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Old July 21st 18, 02:02 AM posted to rec.photo.digital
Ken Hart[_4_]
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Default New Nikon 500mm f/5.6 Is this an error?

On 07/19/2018 12:46 AM, RichA wrote:
On Monday, 16 July 2018 07:08:58 UTC-4, -hh wrote:
On Monday, July 16, 2018 at 1:01:55 AM UTC-4, RichA wrote:

I often wondered how FF wildlife shooters coped with needing huge lenses just
to fill-frames with wildlife shots, that kind of thing.


When its the only tool for the job, its the only tool for the job.

Slower, lighter versions of lenses were treated like the poor relations by
the makers like Nikon and were rarely as optically-good as the fast f/2.8's
which is counter-intuitive when you know about lens manufacturing.


Yet ... It still comes back to tolerances and that costs money.


That may changing with current camera's exceptional high-ISO performance
maybe not needing f4-f2.8 speeds from lenses as much as before.


It may, or may not. For example, Canon's f/4-5.6 75-300 DO IS is pretty much
what you're asking for, but it seem to have become all that popular of a lens.
Perhaps reading some reviews will reveal to you why.

-hh


Nikon used to sell a 400mm f/5.6 MF lens, a friend has one. Good performance, much better than some of the crap from other manufacturers of that time. Leads me to believe film shooters (since 400 ISO was "fast" in those days) were either better photographers or the results were just nowhere near as good as current digital, maybe both.

It's amazing what a tripod, or a bean bag, or even brazing the lens
against a tree can do for sharpness.

--
Ken Hart