Lens Review #1 - The sharp MF tele - Nikon 300mm f4.5 MF Ai-S

Pre-amble:  Over the next week I am going to post some reviews of lenses that I have kicking around.  My reviews aren’t particularly scientific - there’s plenty of other sites that do a good job of that ( I like PhotoZone and SLR gear), so my review will be based on impressions.

Not so long ago I picked up this tele Nikkor from Henry’s Outlet Centre to try out.   The condition of the lens is pretty good, no optical or mechanical flaws; and the focus is very smooth and well damped.

Initial impressions are very good.  Even wide open at f4.5, quite clearly it is sharp enough to easily out-resolve the D90’s 12 megapixel APS-C sized sensor, and it has a very even performance across the frame, typical of most good quality prime telephoto lenses.  There’s no distortion and I can’t see any light fall off.

Earlier in the Fall and with everyone lining up their garden waste bags full of leaves for collection, I decided to take the 300mm on a test run.  As the sun was dropping, I managed to grab some soft evening light on the rows of bags left street side.

Like all manual focus telephotos, focusing can be a little challenging to get right, as the depth of field is quite thin, even at 20 feet away.  There are two ways to help solve this.  One is by focus bracketing – ie taking a shot just behind, right on and just ahead where you think it is perfectly in focus.  This will certainly increase your ‘keep’ rate.  The other trick is to use a Nikon TC-16A teleconverter.  This 1.6x tele-con has an auto focusing element and can AF an MF lens.  Get the focus close-ish, and the teleconveter looks after the rest.  Disappointingly I found that it can be only used with cameras that meter with manual focus lenses.

Overall, the Nikkor 300mm f4.5 is a whole lot better optically than any of the 70-300mm consumer zooms out there, and it really feels like it’s been built to survive a nuclear war.  The “plastic fantastics” don’t feel like this nowadays.