Here are some initial impressions of this lens based on one extended session. I spent yesterday at a hawk conservancy where they do several flying demonstrations each day (mostly as family entertainment but good fun with a camera). I was also getting used to my Z9 and trying a mixture of traditional back-button focus and having different focus modes on shutter and the back-button.
- The TC mechanism is exactly the same as on the 180-400 and works very smoothly and easily. If you're using an external TC then it's much harder to reach the TC lever and Memory Set button, but the memory set is something you wouldn't be pressing in the heat of the action so that's no big deal and I'm starting to form an opinion that TC stacking (internal + external) isn't a good idea - too much loss of quality.
- The detail at 400mm is stunning. I've previously owned the 500mm f4 FL and currently own (Will be trading) the 180-400 f4 TC and I'm happy that at 400mm f2.8 is also of a fantastic quality. I don't want to claim if it's better or by how much because I was shooting entirely hand-held and I'm not comparing like with like. I am 100% satisfied though with the detail in my initial images.
- The detail at 560mm with the internal TC is very, very good. It's a little difficult to compare with the 400mm shots because my ISO was doubling and I wasn't allowing any extra shutter speed. I can say that I'll have no hesitation at all about engaging the TC. When pixel peeping, many shots I got hand-held yesterday at 560 f4 are entirely comparable to what I would have got with my 500 f4 FL on a tripod.
- I tried the 2x converter for a bit but we'd lost most of the light. I took a few shots of a very distant sign on a post and I was happy at the level of detail. I took some shots of ducks but I wasn't getting critical sharpness on the eye. The light was going, I was underexposing too much for the ducks and my shutter speed probably should have been a bit higher for 800 in DX crop. I feel like this will be a very acceptable 800mm combo but that it will take me some more time to get used to what I need to do to make it work.
- AF was very fast. Definitely the fastest I've experienced on a lens. I didn't really notice a difference between AF speed with or without the TC, both were just excellent. Surprisingly fast with the 2x converter too. I was shooting an owl display with too much direct light with owls frequently too close for a 400mm and with messy backgrounds (i.e. very far from ideal) and I had mixed results at keeping owls in focus with the Z9 tracking. If I lost focus but an owl was back in the open and I tried to reaquire it, generally the lens would snap immediately to it (I was often using wide area AF). I didn't really experience traditional lens hunting with the focus racking back and forth. It just seemed to grab on when I told it to. There were one or two times where I was trying to refocus and not a lot happened but that's on the Z9 and not the lens.
- The lens is pretty wide down the main portion of the barrel and it's not quite as easy to operate or support as thinner lenses that taper more quickly after the front element. I found it a little tricky to fully rotate the front dial (the piano-key one) even though it only has a small rotation whilst hand-holding just because of the width. I'm happy enough that I'll get used to it with time. Those with bigger hands should have no issues. Mine are small/medium for a bloke.
- Mounted on a Z9, the balance point is right where the lens foot meets the lens, not half-way along the lens foot. This makes the lens easier to hand-hold because more of the weight is towards you, but it makes it a little harder to mount on a gimbal head and also a little harder to carry just by grabbing the foot. I have a 15cm wimberley arca-swiss plate and with it attached centrally to the lens foot I'm having to mount it on the gimbal right at the end of the plate (nearest the camera). I haven't tried this with a 2x attached yet. I've just re-attached it more offset toward the camera and it feels ok. I'm not sure what people like Kirk or RRS will do for a foot replacement because where they usually put the arca-swiss rails on the foot will be quite far from the balance point.
- I love the soft lens cap. Smaller and easy to take on and off and it doesn't want to turn itself inside out like the one with my 180-400mm.
- I didn't notice anyone dying near me who might have had a pacemaker.
Overall the lens has made an excellent first impression. I love my 180-400mm and it's not an easy thing to part with (especially knowing that I'll lose the zoom) but I'm getting a whole extra stop, less weight, crazy AF speed, a slightly shorter lens (compared to 180-400mm + FTZ) and a bit more image quality. I'll try and upload a few photos sometime but I've got a lot on today!
