It appears to have a control ring. I assume it has Nikon’s usual options for use of a control ring: MF, ISO, Aperture.The way Canon does their cheap lenses is a switch for either control ring or manual focus. Anything like that here?
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It appears to have a control ring. I assume it has Nikon’s usual options for use of a control ring: MF, ISO, Aperture.The way Canon does their cheap lenses is a switch for either control ring or manual focus. Anything like that here?
Control ring can be set to manual focus.
Yes, if using BBAF and it is not pressed while focusing.So still preserves full time manual focus?
i still think support for the Content Authenticity Initiative would be a good thing (and semi likely) to drop prior to the OlympicsRemember, Nikon, the Olympics are fast approaching and you need to get stuff out there asap.
This lens has its purpose and its audience but there will be those who just don't understand the basics. I can just imagine the comments in the various sports FB groups in a couple of months - "The lens is awful! I put the camera into Professional Mode (the one with the "P") and took a picture of my kid 3/4 of the way across the field during a night game and the pictures are blurry."
I don't claim to know much (anything) about video, but could this be an interesting lens for videos? Seems like it could offer some interesting zooms with the ability to go from 28 to 400 (and maybe more with power zoom). [EDIT - I see that @Calson already answered this]
Doubt it. If it's mediocre for stills, you can assume it's worse for video. It won't be parfocal, it won't be sharp at 400, and while Nikon says they are "compensating" for breathing, it's probably through cropping like Sony and Tamron.Might be useful for video.
Whether or not it's good for high end video, the announcement sure makes it sound like Nikon is trying to sell this lens to this allegedly emerging market of people who want to do more amateur video stuff.Nope, there is nothing video about it. The requirement for cine, if anything, are greater than those for stills, with things like parfocality and breathing (which Nikon says it compensates for, which means cropping, not correcting).
The lens will do great for its users and for Nikon, as an entry-level decent zoom in a usefully range. The photos and videos shot through it will not win awards for anything and won't be used professionally, but who cares, that's not the audience.
Key word: amateur. This is an amateur lens.Whether or not it's good for high end video, the announcement sure makes it sound like Nikon is trying to sell this lens to this allegedly emerging market of people who want to do more amateur video stuff.
No disagreement.Key word: amateur. This is an amateur lens.
No disagreement.
Exactly Bruce. Very well said.This forum is packed with photo-enthusiasts, hobbyists, and pros... but it looks as if there are not a lot of business focused people here. The Nikon 28-400mm Z @ $1300 is probably one of the boldest business moves Nikon could make. A typical person who likes to travel on cruise ships and organized tours, or has a family with young to high school-aged kids can now buy one lens and one camera and do it all.
Think about the marketing... Buy a full frame Z5 + 28-400 for $2500 (total) and photograph your kids little league game or go on vacation.
Backpackers and mountain climbers want to document their travels, but the bulk of a long lens prevents them from buying or carrying one. With a 28-400, ZF, and 40 f2SE, a photo enthusiast could take a 6 week trip with a backpack of clothes and do a lot of documentary work...
For those disappointed with f/8... get over it! Push the ISO to 6400 and shoot the thing. Canon made their $2800 100-500L lens f/7.1 @ 500mm and everybody who uses that lens seems to love it. For less that half the price Nikon has produced something different that will help them to capture the "family" photographer's needs.
bruce
The target is Nikon's greatest growth markets: China and India. Lower income, rapidly-growing middle class, keen interest in photography, and where Nikon is still a top, maybe the top in brand recognition.Mulling this over a bit more, I'm not so sure what I think about what the target market is here.
A lot of people are saying this lens is a good fit for the "soccer moms" and other more casual users who aren't pixel peepers and aren't demanding perfection and maybe that's so, but... if it is so, that F8 seems to me to hurt even more.
A lot of the users of a site like this very much prefer wider apertures but are also used to shooting at f8 when it's necessary, as it often winds up being for many of us. We know what that higher aperture means for our shooting and how to deal with it. We know when it just means to wait for better light. We know how to mitigate it by applying strategies to make lower shutter speeds work, taking bursts and insurance shots and all that. We know how to process high ISO images "make ISO 12,800 look like ISO 400."
But the average casual user, soccer mom, etc.,? They're used to point and shoots or cell phones that have apertures of F2 Or whatever. They often don't understand what aperture is or what it means. They don't really know a lot about shutter speed and definitely don't know how to manage it to make a photo work that ordinarily wouldn't, or even when you'd need to. They shoot in jpeg and don't have and don't know about LRC or Topaz or other modern denoising technologies.
I wonder if whether, if we assume these people ARE the target market, a lot of them are going to wind up with a lot of terribly blurry shots from their cameras choosing very low shutter speeds, very badly noisy shots that they don't know cam be improved, etc. In other words, isn't there for Nikon a risk here of a bunch of people spending $1300 on a lens and then being very unhappy about the quality they're getting out of that $1300?
Well said!This forum is packed with photo-enthusiasts, hobbyists, and pros... but it looks as if there are not a lot of business focused people here. The Nikon 28-400mm Z @ $1300 is probably one of the boldest business moves Nikon could make. A typical person who likes to travel on cruise ships and organized tours, or has a family with young to high school-aged kids can now buy one lens and one camera and do it all.
Think about the marketing... Buy a full frame Z5 + 28-400 for $2500 (total) and photograph your kids little league game or go on vacation.
Backpackers and mountain climbers want to document their travels, but the bulk of a long lens prevents them from buying or carrying one. With a 28-400, ZF, and 40 f2SE, a photo enthusiast could take a 6 week trip with a backpack of clothes and do a lot of documentary work...
For those disappointed with f/8... get over it! Push the ISO to 6400 and shoot the thing. Canon made their $2800 100-500L lens f/7.1 @ 500mm and everybody who uses that lens seems to love it. For less that half the price Nikon has produced something different that will help them to capture the "family" photographer's needs.
bruce
I was drinking coffee as I read this, spewed coffee all over my keyboard.. Hell, I'm still laughingi’m just happy nikon has released a few lenses i don’t feel compelled to buy
Hi Bruce! First Thanks for sharing this beautiful and at the same time sad story. it showed a lot of love to Tamy and to photography.In my opinion, this lens becomes a gateway lens for the spouses of serious photographers. Back in the day when I was the one photographer in the family, I was looking for an easy way to entice Tamy to join me on photo travel trips. My strategy was to "shower" her with cool gadget/tech that would be easy to use but produce results. In 1990, there were not a lot of affordable paths for a 25 year old grad student to make this happen. I bought Tamy an 70-200 f4.5 Tamron lens and a Contax 137MD camera and took her canoing in the Everglades. She successfully photographed alligators, crocodiles, herons, and anhingas. After reviewing her prints (I shot slides but knew prints would be tolerant to poor exposures), she was hooked.
Tamy and I then spent the next 33 years chasing wildlife and landscapes around the world with the camera. In fact, she and I made our last trip to photograph Fall Colors in November 2022. She lived her life as an adventure/nature photographer and did the best she could behind a camera until she couldn't any longer.
Not to make this another sad story about losing my wife, I just want to point out that this lens is the perfect solution to hook a partner into the thing we love to do. Without the need to carry heavy gear, you could slap the 28-400 on a Z5/Z50/Z fc/.... set the camera to program and entice your partner to spend time with you in nature. Small successes will create and interest in love of photography, and will allow for you to spend time with your partner doing the thing you love to do.
Photography was the greatest gift to our marriage, as we planned every vacation around the pursuit of new images.
regards,
Bruce
Key word: amateur. This is an amateur lens.
I belong to a Facebook group for beginning photographers. It's full of people who bought their first camera a month ago and are asking for critique of photos of from their second paid wedding shoot or asking for help saving somebody's toddler portraits that they underexposed by 4 stops or proudly posting photos that their client raved about that look like they were taken with a Kodak 110 film camera.A professional who cannot produce a salable photograph with this lens is not a professional in any sense of the word.
There's no such thing as an amateur lens, and much worse lenses have been used for professional purposes.*
* (I'm assuming, of course. Until we see photos from the lens, we're all talking out of our butts.)
This forum is packed with photo-enthusiasts, hobbyists, and pros... but it looks as if there are not a lot of business focused people here. The Nikon 28-400mm Z @ $1300 is probably one of the boldest business moves Nikon could make. A typical person who likes to travel on cruise ships and organized tours, or has a family with young to high school-aged kids can now buy one lens and one camera and do it all.
Think about the marketing... Buy a full frame Z5 + 28-400 for $2500 (total) and photograph your kids little league game or go on vacation.
Backpackers and mountain climbers want to document their travels, but the bulk of a long lens prevents them from buying or carrying one. With a 28-400, ZF, and 40 f2SE, a photo enthusiast could take a 6 week trip with a backpack of clothes and do a lot of documentary work...
For those disappointed with f/8... get over it! Push the ISO to 6400 and shoot the thing. Canon made their $2800 100-500L lens f/7.1 @ 500mm and everybody who uses that lens seems to love it. For less that half the price Nikon has produced something different that will help them to capture the "family" photographer's needs.
bruce