Nikon's Telephoto Lenses Under $2,500 - Which One Is Your Best Option?

If you are interested or just getting into wildlife photography, you have to keep in mind that it's not always possible to reach to your subject physically closer most of the time. And in that case, you have two options; you can either get a mid-range telephoto lens and add a teleconverter to get an extra reach or get a long-range telephoto lens. Unless you are a pro wildlife photographer and making your living out of it, it's very hard to justify the cost of expensive telephoto lenses. In my previous blog, I wrote about should you buy a telephoto lens or get a teleconverter where I talked about the best possible route you can go. In short, if the budget is not an issue, get a telephoto lens by all means but if the budget will be an issue, you can get a mid-range telephoto lens and a teleconverter. In this blog, I am trying to discuss about two Nikon mid-range telephoto lenses under $2,500 and onto which you can attach a teleconverter to extend your reach. When you are shopping for the lenses, usually, you encounter with the two choices; whether to get a prime lens or a zoom lens. Most of the time, the deciding factor would be what is more important to you; speed of the prime or the flexibility of the zoom? Today, we are going to take a look at two lenses which are in similar price and focal range but one is prime and another one is zoom lens. Let's take a look at them one by one.

Prime Lens: AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4E PF ED VR

This lens has an effective focal length of 300mm on FX Model and 450mm on DX Model DSLR. Since it is a prime lens, the widest aperture is also constant at f/4 with the smallest aperture of f/32. This lens is made up of 16 elements grouped into 10 groups with the minimum focus distance of 4.6 ft. This lens has an aperture with 9 blades diaphragm, with the lens diameter of 77mm (takes 77mm filter) and weigh 755g and comes with the price tag of $1,999.95.

AF-S NIKKOR 300mm F4E PF ED VR

Nikkor 300mm f/4E has an electromagnetic diaphragm mechanism (E) in the barrel which provides highly accurate electronic diaphragm or aperture blade control, whereas in conventional D/G type lenses, the diaphragm blades are operated by mechanical linkage levers. But this lens is most famous for a Nikon-designed Phase Fresnel (PF) lens element, a first for the Nikkor DSLR lens lineup. It helps to get sharper and clear image with virtually no chromatic aberration or ghosting. Due to it's revolutionary PF technology, this lens is relatively compact and lightweight.

It also includes one ED (Extra-low Dispersion) glass element and the Nano Crystal coat (N) combined with the Nikon's Silent Wave Motor (SWM) to deliver clear and accurate images with an ultra-quiet and ultra-fast auto-focusing system. It is weather sealed and the front element is coated with fluorine to repel dust, water, grease or dirt and ensures easy cleaning.

This lens comes with 4.5-stop of Vibration Reduction (VR) which provides an image stabilizing effect equivalent to a shutter speed increase of 4.5-stop in a Normal mode. It helps to capture sharp and clear handheld images in low light, Sports and Action. Image sharpness and contrast are fabulous from f/4 all the way through to f/16, and they don't drop off much at f/22-32. Color fringing and distortion are negligible, while resistance to ghosting and flare is very good and the overall image quality is superb.

Zoom Lens: AF-S Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR

This lens has an effective focal length of 80-400mm on FX Model and 120-600mm on DX Model DSLR. Since it is a zoom lens with a variable aperture, the widest aperture is f/4.5 at 80mm and f/5.6 at 400mm with the smallest aperture of f/32-f/40. This lens is made up of 20 elements grouped into 12 groups with the minimum focus distance of 5.74 ft. This lens has an aperture with 9 blades diaphragm, with the lens diameter of 77mm (takes 77mm filter) and weight 1570g and comes with the price tag of $2,299.95.

AF-S NIKKOR 80-400mm F4.5-5.6 G ED VR

Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G doesn't come with a Fresnel element but it does have four ED elements and one super ED element. There is no fluorine coating and only the mount is weather sealed, but as with the 300mm lens, the Nano Crystal Coating helps to combat ghosting and flare. With a minimum length of 203mm, this lens is at least a third longer than the 300mm and it extends considerably at longer zoom settings. It also weigh about twice as much as the prime lens, but comes complete with a tripod/monopod collar which is an optional purchase on 300mm prime. The 80-400mm has the same triple-mode focusing system as the 300mm, and there's also an autofocus range limiter and a zoom lock switch, but AF speed is slightly slower. It comes with the Nikon's second-generation Vibration Reduction (VR) technology which is rated at up-to 4-stop, and has a conventional normal and "active" modes.

Because of it's weight, it makes hard to shoot handheld for a longer period of time but you can get the versatility of the zoom range. This lens comes with the mechanically controlled aperture (G) which is less accurate in high-speed continuous shooting. The image quality of this lens is not as consistent as that of 300mm. It has an impressive sharpness throughout most of the zoom range but drops off quality little bit near 400mm. This lens is not as sharp as 300mm prime even at 300mm and the color fringing and the distortions are slightly more noticeable, but they're still pretty negligible.

Conclusion

I think based on the price, size, manageability and the overall image quality, Nikkor 300mm prime is easily a winner. It's also good value for a Nikon telephoto prime, and standout features include an electromagnetically-controlled diaphragm and a more effective VR system. However, if you can put up with the extra size and weight, the 80-400mm is almost as good, has a greater reach, and is much more versatile lens.

Compose Your Photographs With Contrast

Contrast is probably one of the widely used and accepted composition theory in the field of photography. Initially, contrast was intended for the traditional arts but later it blended very nicely into photography and became an essential part of it. You can define a contrast in anything and in any form you like while you are composing a photograph. It could be a contrast between light and dark, between different kind of shapes, colors and sizes. You can also explore and try different possibilities of contrast, such as contrasting large or small, long or short, color or monochrome, smooth or rough, transparent or opaque, vertical or horizontal, soft or hard, liquid or solid and so on. You can try contrasting your photographs in two different ways; you can take two pictures to define two poles of contrast separately or blend them together into one photograph. Sometimes it is not possible to blend any particular two poles of contrast into one image but you may be able to include other forms of contrast in the same photograph. For example, if you are doing landscape photography, you might want everything from the foreground to the background in focus. In such situations, it wouldn't be possible to have focus and blurry effect in one photograph but you can have light or dark contrast in the same photograph.

In this shot below which I took this afternoon, you can see the black/white and the light/dark contrast. Also, to maximize the impression of quantity, this shot was composed right to the edges of the blinds, but not to the edges so that the slats appear to extend far beyond the frame edges in both horizontal and vertical direction. In this photograph, little represents many which is also another form of contrast.

Contrast Composition

You don't have to limit the contrast to the colors and objects. You can also create a contrast of concept, such as continuous or intermittent or something non-visual like loud or quiet and so on.

Reference : The Photographer's Eye

What Do The Numbers Printed On Your ND Filter Tell You About The Filter?

When you are shopping for the ND filters, you may have been in a situation where the numbers (printed on the filter) confuse you more than help you. All you want to buy is 1-stop, 2-stop, 3-stop or 10-stop filter which blocks 1-stop, 2-stop, 3-stop or 10-stop of lights respectively but the numbers manufacturers use to represent the f-stop creates more confusion. When I bought my first ND filter back in 2012, I actually ordered the wrong filter because of this confusion. I wanted to buy a 3-stop ND filter and when I looked online, it was showing Neutral Density 3.0 and I thought it was the right filter. But later when it arrived, it seemed darker than it should be for a 3-stop filter and after doing little bit of research, I realized that the filter I got was a 10-stop filter and not a 3-stop filter. My fault was not to do proper research before buying the item but I think it would be fair to blame the part of the mistake on how manufacturers label their product as well. Why wouldn't they simply market the filters as 1-stop, 2-stop or 3-stop filter and avoid any possible confusion? I don't know the answer for this question yet but the good news is that some of the vendors have started using more sensible naming practice with the detailed description of the products. Today, I was trying to get another ND filter and the past memory came back to me. So, I thought it would be helpful for you guys to share what I have learned so that you can make the right decision when you are shopping for the ND filter. After I made a mistake during my first purchase, I tried to find out why manufacturers use these numbers and how does this naming conventions make sense? After knowing the science behind the numbers, I shifted more blame towards me for the mistake I made but I think there is still some room left to blame the manufacturers as well. It's the manufacturers job to market their products as clearly as possible so that the buyers can easily understand what they are getting.

Let's take an example of the ND filter I was going to get today and see what the numbers tell us about the characters of the filter.

Name of the ND Filter (on Amazon) - B+W 77mm Neutral Density 0.9-8x Filter #103

In the above example, B+W is the name of the manufacturer who built the ND filter and 77mm is the diameter of the filter to fit the 77mm diameter lens. You can't fit 77mm filter on 72mm lens which is obvious. This is also something you have to be careful while shopping for the circular filter. You have to match the diameter of the filter and the lens. Now, the more confusing part of the name is 0.9-8x and #103. Let's see what do these numbers suggest.

The first number 0.9 represents the multiple of the f-stop optical density (0.3) with regard to how much light the filter is letting through the lens to the sensor. The number 0.9 in our example filter is a multiplication of (0.3) and (3) which tells us that this is a 3-stop ND filter. By using this filter, only (1/2) * (1/2) * (1/2) = 1/8th of the light that hits the front of the filter is passing through the lens. The number 1/2 would be the fraction of the lens area opening if the optical density would be 0.3 compared to the full lens opening of 1 for 0.0 optical density (which means no filters are attached to the lens).

The second number 8x suggests that if you use this filter on your lens, you will need 8 times more light than without the filter to get the same level of exposure. You can get 8 times more light by using the longer shutter speed, widening an aperture (if possible), increasing the ISO value or by using the combination of the three. How to adjust the exposure setting depends on what you are trying to achieve by using the filter. Usually, ND filters are used to get the long exposure shot and hence you would want to increase the shutter speed to compensate the loss of light with the introduction of the filter.

The Third number #103 represents the general naming convention (look at the table below) to represent the 3-stop filter. So, if you look closely, all these numbers mean the same thing and that is the filter in our example is a 3-stop ND filter. If we attach this filter in front of our lens, we need to slow down the shutter by 3-stop (or 8 times longer shutter speed is required) to get the same level of exposure as we would get without the filter. If you are shooting with the shutter speed of 1/8th of a second, an aperture of f/11 and the ISO 100, after applying a 3-stop ND filter, your new shutter speed would be 1 second (1/8 * 8 = 1) to get the same exposure considering the other two exposure parameters, aperture and ISO, are same. However, in a real world scenario, you might need to adjust the calculated shutter speed little bit up or down depending on shooting condition and the quality of the filter you are using.

If the filter in our example had a 3.0-1000x number on it, it would mean a 10-stop filter (3.0 = 0.3 * 10) letting in only 1/1000th of the light and requiring 1000 times longer shutter speed to get the same exposure as without the filter. If we do a proper math using the same formula we used before and multiply (1/2) * (1/2) *.....* (1/2) 10 times, the actual number should be 1024x but for the simplicity, 1000 is being commonly used as a rounded number. If you are interested to know how to take a long exposure shot using a ND filter, here is an article I posted earlier last week about Using a 10-Stop ND Filter for a Long Exposure Shot. You can also stack the filters and multiply the effects as well. If you use 0.9-8x filter on top of 3.0-1000x filter, the effective value would be 3.9-8000x requiring to keep the shutter open for 8000 times longer than without the filter.

During my research, I found this table below on the Wikipedia and thought it could shed some lights on the discussion we just had about the significance of the numbers to represent the ND filters. The rest of the article below is an excerpt from the Wikipedia.

In photography, ND filters are quantified by their optical density or equivalently their f-stop reduction.

Note: Hoya, B+W, Cokin use code ND2 or ND2x, etc; Lee, Tiffen use code 0.3ND, etc; Leica uses code 1x, 4x, 8x, etc.