arhphotographic

In the last week or two our garden seems to think that spring is not far off. Dormant plants are putting forth their tentative sprigs and the birds are making their preparations by gathering nesting materials. In the past I have been more than content with my Nikon VR 70 – 300mm 4.5-5.6 lens, however I have a problem. While I’m away from home working, members of my family who are very competent photographers also want the same lens to capture what’s happening at home. What to do….. what to do??

Looking at the possible upgrades to this lens, new or even second hand, means parting with £150 +, something I don’t want to do right now. So I started looking at possible manual lenses from Nikons rich catalogue to see if there were more viable alternatives. This is what I call retrograding.

After some research I came across the Nikon 80 – 200 f4.5 from the late 1970’s pictured below.

For the pricey sum of £49 the lens arrived and looked in good condition. But how does it compare to what I already have?

The photo below was taken with the VR 70 – 300 lens

The same shot but with the 80 – 200 lens

Apart from the fact that the 70 – 300 benefits from getting a little closer I am more than pleased with both. But what if we zoom in a little. First the 70 – 300

Now for the 80 – 200

The 80 – 200 is definitely sharper. This is only a first impression of the lens, I will be doing some more tests, but I have to say I am very pleased.

More importantly it now means I can leave the 70-300 lens at home and take out the 80-200.

Mission accomplished!