Nikkor 300mm f/4 AF-S – Amazing!

Unmanipulated 100% view

Twenty-five years ago I owned a 300/4 manual focus for my Nikon FM and FM2. It was a great lens, but as way leads onto to way, my Nikon gear was replaced with Pentax 67 gear. It’s funny, though, how things come full circle…

I took ownership of this new AF-S version of what has always been an amazing lens in the Nikkor line-up and it is just as good now as ever. Here are a few shots made last night in our backyard of our resident Eastern Cottontail. In fact, I have made two screenshots showing two raw files at 100% with no manipulation – both shot on a Nikon D200 I am currently borrowing 9prior to the arrival of the D800e.

Unmanipulated 100% view

Maybe I’m easy to please, but I was more than pleasantly surprised at how sharp these images were. They were shot in evening light at f/4 with shutter speeds of 1/100 and 1/125 using an ISO of 400. I can tell I’m really going to love this lens. The bonus is that on the D800e,  it can used full frame as a 300mm or in DX mode as a 450mm – still with a 15MB file size! Here are two images processed from last night’s shoot. Enjoy!