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**loose cannon** · 06-12-2015, 11:14 PM

My old eyes are struggling but with the wren photo the branch just in front of the bird looks sharp?

Could it be a 'front focusing' problem?

A fine series of images btw.

**P Plates** · 07-12-2015, 08:11 AM

A nice selection Jo. I guess any new lens takes some getting used to. Hopefully it's what Mick suggested and can be adjusted. Is that the prime 500? I'd need a new set of muscles to hold something like that steady.

**Alan** · 07-12-2015, 03:09 PM

Wow early Xmas present? Some do look a bit soft though - might just take a bit of getting used to - which aperture works best etc

Exif on Flickr says 200-500mm.

Ken Rockwell reviewed it

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/200-500mm.htm

"This inexpensive Nikon 200-500 has excellent optics and superb vibration reduction (VR). It's the best buy in Nikon ultratelephotos ever. I VR is rated at 4½ stops improvement, and in actual practice, I usually get perfect results hand-held at 1/15 at 500mm! You can leave your tripod at home with this ultra-tele.
This 200-500mm has no light falloff; shoot it wide-open and the corners don't go dark.
This new 200-500mm is Nikon's first reasonably priced ultratelephoto ever. Birders and other ultratele users are breaking out the Champagne! Unlike the overpriced 80-400mm VR ($2,700 for just about the same thing), this new lens is a complete winner.
It's made as well as the $2,700 80-400mm VR. What you loose for paying only half as much is that this 200-500 doesn't focus as close or as fast as the 80-400mm — but the 200-500 goes to 500mm at a generous f/5.6 and the rear half of its zoom ring is metal!
This lens is for long-distance use; it doesn't focus very close (7.2' or 2.2m minimum) and it is slow (only f/5.6 at every aperture) and it doesn't zoom wide (200mm minimum), and with these limitations allows it to be sold at a very low price. You can pay the same price for junk-brand lenses like the Tamron 150-600mm.
Even nicer is that Nikon throws in the tripod collar, which is an extra-cost option with the $2,000 300mm f/4 PF. The hood and case are also included, whoo hoo!
New is a SPORT VR mode, which claims to allow VR to work well while photographing things that move unpredictably.
Grab the focus ring at any time for instant manual focus override."

In another review it says .."There is little doubt that the 200-500mm/f5.6 is a hot lens, at least for those who are into wildlife and bird photography, probably less so for sports. It is probably too long for general use. And keep in mind that any f5.6 lens is going to be mainly an outdoor lens when there is plenty of light. At maximum f5.6, AF speed and accuracy will suffer under heavy overcast or dawn/dusk situations."

Were your birds taken under the above conditions?

Or Mick's suggestion could be worth investigating. ON DP review I saw this "The D90 was sharp as a tack, the 7100 was way off, just totally unacceptable, used Jefreys lens checking scale, it was front focussing and needed +17 on the fine tune menu to get it sharp, all my other lenses also required front focus adjustment."
The chart mentioned above - http://regex.info/blog/photo-tech/focus-chart

Some camera and lens combos work, while some can be out at either end and compound the problem - luck of the draw apparently.

Good luck and enjoy

btw I believe VR needs to be turned off if the camera is on a tripod? were these hand held?

**avkomp** · 07-12-2015, 04:12 PM

I recently got one of those lenses, initially for a review and decided to keep it as a walkaround replacement for the 600f4 particularly at night.
for the money it is an amazing thing really. the f5.6 across the range and close focus at just over 2m means that it is handy.
I dont think you have done yourself too many favours with these images to test sharpness etc the light is fairly ordinary in the first shot and in the splendid and the godwit pic.
both of those look under exposed to me and the light isnt overly nice. looking at the splendid wren image, the branch in front looks sharp to me and the wren less so,
this could suggest a front focus issue. if you were keen you could put a ruler or something up say 45 degrees towards the camera and focus exactly on the half way point.
ensure that the focus point is exactly on that and look at the shot you have, if sharper in front of behind, you should probably be able to calibrate the lens to your camera.
if you cant, you should probably try the lens on another body to confirm it not the lens.

if anyone is keen I can whack up some test images from the review I did on that lens.
I found the sharpness excellent.
AF speed was good, although not up the the standard of the 600f4 or 300f2.8, but then again you wouldnt expect that..
the VR performance was another area I thought was excellent too, felt a stop better than my 600. this made it very usable in low light at 500mm
the vr tests were handheld and the new mode was used. depending on the light, I rarely use VR on flight pictures. I perceive it to be a hindrance to things, the image can move around a bit in the viewfinder in burst mode and if you shooting above 500 you are inherently stable anyhow.
I compared this lens to an example of the bigma 50-500 sigma lens. the nikon lens has a nicer clarity to it than the sigma and I thought the AF performance was better in dud light
I had the sigma hunting around more than the nikon 200-500. I put that down the the slightly higher minimum f stop. of course the pro lenses ate both in the AF test, but you expected that.

I would definitely get to the bottom of why you didnt get the results you expected because this lens seems a winner to the reviewers and to me

**sejac** · 07-12-2015, 05:58 PM

You have just received two expert bits of advice, Jo.

This forum may be slow, but there is a wealth of expert knowledge here, with people kind and generous enough to share their expertise.

Jo, you are indeed fortunate to acquire such a lens. Now you are going to have to learn to drive it!

And maybe you may benefit from a more 'hi-end' camera to give you a faster focus. Not sure - the more expert Nikon shooters here will set me straight on that.

I know that my now aging Canon 1D3 focuses very fast, and is pretty good at tracking moving birds too.

And my 2 cents worth, some really obvious points. Shutter speed - I would say well in excess of 1/500 just to be safe. And maybe try a tripod where possible for poor light situations.

**Isac** · 07-12-2015, 08:00 PM

Well all of that stuff is wonderful to read! I have spent about an hour going through all this fabulous info and also the Jeffery chart web page. OMG, I just looked at my camera and it's got CANON written on it!
I think the pics are ok Jo. I've written an action (Photoshop) which uses layer edges instead of the unsharp mask. I run them on most of my images and they produce very subtle changes. It only seems to sharpen where it's needed. Available on my web site if you want to take a look (yeah - other members, if you wanna). I used it on the osprey and the wren - all good. I did a shadows adjustment on the wren too and it came up a treat. Cheers.

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