Equipment & Techniques > Cameras, Lenses and Shooting gear
Suggestions for an old telephoto for my Nikon D810
bernie west:
Hi. I've only recently changed over to Nikon from Canon, and as such I know very little about the history of Nikon and Nikkor lenses. I'm looking to get a good value for money telephoto lens for my D810. I have 14mm to 70mm covered, and honestly I do most of my photograph in that range. But I'd like to have something in the 200 to 300mm range or thereabouts. I can't really afford to get a new modern lens, as I spent all my money on the D810 and the Nikkor 14-24mm. Ideally I'd like a prime for image quality, but if they are going to be too expensive then I'd settle for a zoom. I am looking for above average image quality, but realise I am not going to get top quality for the budget I want to spend.
So, the budget. I would like to spend no more than about $500 Australian dollars. So, that's about $3 US dollars at the current exchange rate. :'( (actually, it's probably about $400 or so). I'm totally fine with manual focus, but would like metering handled automatically by the camera (I shoot aperture priority most of the time, so manual aperture is fine if the camera can still handle the metering).
Any good lens suggestions? I've had a look at ebay and there's all sorts of stuff out there. I'm wondering if I'll have to end up with a zoom to fit within my budget. I see a lot of Nikkor 70-300mm ED lenses out there for pretty cheap, but I assume that the image quality on them is not the greatest? I guess if I could stop down to f8 or thereabouts and get pretty good sharpness across the frame, that might be ok. Any thoughts on this or other lenses (including 3rd party too)?
Cheers,
Bernie.
bernie west:
Any thoughts on this lens? Listed as in good condition optically, but a few scuffs on the body.
Nikon Nikkor 180mm f/2.8 ED Ai-S Lens - $380
Colorado David:
If you could find an 80-200 f/2.8 I think you'd be pleased. It is a great lens but doesn't have the silent wave auto focus motor. It is the older mechanical screw. But the image quality is very good. When I bought the AFS VR version I kept my 80-200. I'm using it and am pleased with it. I plan to buy the 28-300 lens later this year mostly for video use. I've been told it is a very good lens.
Schewe:
I would argue to look for a used 28-300MM ED VR AF-S Nikkor Zoom lens...surprisingly good lens (variable F-stop 3.5-5.6). Not great at 300mm but not terrible. Decent at 28mm.
Jack Hogan:
If we are going to look at a 28-300, it behooves us to also then take a look at the 70-300 f/4.5-5.6 ED IF AF-S VR (careful, there is a very cheap non-VR version that is not nearly as good). Decent sharpness up to 200mm. And decently light.
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