but has some advantages but these are small and personal preferences. In the future there are rumors of a Z1 which is a D6 in Z7 clothes of a professional Z7. It may be what some need with a bigger/better battery but in truth I can see it is what I need. |
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GeoffR
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Robert wrote:As JK says, the focal length of all lenses is as stated on the lenses.Soon after getting my first D3 I was in Cornwall with the D3, D2Xs Sigma 28-70 f2.8 and a Nikon 17-55 f2.8 plus a 70-200. After about one day I discovered that the Sigma was producing exposure errors on zooming. That left me little choice but to use the 17-55 on the D3. This worked well as long as I kept the focal length above about 24. For the rest of the trip I managed with 24-55. So some DX lenses do work on FX but others, I suspect, don't. |
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Robert
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Back to the AF-S 70-300, I have the f/4.5-5.6G ED VR, there are I think three versions of the 70-300, I use Bj¸rn's (now Birna's) lens evaluation pages as a guide to practical aspects of lenses. http://www.naturfotograf.com/lens_zoom_03.html#AF70-300f4.5G I find the CA, (colour fringing of high contrast edges) very pronounced. It gives me useful reach on FX without the weight penalty of the 300mm f/2.8 lens which is a bit of a monster. I found with the D3 and even the D300s, that the lens appears to vignette strongly, producing images with dark corners, on the D800 it seems less pronounced, which suggests it's at least partly related to sensor design. I am currently using the 70-300 to test my equatorial mount, because it's distinctly lighter and more compact than the f/2.8. Once I have sorted the EQ mount I expect to revert to the 300, f/2.8. I suggest you try a copy to see how it works with your camera. It should be good on a DX, given it's not using the edges of the image circle. Remember on a DX sensor at 300mm it's the equivalent of 450mm which is pretty long, you need good technique to get sharp images hand held. I feel a 70-200 (or 80-200) is a perfect companion for a DX, hand held, you can always crop a bit, especially with modern sensors. |
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chrisbet
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Thanks for the link - very useful. He is a bit disparaging about some of my lenses, but gives the thumbs up to my trusty 50mm f1.8 AF  |
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Robert
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For family 'snapshot' use they will be fine, but that's what I like about Birna, she actually uses the lenses, from the exotic to the mundane. She is more than disparaging about some of the longer, recent very expensive lenses!  The mounts are flimsy in the extreme, she has either obtained after market mounts at some expense or braced and reinforced the original Nikon ones to good effect. Point being when you are paying up to 10,000 for a top quality lens you don't expect to HAVE to modify it to make it usable. |
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chrisbet
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Yay - now the proud owner of an AF-S VR 70-300mm f4.5-5.6G IF ED Lens at the reasonable price of £170 |
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Robert
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Well done! Enjoy. |
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jk
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Well done Chris. The lens should produce some dreamy Tuscany images. Remember sometimes it is better to shoot the lens wide open as you get nice softness. |
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blackfox
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Having been through the same camera body.. lense issues recently against the advice of the pundits on here I went with a D7200 body a month or so ago , tbh it has exceeded my expectations by a long way , especially in the recent lousy weather , I still have a itch to try full frame but more than happy at the moment . A.f is fast and accurate I can switch between focus modes very fast , the auto I.s.o again is Nikon smooth and accurate and easily turned on and off . It's about the right burst speed around 6-7 FPS and the buffer is quiet large enough for my needs anyway over 20 frames anyway . I'm still using the sigma 150-600c as my main lens and pondering how to fund a 300mm f4 the pre.fresnel one .. might sell the sigma macro as I think that's going to involve to much bending for my tender years ... .. for now I'm having fun and getting some good shots to boot. The only thing I don't like is it's ability to change settings with a slight touch . But I'm sure I will overcome that with time , I use the camera lens combo hung by a over shoulder strap attached to pivot points on the extended tripod foot pics provided if interested . Which possibly where I'm knocking it as I go walkabout |
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chrisbet
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Used the 70 - 300 lens to try and capture the Dakotas flying over to the D Day celebrations. The sky was very grey and so were the planes! I found autofocus a waste of time and ended up manually focusing and that was difficult to judge when the planes were best focused in shades of grey! They were also a fair distance away so I was on the full 300mm. Anyway there were a few reasonable shots -   |
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jk
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It is sharp. You got the line between the tail and centre of fuselage to show. Sometime MF works best. |
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chrisbet
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No trouble focusing on my 2 yr old grandson playing in the grass while we waited for the planes -   |
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novicius
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I thought that the " G " designation indicates there is No Aperture ring , Not country of Origin,..my 14 - 24 ....PC-E 24 and PC-E Micro 85 are G lenses and are made in Japan... Recently have I aquired a Nikkor 70-210 f4.0 AF zoom for a mere sixty pounds,..I did Not expect too much , mainly to have something long for traveling, I was surprised how Fast Auto focus is as it " Flies into Focus " and Optical quality is Superb , a tad soft at 210mm , but just a tad...I had Not expected to get this much quality from this Old Timer , and it is the f4.0 Constant Aperture mentioned here..Morale is , them AF Lenses Can be Fast and Good...mounted on : D1 / D1x...D3s / D3X and Kodak SlrN. |
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jk
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novicius wrote:I thought that the " G " designation indicates there is No Aperture ring , Not country of Origin,..my 14 - 24 ....PC-E 24 and PC-E Micro 85 are G lenses and are made in Japan...You are correct G means, no aperture ring and aperture is controlled by camera (sub)command dial. |
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