REVIEW: Nikon 300mm f/4 AF-S

I rented this lens as an addition to my own 70-200mm, simply because the event I cover (Evesham angling festival) requires me to get a lot of shots from across the river and at time, the 70-200mm just hasn't got the reach.

I rented this lens from Lensesforhire on a four-day rental for about £40 (plus return delivery costs).

The lens comes in a well-made, padded case that gives a snug fit around the lens and features a shoulder strap.

The lens came equipped with a high-quality UV filter for protection.

First impressions of the build quality are excellent; as solid a lens as I've handled, it's actually smaller than I thought (the same size as the 70-200mm) and marginally lighter. There's an integral lens hood that slides out and locks in place with a twist.

I used it with a D7000, which is felt well balanced with. The manual focus grip is tactile and very large so can be gravid easily (I use a lot of MF for video work).

AF for stills is precise and quick, as good as the 70-200mm. Absolutely no complaints at all in that department.

Image quality is top-notch as you can see below from the full shot and the crop I've done in Lightroom.

(EXIF: ISO 800, 1/800th @ f/5.6)

This shot was taken on a tripod (I was videoing at the same time) but even shooting handheld, without the aid of VR, which doesn't feature on this lens, I was getting sharp shots every time down to 1/200thsec. Of course, handling technique dictates how low you can go, not the lens, but the lens feel really easy to handle and promotes steady shooting at low shutter speeds.

I had to apply -15 AF fine tune adjustment but once that was applied, even at f/4 it was sharp. I wish I'd done a test at various apertures but as I write, it's in the post winging its way back to LFH.

I knew I'd like this lens going by the favourable reviews, but within minutes of using it I knew it would be a lens that I'd have to get at some point soon. I love zooms and it's peculiar using a telephoto prime where you're so limited in the angle of video, but as a lens to get you extra reach it's a very good option for very little money - 10/10 in my opinion.

More work! Yes please....

Back in February my boss, with an ever-increasing workload of film-based project, he asked me to expand my job role from just stills to taking on filming and editing duties. I’ve done a little bit of filming over the past few years (but no editing) so it was something new that would hopefully allow me to capture parts of a shoot that stills just didn’t do justice. He was adamant that it was as simple as me being able to take a photograph qualifying me to take up filming – I saw it in a more complicated fashion.

For one, I knew nothing about editing, other than some rubbish holiday clips I’d done on my phone. I knew the edit would be the key to good film-making (for our needs) and not just relying on taking some jazzy shots. The other concern was that I knew our (then) video cameras were pants; consumer levels jobs that captured on HD but had poor autofocus and limited focal range, adding to a small sensor that would limit creative use of depth-of-field. For that I new I had to shoot with a video-enabled DSLR so a long story short, I ended up with a D7000 to replace one of my D2x bodies (I’ll write a review at some point)….

So far I’ve enjoyed shooting more and more video as I’ve become confident with the equipment and more confident in knowing what shots I want (and need) to take back to the editing suite. I’m using Final Cut Pro X, a ‘marmite’ piece of software in editing circles; personally, aside from performance issues that stemmed from too little RAM in my MacBook Pro, I’ve found it to be a decent buy, although I’m finding the built-in default effects and transitions a bit basic at times – Apple’s Motion and Adobe After Effects are next on my learning list – but for piecing together 60-second clips for our magazine apps, it does the job quickly and efficiently.

As far as the equipment goes, I only recently turned on to the idea of DSLRs as serious video kit. A mate had a 5D2 for the last few years but rarely used the video function. I don’t like the 5D2 as a camera anyway so never wanted to investigate its ‘dark side’, despite so many reports of it being an awesome video machine. More and more cameras have come along featuring HD capture, although Nikon have been slow on the uptake, with the D7000 and D3s being the only models of note that were seriously useable. Now, I’m sold on the technology… but it’s not without its faults: a lack of built-in audio monitoring on the D7000 is a pain, although erring on the side of caution (mic set well away from mouth, mic level set to ‘1’) seems to work well enough, and the lack of aperture control in manual mode during Liveview being two main hurdles. Mind you, for an £800 camera it is still impressive and the quality is more than adequate. I’m sure the recently announced D600 will improve on these faults….

One thing that has captured my imagination when it comes to filming (aside from those jazzy angles I mentioned earlier!) is the plethora of kit that’s available – dollies, stabilization gadgets, cool microphones, follow focus rigs, LCD magnifiers…. loads of stuff that will keep me skint for a long time but will ultimately help me find my creative ‘mojo’.

I’ve got a few interesting ideas floating around in my head for work and for personal projects, although at the moment I’m pretty much just focusing on honing technique and getting fully to grips with making film-making as automatic as stills photography has become.

Here’s to learning and evolving, things that are essential if you’re going to make it in this business….