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D800 and 28-300AF-S VR mini review...(many pictures)

Posted: Sat 4 Aug 2012 14:18
by Stany Buyle
Last week we drove to Budapest and did some sightseeing while passing next to the Balaton lake, crossing the Hungarian -Austrian border in the neighbourhood of Körmend going direction Graz. From Graz we took the (toll free) old road to Salzburg in a wonderful landscape.

For reasons of weight I only took my newly acquired 28-300 AF-S VR and my 16-35 F4 VR with me. I bought a 28-300 AF-S VR because there was a special action with rebates until June 30. I bought this lens initially only out of curiosity even with the intention so sell it after some tests.
After having read numerous articles on the internet about the poor optical performance I was very sceptical using this lens but finally the results turned out to be a very pleasant surprise...

In the evening we had a crystal clear sky with a beautiful moon.
The underneath image has been taken handhold while using live view mode for critical AF
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And the critical AF seemed to work... I was pleasantly surprised about the detail.
A 100% crop of the above image:
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Being very interested about nature and wildlife next morning I visited a spot on the lake where I found lots of frogs last year...
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And the frogs were still there... :D
Last year though I used the 70-200VRII and 105AF-S VR for that kind of pictures on my D7000, but how would a all-in-one zoom perform for that kind of pictures? :roll:
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A 100% crop of the above image:
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And a 100% crop of the above image:
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A 100 % crop resized to 1024 px longest side
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Based on the above pictures and 100% crops I think everybody agrees that this super zoom does extremely well on a D800 :o . The enormous resolution of the D800 masks the optical shortcomings of this lens. I tried the 28-300 on a D4 and the results were not nearly as good.

In relation to nature and wildlife I was very lucky, a beautiful ring-snake (natrix natrix) was enjoying the sun... Only these pictures were worth the whole trip for me.

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In the underneath 100% crop you can see the amzing detail the D800 sensor gets out of this lens:
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Day 6, from lake Balaton direction Körmend.

Typical Hungarian agricultural landscapes delivered hundreds of nice pictures of which I post some...

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A 100% crop of the above image:
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Another very pleasant surprise on our way to Körmend: My wife saw a couple of storks in the fields next to the road.
Also these were quite a challenge for this lens while they were walking away while I was approaching... :D
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After an emergency meeting about a human approaching to close...

A 60% crop of the above image resized to 1024px longest side:
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...they offered me the scenes I was waiting for...

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A 67% crop of the above image resized to 1024px longest side:
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A 55% crop of the above image resized to 1024px longest side:
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Arrived at the lake my wife and daughter were subject for many more pictures which I'm going to keep private... ;)
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And a 50 % crop resized to 1024 px longest side
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Approaching the Austrian borden, one last picture of a typical Hungarian village...
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Somewhere on the road from Graz direction Salzburg, a scene that forced me to stop...

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Rough mountain peaks raising out of a green landscape...

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Is that snow? :roll:
The 300 mm of this lens, -which I underwhile started to love very much-, shows lots of detail...

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Next to a fuel station I couldn't resist -again- for some close ups...

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The only problem to get really great close ups with this lens is handholding at 300mm. The VR of this lens which works amazingly well at longer distance shots but you need very fast shutter speeds to get acceptable close ups of bees and other typical macro shooters objects...
A sample:
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And a 45% crop resized to 900px longest side. As I wrote in another topic, D800 is a game changer for macro photography...
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And some more landscapes on the way to Salzburg...
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Arrived in Salzburg we were visiting the "festung hohensalzburg".
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Inside this wonderful castle I was using my 16-35, but that's for this topic which is dedicated to the 28-300 VRII.

Conclusion after using the 28-300 AF-S VR on a D800 in real life for over a week:

Pro:
  • Surprising sharpness and detail on D800(taking into account that we talk about a lens which covers 28-300mm).
  • While my mate with his 28-70, 70-200 and 200-400 was changing lenses, I captured the moment... :lol:
  • Relative lightweight setup for travel...
  • Very good AF speed in good light
  • Very good stabilisation. Even pictures at 1/20 sec at 300 mm can turn out to be acceptable sharp.
  • ...
Con:
  • The zoom ring and focus ring should change place. Often I blocked the focusing ring when handholding for a picture taken in live view.
  • Distortion all over the focal lenght but easy to correct in PP.
  • Slow AF in real lowlight.
  • ...
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Thanks for your attention and kindest regards,

Stany
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Re: D800 and 28-300AF-S VR mini review...(many pictures)

Posted: Sat 4 Aug 2012 19:34
by ADeVos
Nice. Looks better than what I've seen with the 18-200 on D7000.

Re: D800 and 28-300AF-S VR mini review...(many pictures)

Posted: Sat 4 Aug 2012 23:53
by pam.meier
This looks like a very capable travel zoom to me!

Re: D800 and 28-300AF-S VR mini review...(many pictures)

Posted: Wed 8 Aug 2012 09:42
by Steve Bingham
Nice photos, Stany. The old “castle – like” building looks inviting. I would love to be able to shoot models inside with the deteriorating interior!!!
Steve.

Re: D800 and 28-300AF-S VR mini review...(many pictures)

Posted: Fri 10 Aug 2012 22:58
by CDW
Hi Stany,

Nice pictures. I am puzzled by your conclusion "Surprising sharpness and detail on D800, significantly less attractive on a D4(I tried this combo)". Have you an idea of the (possible) cause ?

Best regards, Carlos

Re: D800 and 28-300AF-S VR mini review...(many pictures)

Posted: Sat 11 Aug 2012 06:46
by Stany Buyle
CDW wrote:Hi Stany, Nice pictures. I am puzzled by your conclusion "Surprising sharpness and detail on D800, significantly less attractive on a D4(I tried this combo)". Have you an idea of the (possible) cause ? Best regards, Carlos
Good morning Carlos,
I support the explanation that the more resolution a sensor has, the more detail you get, independent from the lens and that the sensor'resolution masks the optical shortcomings of a lens. This has been multiple times explained by Bob Newman. Of course the better the lens is, the more native resolution and sharpness you'll get.
Also, D800 files admit lots of sharpening in post processing without turning into sharpening artefacts in the final image.
Regerds,
Stany

Re: D800 and 28-300AF-S VR mini review...(many pictures)

Posted: Sun 2 Sep 2012 16:56
by Stany Buyle
One more moonshot with this D800& 28-300VR combbo

Thanks for your attention and kindest regards,
Stany

Re: D800 and 28-300AF-S VR mini review...(many pictures)

Posted: Mon 3 Sep 2012 12:08
by Leen Koper
I am surprised by the quality of these superzoom lenses.
Recently I bought the Tamron 18-270 lens -lens of the year 2011- and I am too -until now- pretty amazed by its quality. I think I will use this lens as my walk around lens, just like you used your 28-300.

BIF with D800E and 28-300AF-S VR at 300mm

Posted: Sat 8 Sep 2012 19:26
by Stany Buyle
Underneath picture is a 50% crop of the original file and resized to 1024px longest side.
The 28-300 VR is a winner!

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Thanks for looking,
Stany

Moonshot with D800 & 28-300 VR

Posted: Fri 22 Mar 2013 21:18
by Stany Buyle
This topic was posted 2012, Sep 2

Atmospheric conditions were far from perfect and the moon was low which provides more quality loss, but I find it still acceptable :)
"Blue moon"-image taken on August 31st

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One more with the same combo a couple of weeks ago in near to perfect atmospheric conditions:

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Overall I'm very happy with the D800 & 28-300VR combo. Results are much better than what I expected when I bought this lens...

Thanks for looking,
Stany

eagle, vultures, owls and falcons with D800e and 28-300 AF-S

Posted: Fri 19 Jul 2013 23:41
by Stany Buyle
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Iceland withD800 and 28-300AF-S VR

Posted: Tue 18 Apr 2017 20:23
by Stany Buyle

Re: D800 and 28-300AF-S VR mini review...(many pictures)

Posted: Mon 4 Jun 2018 07:31
by RudyDusslier
Dag Stany,

Bedankt voor je links.
Mooie foto’s die me zin doen krijgen om dit objectief aan te schaffen.

Groeten,
Rudy