Nikon 70-210 AF f/4 operation on dSLR's

k-man wrote:

Gotcha. Thanks very much.


You're welcome!


Though, I don't own the 70-210 f/4 just
yet. I was just doing some homework before I went for it. Looks good
to me.

And yes, I was wondering about your initial "A" setting comment.
Thanks for clearing it up! Oh, also, I think the lens stops down to f/
32. But I get the concept.


It's a very good lens. The only thing I can criticise about it is
that the focusing ring is narrow and made of hard plastic, as on most
early AF Nikkors. Almost all were later upgraded to have wider,
rubberised focusing rings which made manual focusing easier.

The f/4 model was never upgraded. It was replaced by the inferior
f/4-5.6 model which had the wider focusing ring.

If you are going to use AF most of the time, this won't be a problem.
If you use manual focus a lot, you might want to handle the lens
before buying to see if it suits your shooting style.

On Jan 25, 5:54 pm, Tony Polson wrote:
k-man wrote:
Gotcha. Thanks very much.

You're welcome!

Though, I don't own the 70-210 f/4 just
yet. I was just doing some homework before I went for it. Looks good
to me.

And yes, I was wondering about your initial "A" setting comment.
Thanks for clearing it up! Oh, also, I think the lens stops down to f/
32. But I get the concept.

It's a very good lens. The only thing I can criticise about it is
that the focusing ring is narrow and made of hard plastic, as on most
early AF Nikkors. Almost all were later upgraded to have wider,
rubberised focusing rings which made manual focusing easier.

The f/4 model was never upgraded. It was replaced by the inferior
f/4-5.6 model which had the wider focusing ring.

If you are going to use AF most of the time, this won't be a problem.
If you use manual focus a lot, you might want to handle the lens
before buying to see if it suits your shooting style.

Right now, I'm shooting with a 1976 Kiron-produced Vivitar Series 1
70-210. I think it was the first model of this series, the one with
the 67mm filter ring and constant f/3.5 and rubber hood. Talk about
some sweet optics. And the macro's decent, too. But, it's fully
manual and a tad large. I don't mind manual focus; but having to
manually switch the aperture's a pain (hard to see without having to
flip the camera all the way around and I always forget what I have it
set for (makes one appreciate the viewfinder's readout)).

Kevin

k-man wrote:

On Jan 25, 5:54 pm, Tony Polson wrote:
k-man wrote:
Gotcha. Thanks very much.

You're welcome!

Though, I don't own the 70-210 f/4 just
yet. I was just doing some homework before I went for it. Looks good
to me.

And yes, I was wondering about your initial "A" setting comment.
Thanks for clearing it up! Oh, also, I think the lens stops down to f/
32. But I get the concept.

It's a very good lens. The only thing I can criticise about it is
that the focusing ring is narrow and made of hard plastic, as on most
early AF Nikkors. Almost all were later upgraded to have wider,
rubberised focusing rings which made manual focusing easier.

The f/4 model was never upgraded. It was replaced by the inferior
f/4-5.6 model which had the wider focusing ring.

If you are going to use AF most of the time, this won't be a problem.
If you use manual focus a lot, you might want to handle the lens
before buying to see if it suits your shooting style.

Right now, I'm shooting with a 1976 Kiron-produced Vivitar Series 1
70-210. I think it was the first model of this series, the one with
the 67mm filter ring and constant f/3.5 and rubber hood. Talk about
some sweet optics. And the macro's decent, too. But, it's fully
manual and a tad large. I don't mind manual focus; but having to
manually switch the aperture's a pain (hard to see without having to
flip the camera all the way around and I always forget what I have it
set for (makes one appreciate the viewfinder's readout)).


That's a very nice lens, one of Robert Monaghan's "cult classic" third
party lenses.

Not easy to use on a D70s though.

On Jan 25, 2:19 pm, k-man wrote:
For those familiar with the Nikon 70-210 AF f/4, being that it's an
older lens, can aperture be controlled through the camera body (for
things like aperture-priority or shutter-priority)? Or, would I have
to control it manually, setting it on the lens directly? A D70s is
what I'm using if you're curious.

Thanks.
Kevin


I have a 70-210 f4 not a bad lens, not special either, but a good
compromise between weight and image quality. The slow focus hasn't
bothered me. One interesting thing about my lens is that it came witha
brand X filter on it, IQ was quite poor with the filter, much, much
better without. When I first tested it with the filter I was ready to
send it back, never seen that much of an IQ change. Is the 70-300 VR
better, well in this range VR is nice, but the lens gets slow at its
longer range.

Tom