I recently purchased a new Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED IF AF-S VR Nikkor Zoom Lens from eBay. I know the 28-300 covers a larger range but when I want to go wide, 28 isn’t usually wide enough on my d300 so I would end up carrying another lens regardless. Not to mention its almost half the price. I have read lots of great reviews on the lens describing it as sharp, fast to focus, and having very good VR. I agree on all points and see no use in repeating what everyone else says about the lens. I’ll just share a few photos I have taken with it…
Before I bought this lens, I rented a copy from lensrentals.com and took it to the NASCAR race at Darlington. Since the Darlington race is run at night, an f/2.8 or even f/4 lens would have been better, but I was still able to produce some fairly sharp photos of the action.
The photo below was shot during practice so the light was still very good. 300mm, ISO 200, f/8.0, and 1/1000s.
Danica tries to avoid the dreaded Darlington Stripe
When the sun started setting the aperture had to open up and the ISO started climbing. This was at 180mm, ISO 900, f5.6, and 1/400s.
Lining up for a restart at Darlington
Below is a 100% crop of the same image. As you can see, sharpness is quite good, especially for a $500 lens.
100% crop of the above photo
As it got later in the evening, shooting conditions got worse, but at 300mm, ISO 2500, f/5.6, and 1/400s, I am still happy with the results for what I spent on this lens.
Turn Three Action at Darlington
Sorry lensrentals.com, but unless I have a specific need, I will not be renting the 70-200 f/2.8 as often as I have been. Now if I can just find a $500 400-600mm zoom…