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
And the critical AF seemed to work... I was pleasantly surprised about the detail.
A 100% crop of the above image:
Being very interested about nature and wildlife next morning I visited a spot on the lake where I found lots of frogs last year...
And the frogs were still there...
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?
A 100% crop of the above image:
And a 100% crop of the above image:
A 100 % crop resized to 1024 px longest side
Based on the above pictures and 100% crops I think everybody agrees that this super zoom does extremely well on a D800 . 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.
In the underneath 100% crop you can see the amzing detail the D800 sensor gets out of this lens:
Day 6, from lake Balaton direction Körmend.
Typical Hungarian agricultural landscapes delivered hundreds of nice pictures of which I post some...
A 100% crop of the above image:
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...
After an emergency meeting about a human approaching to close...
A 60% crop of the above image resized to 1024px longest side:
...they offered me the scenes I was waiting for...
A 67% crop of the above image resized to 1024px longest side:
A 55% crop of the above image resized to 1024px longest side:
Arrived at the lake my wife and daughter were subject for many more pictures which I'm going to keep private...
And a 50 % crop resized to 1024 px longest side
Approaching the Austrian borden, one last picture of a typical Hungarian village...
Somewhere on the road from Graz direction Salzburg, a scene that forced me to stop...
Rough mountain peaks raising out of a green landscape...
Is that snow?
The 300 mm of this lens, -which I underwhile started to love very much-, shows lots of detail...
Next to a fuel station I couldn't resist -again- for some close ups...
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:
And a 45% crop resized to 900px longest side. As I wrote in another topic, D800 is a game changer for macro photography...
And some more landscapes on the way to Salzburg...
Arrived in Salzburg we were visiting the "festung hohensalzburg".
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...
- 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.
- ...
- 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.
- ...
Thanks for your attention and kindest regards,
Stany
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Rita B, site owner.
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