just got my hands on this lens...... I had been looking for a general purpose convenience lens for portraiture for a while..... the 70-300 G lens had been a disappointment all throughout, though I do have some nice memories captured with the help of it...... but I did require some sharpness for portraiture.... and its focusing speed was horrific to say the least.... I persuaded myself to stay away from the pro 70-200/80-200 range lenses for several years...... the need for such a lens was quenched by the Nikkor 180mm f2.8 in the past, and now, by the Sigma 150mm f2.8..... there was also the 85mm f1.8 that helped me on crop frame...... but the convenience was lacking in many occasions when I didn't actually require f2.8 or f1.8..... and in any case, I was not shooting at such extreme apertures most of the times....
now, the opportunity came to get this need for convenience fulfilled at a reasonable price and weight..... the 70-210mm f4-5.6D is reputed to be one of the sharpest lenses in this category..... and its focusing speed also wasn't terribly slow.... I thought I could live with f5.6 at 210mm......
the lens impressed me in the first attempt..... its sharpness is remarkable, even wide open..... and stopped down, its even sharper!!....... the focusing speed isn't something to write home about, but its not irritating either.... the only thing that requires practice is the push-pull zoom system..... this is my first experience with a push-pull zoom..... tried out the Canon 100-400 and found it inconvenient enough.... also, once looked for the Nikkor 35-70mm f2.8 for mid-range portraiture, but shelved the project in favour of 50mm..... the build quality of this lens is superb, really..... the 62mm filter matched with my 85mm f1.8's and so, I mounted the HB-23 on it...... perfect match!
anyway, lets see how this new lens (well, new in my hand at least) holds in the long run...... the lens had been discontinued for a while, but I found it in really mint condition.....
D700 + Nikkor AF 70-210mm f4-5.6D + SB-900 on camera @ TTL mode
190mm, f5.3, 1/125sec, ISO 560
D700 + Nikkor AF 70-210mm f4-5.6D + SB-900 on camera @ TTL mode
180mm, f7.1, 1/125sec, ISO 400
100% crop of the above shot....
