My old 70-200 f2.8 very soft

[Rustic land]

Need your advice, I grabbed my old 70-200 f2.8 of the shelf the other day, first time I have used it in some time and noticed that it is now extremely soft at 200 f2.8 (see images below), The first image is at 200mm second 105mm and third is 70mm. I have cleaned the front and rear elements and check for any haze, fungus etc all appears to be clean and clear. Any ideas or suggestions BTW all images were taken at 1/5000, f2.8, ISO 100 on D500

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[Warren D]

I'll take a guess and say it's heat waves, not the lens. Sun angle looks high, mid-day so with the sun out, heat waves would be rising off the tile roof. Otherwise, the posted images look decently sharp to me, all I really see is shallow DOF.

 

[Rustic land]

I'll take a guess and say it's heat waves, not the lens. Sun angle looks high, mid-day so with the sun out, heat waves would be rising off the tile roof. Otherwise, the posted images look decently sharp to me, all I really see is shallow DOF.

Thanks Warren for your suggestion however I should have said images were taken at 9am and temp is 19 deg celsius so not hot at all and I have taken shots at different times and in different conditions with the same results.

 

[Rustic land]

Oh and with VR on or off no difference.

 

[Rassie]

Have you tried fine tuning autofocus at 200mm?
Other than that, if the lens used to be sharp at 200mm on that body and now it's not, something has to be wrong with it, I guess.

 

[Rustic land]

Have you tried fine tuning autofocus at 200mm?
Other than that, if the lens used to be sharp at 200mm on that body and now it's not, something has to be wrong with it, I guess.

Sure did Rassie, I am in agreement with you that there is a problem with the lens itself so I guess it's time to take it to my local Nikon service center,the only problem with that is it's about a two hour drive lol,

 

[bleirer]

Can't really tell anything from those samples. You are angled upward with a small f stop, so with the plane of sharp focus being parallel to the sensor it's impossible to judge. Shoot a focus target with the camera as close to square on to the target as you can, see what you see. Maybe reset any fine tuning you might have set, then judge it.

 

[Rustic land]

Can't really tell anything from those samples. You are angled upward with a small f stop, so with the plane of sharp focus being parallel to the sensor it's impossible to judge. Shoot a focus target with the camera as close to square on to the target as you can, see what you see. Maybe reset any fine tuning you might have set, then judge it.

Thanks for your reply, however I really think it is a fault with the lens as I have now tried all angles, on tripod, hand held, different Fine tuning, different shutter speeds and all suggestions from others etc. and get the same results, so I will be taking it to a service center for a grease and oil change lol.

 

[Warren D]

FWIW, I've had atmospherics at temps below freezing as well as earlier than 9 am on a cold sunny day trying to get pics of a snowy owl sitting on a roof.

 

[Rustic land]

FWIW, I've had atmospherics at temps below freezing as well as earlier than 9 am on a cold sunny day trying to get pics of a snowy owl sitting on a roof.

I agree however every pic i take at the focal length is exactly the same no matter when, where or at whatever temperature it is, I would think it was possibly atmospherics if it was intermittent but its not, again thanks for your reply however I think in this situation and after all the testing and applying all the suggestions from others that my best course of action is to take it to the lens doctor.

 

[Strodav]

A good way to see if you have an AF problem is to take some shots of a scene with a lot of detail in Live View as well as through the viewfinder. Live view uses contrast detection AF where the viewfinder uses phase detect AF. Live view will give you the sharpest image the lens is capable of if you use good technique. Tripod, remote release, ... Compare the LV and Viewfinder images 1:1 in Post. If the viewfinder image is softer than the LV images, you’ve got an issue. If the two match, it’s the lens. You are going to want to take 3 to 5 shots in each mode as AF is a random variable. Select the sharpest from each sequence to compare.